CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
PRISONERS.
At length, after a tremendous amount of unnecessary confusion andtrouble, the oxen were inspanned, and with the usual unearthly yells andloud cracking of the long whip by Jantje, mounted upon the wagon box,the creaking, lumbering vehicle was got under way, Ramoo Samee followingclose behind and leading the horses, while the dogs and Leo came to heeland trotted along close behind Grosvenor and Dick, as was their wontwhen their masters chose to walk, which was not very often. As for thesoldiers, they arranged themselves as a cordon round the entire cortege,the officer in command leading the way.
This order was maintained until the noon outspan, when the officer,after some pressing, laid aside his aloofness sufficiently to acceptGrosvenor's invitation to join him and Dick at luncheon. This proved tobe the thin end of the wedge, so to speak; for the man could scarcelysit at the same table with his two prisoners, partake of their fare, andstill preserve his original attitude of silence toward them; indeed itsoon became evident that he was consumed with curiosity concerning thetwo people who had travelled such a distance with such few retainers;who seemed to have absolutely no knowledge of what fear was; and whoapparently numbered lions as well as dogs among their domestic animals.He began by making a few tentative remarks, to which Grosvenor respondedat some length, and then suddenly demanded, with an air of astonishmentthat he made scarcely any effort to conceal, how it came about that he,Grosvenor, a total stranger, was able to communicate with a native ofthe country in what was practically his own language. Then Grosvenorentered into a long explanation, involving a brief history of theprincipal seats of learning in England, with the methods and subjects ofstudy pursued therein, and including the interesting fact that Hebrew,being commonly regarded as one of the most ancient tongues in the world,was there regarded as especially worthy of attention.
This last statement seemed to be particularly gratifying to the youngofficer's vanity, and had a distinctly mollifying effect upon hisoriginal hauteur and coldness. He thawed visibly, and even condescendedto laugh at some mild joke upon which Grosvenor ventured, and thensought to further satisfy his curiosity by making a number of personalenquiries as to where Phil and his friend came from, why they came, howlong they had been upon the journey, and so on. To all these enquiriesGrosvenor replied pretty fully, but when in his turn he attempted toelicit some information respecting their destination, and the treatmentthat they might expect to receive upon their arrival, the man at onceshut up like a trap, and thenceforward for the remainder of the journeyrefused to hold any communication whatever with his prisoners.
Their route lay in the direction of a range of distant hills, which theyjudged it was the intention of their captor to cross; and as they wentthey found the country gradually changing its character by subtlegradations, growing ever more fertile and more highly cultivated withevery mile of progress, while the houses increased in number andclustered more thickly together. At length, after passing through oneof these hamlets, they emerged upon a narrow field path, which widenedsomewhat when the next hamlet was passed, and so gradually became a moreprominent feature until ultimately it developed into a full-blown road,which, rough and uneven at first, steadily improved in appearance andquality until it became a very excellent and much-used thoroughfare,shaded by trees on either hand. In short the country, which on itsextreme frontier was a perfect wilderness, steadily improved with everymile of progress toward its interior, as regarded the evidences of ahigh state of civilisation. One of the strangest things, however, whichcame under the notice of the Englishmen was that, from the moment oftheir arrest, the inhabitants--whom they encountered in ever-increasingnumbers as the day wore on--manifested the most absolute indifferencewith regard to them, not even deigning to cast a second glance upon whatwas clearly a most novel and unusual sight in that country.
At sunset the party encamped at the foot of the hills toward which theyhad been journeying all day, and which proved to be much more lofty, andat a much greater distance, than they had imagined them to be when theywere first sighted; and the whole of the next day was consumed inclimbing, by means of an excellent road, to the summit of a pass where,having safely negotiated a short length of exceedingly narrow anddifficult roadway between two enormous vertical cliffs, they emergedupon a small plateau of rich grassland that afforded good camping groundfor the night.
The spot where the travellers outspanned was the bottom of a miniaturebasin of some five or six acres in extent, and was surrounded on allsides by steep slopes terminating in a series of jagged peaks, some fouror five hundred feet high, that bounded the view in every direction andlimited it to a distance of about half a mile. But when, afterinspanning on the following morning, they crossed the little plateauupon which they had spent the night, and passed round a bluff at itsfarther side, a wonderful prospect at once burst upon their astonishedgaze. For they now found that the chain of hills, up the outer slope ofwhich they had been laboriously climbing during the whole of thepreceding day, formed an unbroken if somewhat irregular circle ofsomething like forty miles in diameter, measuring across from ridge toridge, the inner slopes of the encircling hills being from three to fivemiles wide, with a plain of from five to ten miles in width at theirfeet, this plain in turn encircling a lovely lake, measuring abouttwenty miles across, the very centre of which was occupied by an islandof perhaps three or four miles in diameter, the whole rugged surface ofwhich appeared to be covered with buildings embowered in leafy gardens.
Now at last the travellers began to really understand the wealth andimportance of the people into whose country they had entered, uninvited;for, as far as the eye could reach, even with the aid of theirexceedingly powerful field glasses, the mountain slopes and the plainthat lay circling at their feet consisted of nothing but a practicallyunbroken sweep of highly cultivated land, dotted with snug farmhouses,and bearing ripening crops of various kinds, interspersed here and therewith trim vineyards, or orchards of fruitbearing trees; while, atdistances of from three to eight or ten miles apart, there nestled amonggroves of noble shade trees, villages which must have sheltered from ahundred-and-fifty to, perhaps, four or five hundred inhabitants. Andthrough all there ran a perfect network of roads, carrying, as could beseen with the aid of their glasses, a considerable amount of traffic,among which could be distinguished a number of wheeled vehicles, thefirst they had seen since entering the country.
The officer, who was their custodian, was evidently intensely gratifiedat the surprise and admiration freely expressed by his two principalprisoners at the scene that lay spread out at their feet, and evenhalted the cortege for a few minutes to enable Dick and Grosvenor totake in its multudinous details conveniently, and examine them throughtheir field glasses. It was noticed by the two Englishmen that heregarded these instruments with the most acute curiosity, but eitherpride or reserve deterred him from asking any question concerning them.When, however, Dick offered him a peep through them, he was whollyunable to resist the temptation, or to restrain his expressions ofamazement as, glancing through the tubes at the island, some twentymiles distant, he was enabled to distinguish such details as the roofs,windows, and doors of houses built thereon, while of course the detailsof houses in the plain below, the character of the several vehicles onthe roads, the numbers of oxen in the teams which drew them, were quiteunmistakable. But when Grosvenor, seeking to avail himself of thistemporary relaxation of manner, attempted once more to engage the man inconversation, he instantly relapsed into his former attitude ofunresponsiveness; and his manner soon made it clear that he wasdetermined to risk no complications of any kind by allowing anything inthe nature of familiarity or friendliness between himself and hisprisoners.
The descent from the crest of the encircling hills to the circular beltof plain below was of course quite an easy matter, compared with theascent of the outer slope on the previous day, the gradient of the roadbeing practically uniform all the way, and just steep enough tonecessitate a slight application o
f the brakebar to the rear wheels ofthe wagon from the crest to the plain; and Dick noted with some surprisethat their taciturn friend, the officer in command, appeared to begreatly interested in the working of this exceedingly simple piece ofapparatus, as though it was something with which he was quiteunfamiliar. The party effected the descent and reached the level plainin about an hour and a half from the moment of starting, and soon foundthemselves travelling along a broad, level, well-kept road among a largenumber of other people, most of whom looked at them with more or lesscuriosity, but steadfastly refrained from addressing a word of remark toany of the guard who had them in charge.
About half an hour after reaching the plain they debouched into anotherand much broader road than that by which they had been previouslytravelling, and it then became tolerably evident that their ultimatedestination must be the island in the centre of the lake; for the roadwhich they were now traversing was absolutely straight all the way tothe margin of the lake, and pointed accurately toward the island.
They had been travelling along this road for nearly an hour, and wereapproaching a village of more importance than any which they hadhitherto passed, when there suddenly arose a considerable commotionamong the people on the road ahead of them, who were seen runningconfusedly hither and thither amid a great cloud of dust, while shouts,shrieks, and a sound of low, angry bellowing rose upon the stagnant air.Mechanically the whole party came to a halt to see what was the matter,while Jantje and 'Nkuku began shouting to each other in greatly excitedtones, and the oxen which were drawing the wagon began to low, snort,sniff the air, stamp excitedly on the ground, and lunge at each otherwith their long horns. For perhaps a minute it was impossible to guesswhat was happening; then the shouts suddenly grew much louder and moreexcited, the crowd ahead parted right and left as though panic-stricken,there arose a shriek of terror, or pain, or perhaps both, a man's bodywas seen to go whirling some eight or ten feet into the air, and then abulky something, which presently resolved itself into a huge buffalobull, emerged from the dust-cloud and came charging along the road,striking out with its immense, curved, sharp-pointed horns at everybodyin its way. The brute was then only about two hundred yards off, andwas galloping straight toward the party, with tail high in the air, headlow, eyes aflame with fury, and great gouts of froth dripping from itsheavy muzzle. For a moment the soldiers seemed paralysed with terror,the next they all turned as with one accord, and, leaping an irrigationditch that ran alongside the road, sought safety in flight across afield of young wheat. The buffalo paused a moment in mid-career, asthough hesitating whether he should pursue them or charge the wagon andits team of oxen; but the next moment the brute had made up its mind,and, perhaps attracted by the crimson trimming and glittering ornamentsof the officer's tunic, leaped the ditch and deliberately selected thatunfortunate individual as the especial object of his pursuit. Theposition of the man at once became one of deadly peril, for, fast thoughhe ran, the buffalo had the advantage in the matter of speed, and wasrapidly gaining upon him when Dick and Grosvenor sprang to the wagonand, hastily seizing their rifles, prepared to act. Dick was the firston the ground again with his weapon, and, sinking on one knee to securesteadiness of aim, he brought the sights to bear exactly behind theanimal's left shoulder, and fired. The spirt of flame and the littlejet of filmy blue smoke extorted a sharp ejaculation of astonishmentfrom those who were near enough to notice it, but it was as nothingcompared with the shout of mingled amazement, terror, and relief thatwent up when the huge beast stumbled, fell forward on his head, turned acomplete somersault, and lay still, slain at the very instant when,having overtaken the fugitive, he had lowered his head to impale theshrieking man upon his horns.
With such startling abruptness did the huge beast collapse that thepursued officer did not realise the fact until he had run a fartherdistance of some thirty yards or so, and even then, when at length hehalted and looked back at the prostrate and motionless animal, he seemedquite unable to understand that it was dead and harmless; for he shoutedan order to his men to close in round the buffalo and secure it withcords before it recovered itself and resumed the aggressive. It was notuntil a few of the bolder spirits, having cautiously approached thecarcass, nearly enough to perceive the bullet hole and the blood flowingfrom it, had satisfied themselves that the brute was in very truth dead,and had borne emphatic testimony to the extraordinary fact, that he wasable to screw up his own courage to the point of personal investigation.Then he calmly made his way back to the road and, approachingGrosvenor, demanded an explanation of the seeming miracle; but evenafter he had been told, and the rifle exhibited to him and its powerslaboriously explained, he seemed quite unable to understand, and was atlast fain to dismiss the mystery with an impatient shrug of theshoulders, and an order for the march to be resumed.
But Dick had seen a man tossed by the buffalo, and had judged, by thevictim's shriek of agony, that he was badly hurt; he therefore kept hiseyes open as they passed along the road, and sharply directed Grosvenorto call upon the officer to halt when presently they came upon a groupof about a dozen persons standing by the side of the road surrounding alittle group consisting of two persons, a man and a woman; the manbleeding profusely from a ghastly wound in the thigh, and already greyand sharp of feature under the shadow of death, while the woman crouchedhelplessly in the dust, supporting the wounded man's head upon herknees.
Without ceremony Dick forced his way through the little crowd ofonlookers, gave one keen glance at the prostrate man, and then, turning,shouted to Grosvenor:
"This chap is bleeding to death, Phil--artery severed apparently. Justexplain to our man, will you, and tell him that, with his permission, Ipropose to save the poor fellow's life. Mafuta, bring my medicine chesthere, quick!"
The little crowd, that was fast being augmented by new arrivals, scowledferociously at the, to them, uncouthly clad but stalwart figure of theyoung doctor who had so unceremoniously forced his way in among them,but remained passive, possibly gathering, from the tone of his speech,that he proposed to succour the wounded man; nor did the officer incharge of the party offer any objection, but obediently called a haltwhen requested by Grosvenor to do so. A few seconds later, therefore,Dick, with Grosvenor as his assistant, was kneeling beside the woundedman, deftly bathing his terrible injury with an antiseptic lotion, priorto the more difficult and delicate task of searching for and securingthe ends of the severed artery, which had been spouting blood like afountain until Dick had applied the tourniquet. The entire operation ofdressing, stitching, and binding up the wound occupied the best part ofhalf an hour, by which time the roadway was packed with people anxiouslyenquiring what was amiss, and eager to get a glimpse of the benevolentyoung barbarians who had so strangely come among them and at soopportune a moment. Those who were favourably enough placed actually tosee what was going on were filled with amazement and--despite theirunreasoning hatred of strangers--admiration at the deftness with whichDick first stanched the flow of blood and then proceeded to dress theinjury; for, strangely enough, this people, highly civilised though theywere in some respects, possessed but the most rudimentary knowledge ofmedicine and surgery, pinning their faith chiefly to the virtue ofcharms and incantations, their knowledge being not nearly sufficient toenable them successfully to grapple with so serious an injury as thatwith which the young Englishman was so calmly and competently dealing.As the operation proceeded, these people, usually so cold and self-contained, reported progress to those who were less favourably situatedfor observation than themselves, and in this way the entire crowd werekept posted up in every step, until finally a great sigh of relief arosefrom them as Dick concluded his task and rose to his feet.
But the young doctor had not yet finished with his patient, by anymeans; he intended to see him safely into his own home before he lefthim, and this he did, a half-dozen of the soldiers fetching the man'sbed from his house, carefully lifting him thereon, and carrying him in,under Dick's watchful care, aided by Grosvenor as interprete
r. Thisdone, he administered a soothing and fever-allaying draught; afterwhich, upon being informed by the young officer that he would probablyhave no opportunity of seeing his patient again, he hypnotised the manand subjected him to a powerful mental suggestion that all danger wasnow past, that no complications of any kind would arise, and that hewould rapidly get well without further attention. This done, he andGrosvenor rejoined the wagon and resumed their march.
The delay occasioned by this incident of the buffalo so retarded theirprogress that it was close upon noon before they arrived at the marginof the lake; and here they were curtly informed that they were about tobe conveyed to the island, and that as it was not proposed to take thewagon or any of the animals with them, they must indicate what fewarticles they thought they might require during the next few days, andthose articles would be conveyed across with them. There was a certainindefinable, sinister suggestiveness in the character of thiscommunication that seemed to imply a doubt in the mind of the officialwho made it whether the individuals to whom it was made would requireanything at all after "the next few days"; but Dick and Grosvenor,acting as usual upon the general principle of taking an optimistic viewof everything, gave no sign that they detected anything of a covertcharacter in the intimation, and calmly indicated the trunks containingtheir clothing, the medicine chest, their rifles and revolvers, and acase of ammunition for the same, all of which were duly placed in alarge craft, in shape something between a canoe and a lighter, whichthey afterward discovered was propelled by sixty paddles. At the lastmoment it transpired that their black attendants, Mafuta, Jantje, and'Nkuku were to be left behind on the mainland--which arrangement alsoappeared to bear a certain sinister significance--whereupon Grosvenorsuggested the extreme importance of placing them in charge of the wagonand its remaining contents, part of which--two cases of ammunition, towit--he explained, consisted of terribly powerful magic, any tamperingwith which by unauthorised persons must inevitably have the mostappallingly disastrous results. This suggestion, Grosvenor wasinformed, would receive the most careful consideration of theauthorities; and he had the satisfaction of believing that not onlywould this probably result in saving the lives of the blacks, at leastfor a time, but he also perceived that his hint respecting the "magic"had made a very distinct impression.
The preparations for the transport of the prisoners across the lake weresoon made, and in about half an hour from the moment of their arrivalupon the beach they were under way. A circumstance which at once struckDick as peculiar was the fact that the craft in which they were makingthe passage was unprovided with sails, in consequence of which they hadto depend entirely upon the exertions of the paddlers, although, as ithappened, there was a gentle breeze blowing that was dead fair for them.Thus the boat, being large and of somewhat clumsy model, occupied fullytwo hours in her passage, of about eight miles from the mainland to theisland, notwithstanding the fact that sixty stalwart men were toiling atthe paddles.
But this matter was soon banished from the minds of the two youngEnglishmen by their growing interest in the mysterious island which theywere gradually approaching. For mysterious it certainly was in severalrespects. In the first place its solitary situation, right in thecentre of that unknown lake, invested it with a certain aspect ofsecrecy, and secrecy always suggests mystery. Also there seemed to belittle or no traffic between the island and the mainland, for during thetwo hours occupied by their crossing no other boat or craft of any kindappeared upon any part of the lake. Then, as they gradually drew nearerto the island, and its various details revealed themselves, the twoyoung Englishmen became aware that the entire island, excepting perhapsthe actual soil of it, was artificial; that is to say, every square inchof its surface had apparently been arranged or modified by the hand ofman, for either it bore a building, was traversed by a road, or formedpart of a garden every tree and plant in which owed its existence andits precise position to human design and arrangement. All the naturalfeatures of the island seemed to have been ruthlessly swept away to makeroom for something forming part of a complete, comprehensive plan. Andthat plan bore eloquent evidence in its every feature that it owed itsinception to intellects characterised by a very high degree of cultureand refinement, and its execution to hands exceptionally skilled in manyof those arts and sciences that are the heritage of ages ofcivilisation. The architecture was massive, almost heroic in itsproportions, and its ornamentation was severe yet graceful, with a verystrong and marked suggestion of Egyptian influence. The gardens wereelaborately terraced, and consisted for the most part of wide, smooth,grassy lawns thickly dotted with flower beds cut into graceful andfanciful shapes, with trees growing only where they would afford agrateful shade either to the wayfarer or to the gardens arranged uponthe flat-topped roofs of the houses. The roads were so cunninglyplanned that, by means of their serpentine windings, an easy gradientwas everywhere maintained; and, lastly, the entire island wasencompassed by a lofty and immensely solid wall, or quay, built ofenormous blocks of granite the face of which had been worked to sosmooth a surface as to render it absolutely unclimbable, the only meansof obtaining a landing seeming to be by way of a double flight of widestone steps leading up from the water to a wide platform which was shutoff from the interior of the island by an immensely strong gatewayflanked by two lofty towers.
By the time that Dick and Grosvenor had become imbued with a fairlyaccurate general impression of the extraordinary characteristics of themysterious unknown island city to which they were bound, the craft thatbore them was close in under the frowning protective wall whichengirdled it, and a few minutes later the boat ranged up alongside oneof the two flights of landing steps, the paddles were laid in, and thecrew, springing to their feet, checked the vessel's way by grappling anumber of large bronze mooring rings the shanks of which were deeplysunk into the face of the massive masonry. Then the officer who hadarrested the prisoners, and still had them in charge, gave the word toland, and the young Englishmen stepped ashore, closely followed by halfa dozen men bearing their several belongings, except their firearms,which they insisted on carrying themselves.
Ascending the long, easy flight of steps, the little procession, led bythe officer, presently reached the broad platform on the top, and foundthemselves confronting a pair of enormous bronze doors which completelyfilled the gateway, and which swung slowly open, apparently by somemechanical means, to admit them. Passing through the gateway, andnoting, as they went, the extraordinary strength and solidity of thedoors, they found themselves in a kind of tunnel, or passage, sometwenty feet long, in the structure of the gateway, with a sunlit vistaof a paved street, bordered on either hand by lofty shade trees, withhouses behind them, and thronged with people. Another minute and theyhad emerged from the archway and were in the street itself, which theynow perceived to be one of the business streets of the island, for thehouses on either side of it were arranged as shops, the whole of thelower part of each being open, affording a view of the various wares forsale, displayed upon a gently sloping platform, at the rear end of whichsat the owner, cross-legged, Eastern fashion, arrayed in long flowingrobes of brilliant hues. The fronts of the shops were unglazed, andunprotected by screen or barrier of any kind, nor did the shopkeepermake the slightest attempt to solicit custom; his property was simplyprotected from the ardent rays of the sun by a gaily coloured blind, orawning, and he sat silently and gravely awaiting the arrival of suchcustomers as might chance to require the particular kind of wares thathe had for disposal. These wares, it soon appeared, consisted chieflyof fruit; bread, in the form of small, fancifully shaped loaves; cakes;sweetmeats; drinks of various kinds, mostly compounded of powders whilethe customer waited--there seemed to be a brisk demand for these--fish,presumably from the lake, alive and swimming about in a large tank fromwhich they were withdrawn as required by means of a hand net; lightflimsy muslins, white or dyed in a number of brilliant colours; lengthsof exquisite embroidery in gold, silver, or silk thread, and in somecases studded with what looked
very much like uncut gems; saddlery andharness, some of it richly mounted or embroidered with gold; queershapedhousehold utensils made of copper or some other metal that had thecolour and sheen of gold; jewellery, necklaces, bracelets, armlets,anklets, earrings, and finger rings of gold, and vari-coloured stonesthat might or might not be gems; and articles of clothing, includingsandals of all kinds, from the perfectly plain piece of board, securedby a single strap, to articles of the most elegant design and costlyworkmanship.
The little party traversed this street for about a quarter of a mile,attracting little or no notice from the passers-by as they went, andthen turned abruptly out of it into a wide road leading graduallyuphill. The houses which bordered this road were all privateresidences, detached from each other, and each embosomed in its ownspacious garden, aflame with flowers of the most brilliant hues andexquisite perfume, several of the species being quite unknown to theEnglishmen. The people who were encountered in this road, or were seenpassing in or out of the houses, or moving about in the gardens,appeared to be of decidedly higher caste than any that the travellershad thus far seen. Their skins were not so swarthy, their features weremore refined, many of the women being exceedingly beautiful, althoughthe good looks of the men were to a considerable extent marred by anexpression which may best be described as latent, cold-blooded ferocity.All these people wore garments of exceedingly fine material, mostlywhite, richly trimmed with elaborate embroidery in colours or gold, thewomen's dress being a long, sleeveless garment reaching from the throatto the feet and confined at the waist by an ornamental belt, handsomesandals, much jewellery, and the head bare, the heavy masses of darkhair being wound upon the head very becomingly, and intertwined withribbon or strings of coloured beads. The costumes of the men were oftwo kinds: the elders wore for the most part a long, flowing _burnous_kind of garment with enormous loose sleeves reaching to the wrists,while the younger men wore a kind of tunic confined at the waist by abelt and reaching just below the knee. All wore either sandals orbuskins, and all were bareheaded, the hair of the men being exceedinglythick, allowed to grow long enough to reach the shoulder, and mostlydressed in thick clusters of tight, straight curls. The general type ofcountenance, as Grosvenor again took occasion to remark to Dick, wasdistinctly Hebraic.
The road which the party now followed twisted and turned hither andthither, apparently with the object of securing a uniform gradient, butit led continuously upward, until at length it conducted them to anenormous, massively constructed building of brown granite that towered,tier after tier, for five tiers in height; the top tier consisting of acomparatively small edifice with a metal roof which shone in theafternoon sun like burnished gold. This building somehow suggested theidea of a temple, partly, perhaps, because of the fact that it was thetopmost portion of the building which occupied the extreme apex of theisland; but the newcomers had scant opportunity to take in its details,for they were marched straight to a low doorway cut in the tremendouslythick wall of the lower story of the building, which gave them admissionto a long labyrinth of twisting passages, lighted only by the smokyflare of half a dozen torches. This network of passages they traversedfor a distance which both of them estimated at fully five hundred yards,finally arriving at a small door which was flung open by a man who hadaccompanied the party from the outer door. The officer motioned hisprisoners to enter, and, there being no alternative, they did so, thebearers following with their belongings. These last being deposited onthe ground, the bearers retired, the door was slammed-to and barred onthe outside, and the two adventurous young Englishmen found themselvesalone in a cell or dungeon about eight feet square, devoid of everysuggestion of furniture, and lighted only by a small aperture, some sixinches square, pierced in an outer wall of the building which must havebeen at least twelve feet thick.
The Adventures of Dick Maitland: A Tale of Unknown Africa Page 14