The Adventures of Dick Maitland: A Tale of Unknown Africa

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  THE TRIAL AND VERDICT.

  "Well, Dick," exclaimed Grosvenor, as the door was closed upon them andthey looked round them in the dim light percolating through the long,narrow aperture in the wall which afforded their only supply of air andillumination, "what is your present opinion of things in general?"

  "Well," returned Dick reflectively, "the outstanding fact whichdominates all others is that we have actually penetrated to the veryheart of the mysterious country which our friend Mitchell predicted weshould never reach, and have therefore triumphantly accomplished thechief object of our journey, despite all the difficulties that we haveencountered. For the rest, this cell, although it is somewhat lackingin comfort and convenience as a dwelling, is at least clean, dry, andpleasantly cool compared with the temperature outside. And--that isabout all I have to say on the matter at present, I think."

  "Um!" retorted Grosvenor with a suspicion of peevishness in his voice;"that is not very much. What do you think they mean to do with us?That is what I am trying to get at. Of course I remember that the gistof Mitchell's homily to us was: `Don't go, if you value your lives,because those people don't like strangers.' But if a fellow seriouslyconsidered a little matter like that, exploration would soon be a thingof the past, for I've noticed that many of the johnnies whose countrieswe have passed through haven't liked strangers. Yet we've contrived topull through all right thus far; and of course I have been hoping thatour luck would still hold good, and that when we arrived in this countrysomething would happen to enable us to create a favourable impressionupon the chappies, causing them to decide that we are the exceptions tothe general rule, and are worthy to be treated as honoured guests andall that sort of thing--eh, what? But when I look round me and take inthe details of this apartment it seems to me that things have somehowgone wrong; I can't help thinking that they must have a more comfortableguest chamber than this somewhere in this old caravanserai--eh? What doyou think?"

  "I have no doubt they have," returned Dick. "Yet they may consider thisquite good enough for us. But I am not going to worry very greatly justyet, and I would recommend you not to do so either. It is true that sofar these folk have displayed a most lamentable and disconcerting lackof appreciation of our many excellent qualities, but you must rememberthat we have not had much opportunity for a display of those qualitiesas yet. The opportunity will come no doubt, and when it does we willjust make our friends outside sit up--I don't quite know how, but wewill do it somehow. So cheer up, old chap; the fact that they have putus in here instead of killing us at sight, so to speak, seems to suggestto my mind the belief that, if they are displeased at our presence intheir country, they at least intend to give us some sort of a trialbefore passing us on to the executioner."

  "Oh, dash it all, old man, don't talk about executioners--!" beganGrosvenor, when he was interrupted by the opening of the cell door and aman entered, bearing in one hand a pitcher of water, and in the other aloaf of bread of liberal proportions on a wooden platter. These heplaced on the floor beside the prisoners, and was gone again beforeGrosvenor could sufficiently pull his wits together to address him.

  The food and drink were most acceptable, for the prisoners had taken norefreshment since breakfast that morning, and the day was now drawing toits close, as they could tell by the rapidly diminishing light thatpercolated through their narrow window. They fell to upon the viandsforthwith, availing themselves of the last departing daylight to findthe food; and finally, after a little further desultory chat, in whicheach did his best to make light of the situation, they disposedthemselves as comfortably as they could upon the floor, and sought suchrest as might be possible under the circumstances.

  The night that followed was certainly not a pleasant one, for the floorwas hard, and sleep was shy of coming to them. With the firstglimmerings of daylight, therefore, the two prisoners arose, weary, soreof body, and in a distinctly pessimistic frame of mind which found noamelioration in the fact that hour after hour dragged its weary lengthalong, bringing neither visitors nor food, although the breakfast hourhad long passed. Noon arrived, and still no footstep approached thedoor of their cell; and when at length their watches marked the hour ofthree in the afternoon without the arrival of food, without even so muchas a visit from their jailer to ascertain whether or not all was wellwith them, they began to ask themselves seriously whether by any chancethey had been forgotten.

  The answer came about half an hour later when the door of their cell wassuddenly thrown open by the man who had locked them in on the previousnight, and who now gruffly summoned them to follow him.

  They emerged from their place of confinement gladly enough--for they hadreached that stage of discomfort when one welcomes any change, eventhough there should be a possibility that it may prove to be for theworse--and were at once taken into custody by a handsomely attiredofficer in command of ten soldiers who, armed with short, broad-bladedspears, and each carrying a flaring torch, at once closed round them.The word to march was given, and the party moved away along thelabyrinth of passages, turning hither and thither in the mostbewildering fashion, until at length they reached a narrow flight ofstone steps that wound upward, corkscrew fashion, until they emergedinto another passage which, after a journey of some fifty yards,conducted them into a spacious and lofty hall lighted at either end by alarge window glazed with what, from the cursory glance which theyobtained of it, they judged to be talc, or some similar substance. Anumber of passages led out of this hall, and down one of them the partyplunged, finally passing through a doorway into a spacious chamber,lighted, like the hall, by large windows glazed with the talc-likematerial already mentioned. There was a peculiarity about this chamberthat at once attracted the attention of the two young Englishmen, and itwas this: the wall opposite the door by which they had entered wasdivided horizontally into two unequal parts, the lower and smaller ofthe two being occupied by a grille of exquisitely fine carved workexecuted in a kind of Greek pattern, while the upper compartment wasfilled in with a window reaching right across from side to side of thechamber, that threw a strong light right down upon the precise spotwhere they were halted. As the two prisoners came to a standstill atthe word of command of the officer in charge of the party, the soldiersformed themselves into a semicircle between their charges and the door,and grounded their spears with a clank upon the black marble pavement,while, although the room was apparently empty, save for themselves, theofficer advanced and, raising his spear in salute, exclaimed in a loudvoice, in the quasihebrew tongue which appeared to be the commonlanguage of the people:

  "Lords! the prisoners from afar are present."

  "It is well," replied a deep, solemn voice from behind the grille, andthe two friends suddenly realised that they were about to be put upontheir trial for the offence of intruding where they were not wanted.They both directed their gaze upon the grille with greatly enhancedinterest, striving to obtain a glimpse of the person or persons behindit; but a space of at least twenty feet divided them from it, and atthat distance the interstices were too small to afford the faintestglimpse of anyone on the other side. There was a pause of perhaps halfa minute, then the voice that had last spoken said:

  "Let Benoni, the officer who arrested the strangers upon their arrivalin Izreel, be summoned to give his evidence."

  The officer in charge of the prisoners stepped to the door, opened it,spoke a few words to someone on the other side, apparently giving anorder, then closed the door again and returned to his former position inthe hall.

  "Did you hear that, Dick--Benoni--Izreel? Don't those two names suggestanything to you?" murmured Grosvenor behind his hand.

  "N-o, I can't say that they do, except that they seem to be notaltogether unfamiliar to me," answered Dick in a like low murmur.

  "Familiar!" ejaculated Grosvenor, incautiously raising his voice; "Ishould think they are. Why--"

  "Silence!" interposed the officer sternly, at this moment. AlthoughGrosvenor's e
yes blazed at the insult, and he looked more than half-inclined to forcibly resent it, he closed his lips with a fierce snap,and obeyed the injunction, at the restraining touch of Dick's hand. Amoment later the officer who had brought them to the island entered,and, closing the door behind him, advanced, saluting as he faced thegrille.

  "Benoni," said the deep voice from behind the screen, "say what you knowconcerning the strangers from afar whom ye yesterday brought across thewater to Bethalia!"

  Again Benoni saluted. Then, facing toward the centre of the grille, heproceeded to relate how, in consequence of intelligence brought to himby runners from the frontier, he proceeded in search of the strangers,and, having taken them, brought them to Bethalia, in accordance with thegeneral order providing for such a circumstance. Then he proceeded todescribe in some detail the journey, making mention of the wonderfultubes that brought distant objects near, so long as one continued togaze through them; and, from that, passed on to describe in full theincident of the infuriated buffalo, the consternation it had createdamong the wayfarers upon the road along which it had charged, itspersistent pursuit of himself, the wonderful magic whereby the strangershad slain the animal, from a distance, at the precise moment when it hadbeen about to toss him into the air; and how, finally, the youngerstranger of the two had insisted upon interrupting the journey tosuccour the man who had been grievously hurt by the animal; adding that,in obedience to orders received, he had early that morning proceeded tothe mainland to enquire into the condition of the injured man, whom, tohis amazement, he found to be making favourable progress towardrecovery. He spoke throughout in a clear, level voice, and seemed to beconcerned only to convey an absolutely truthful impression of everythingto his unseen audience behind the grille.

  At the conclusion of Benoni's narrative a silence ensued, lasting fornearly twenty minutes, broken only by a low sound suggestive of subduedwhispering behind the grille. At length, however, even this ceased, andthe silence became almost oppressive for the space of about anotherhalf-minute. Then it was broken by the voice that had before spoken,saying:

  "White strangers, say now by what names are ye known?"

  To which Grosvenor replied: "My name is Philip Eustace MeredithGrosvenor; and that of my friend is Richard Maitland."

  This statement was followed by another brief silence, when the unseenspeaker said:

  "Philip Eustace Meredith Grosvenor and Richard Maitland," he boggled thenames a little, especially those of Grosvenor, "ye have entered thecountry of the Izreelites uninvited, and without even asking permissionto do so. Had ye sought permission before crossing our border, it wouldhave been refused you, and ye would have been turned back and permittedto depart in peace. But to enter this land uninvited, and withoutobtaining permission, is against our law, and the punishment for theoffence is the Slow Death!"

  Here the speaker made an impressive pause, as though to allow thestatement to be thoroughly absorbed by the understanding of those mostintimately concerned. Then he resumed:

  "But we learn from the officer Benoni, who brought you hither, thatsince entering our country ye have saved the lives of two men; and sincemen's lives are more valuable to the Izreelites than aught else, we havedecided to mitigate your punishment to this extent: ye shall live, if yewill, upon condition that ye swear never to attempt to leave the countrywithout the royal assent, and to devote yourselves henceforth to theservice of Izreel in such manner as ye may be directed. Say now,therefore, will ye accept life, with the condition attached to the gift;or will ye go forth from hence to die the Slow Death?"

  This speech Grosvenor carefully translated to Dick, finishing up byasking:

  "What answer shall I give the Johnnie, Dick? On the one hand, I have nofancy for being marched out from here to die the Slow Death, whateverthat may be--something pretty horrible, I have no doubt, by the sound ofit--but, on the other hand, I have just as little inclination to bindmyself to end my days here, among these chappies--eh, what?"

  "I fully agree with you, my dear fellow, on both points," answered Dick;"but there is one broad principle upon which I invariably act, and thatis, where one is confronted by a choice between two evils, always tochoose the lesser of the two. In this case I think there can be noquestion as to which is the lesser of the two evils between which wehave to choose; because if we were foolish enough to choose death itwould mean the end of all things sublunary for us; whereas if we chooselife, even with the condition attached, there is always a sportingchance of something happening to make matters better for us. Formyself, I would rather live, even here, than die the death, whether slowor quick. My advice, therefore, is to take the life which is offeredus, and make the best of it."

  "Very well, then; that's agreed," returned Grosvenor, who proceededforthwith to explain laboriously to the unseen judges that they acceptedthe alternative of life offered them.

  The decision was received with low murmurs of what sounded likesatisfaction on the part of those behind the grille. A short silencenext ensued, which was followed by further mutterings among the unseenjudges, who seemed to be debating some important point. Finally anintimation came from those mysterious individuals that the strangerswere to be marched to the Great Hall, there to take the oath whichformed the condition upon which they accepted their lives; whereupon theofficer, Benoni, gave an order, and the prisoners were marched out ofthe Judgment Hall through the door by which they had entered.

  Making their way back along the passage which they had previouslytraversed, the party presently found themselves in the central hall outof which all the passages in the building seemed to radiate. Traversingthis, they now entered another and much wider passage, which conductedthem into what was presumably the Great Hall; for it was a squareapartment measuring fully a hundred feet each way, lighted on twoadjacent sides by lofty windows glazed with the talc-like substancewhich the two friends had before observed, only in the present case theglazing glowed with rich colour, having been painted or dyed withmarvellous skill into representations of various apparently symbolicalsubjects, as were also the lights in a great central dome which,supported by massive columns, occupied about three-fourths of the roofspace of the apartment. These columns as well as the walls and flatportion of the roof of the hall, were also very elaborately decorated incolour, while the floor was composed of white marble. A long, thin rod,which might be gold, judging from its sheen and colour, depended fromthe great boss, or keystone, of the dome, supporting a group of sevenbeautifully ornate, lighted lamps, at a height of about twenty feetabove the floor; and immediately beneath these there was a table coveredwith a cloth, woven in a most intricate and elegant pattern, apparentlyof very fine gold thread. Upon this table there lay a large roll ofparchment manuscript, wound upon two golden rods, decorated with whatlooked like pine cones wrought in gold at the ends; and behind the tablestood seven venerable men with long white moustaches, and beardsreaching to their waists, clad in a hooded garment of finest wool, dyedblack, reaching to their feet. Their hoods were drawn so far over theirheads and faces that little of their features could be seen, save theireyes, which glowed out of the sombre shadow cast by their hoods.

  The young Englishmen, still in the custody of the guard, were marched upto within about ten feet of the table, where they were halted; whereuponthe central and apparently oldest figure of the seven said, in a deep,grave voice--which both at once recognised as that which had spoken frombehind the grille:

  "Draw near, strangers, and take the oath which shall free you from theban of the law, and make you citizens of Izreel for the remainder ofyour lives. Lay your right hands upon this roll and, with your lefthands raised toward heaven, repeat after me:--

  "I swear, by the Sun, Moon, and Stars, by Light and Darkness, by thePowers of the Air, and by the Flame of the seven lamps which burnforever, that I will never seek to leave Izreel without first obtainingthe royal assent, and that henceforth I will devote myself to itsservice in such manner as I shall be directed!"

  Th
e oath sounded formidable enough, but after all it really meant littleto those who were called upon to take it, and they took itunhesitatingly, with the full intention of keeping it both in letter andin spirit--since an oath was an oath, whatever form its wording mightassume--and, this done, Benoni and his guard were dismissed, and the twonewly enrolled citizens of Izreel were left alone with the seven whomthey subsequently came to know as the Elders.

  The stern attitude of these toward the two aliens was now considerablyrelaxed; they invited Phil and Dick to accompany them into another and amuch smaller room, where, to the great satisfaction of the Englishmen,they found a substantial meal awaiting them, and to this the entireparty forthwith sat down. The appetite of the ex-prisoners was by thistime brought to a fine edge by their somewhat protracted fast, and theydid full justice to the fare placed before them, to the wonder andadmiration of their hosts, who, it appeared, were themselves butindifferent trenchermen. The meal over, and the attendants dismissed,Malachi, the chief of the Elders, and the man who had delivered judgmentin the Judgment Hall, turned to Grosvenor and said:

  "And now, O Philip! the moment has arrived when we, the Elders, mustdecide in what manner you and he whom you call Dick may best serveIzreel. Tell me, therefore, I pray you, what ye can both best do, inorder that we may assign to each of you a useful vocation."

  "That is all very well," remarked Grosvenor rather ruefully, when he hadtranslated this speech to Dick. "So far as you are concerned the matteris simple enough; you are a doctor, and when once these chappies havehad an example of your skill in that line I expect they'll find youplenty to do. But what can I do? Absolutely nothing useful! I canride, shoot, sail a yacht passably--"

  "Stop!" cried Dick impulsively. "Ask these ancients whether they knowwhat sails are. If they don't--and I'll bet they do not, or they wouldhave used them yesterday--your vocation is cut out for you. You canteach them how to use sails, and also how to model their craft uponbetter lines; and by the time that you have finished that job I have nodoubt another will turn up. Just talk to the old gentlemen along thoselines, and see what comes of it."

  And Grosvenor did, with the happiest results. He ascertained that theIzreelites knew nothing whatever about sails, or indeed how to use thewind in any way as a labour-saver; and when he told his little audiencethat boats could be propelled, corn ground, water pumped, and a numberof other useful things done by the power of wind alone, they were atfirst very strongly inclined to suspect him of romancing. But when hefurther offered to demonstrate to them the truth of his assertion theyat once agreed to afford him every facility for so doing, and cheerfullypromised to place at his disposal such men and material as he mightrequire.

  And when he came to speak of Dick's qualifications as a healer of allmanner of diseases and injury to the human anatomy, they were even moregreatly surprised and delighted, for, astonishing as it may appear inthe case of a people so highly civilised in many respects as were theIzreelites, they knew practically nothing of either medicine or surgery,and pinned their faith entirely to the efficacy of charms andincantations. Moreover, it soon transpired that they had a particularas well as a general reason for rejoicing at the fact that a physicianof real and proved ability had come among them; for, after aconsiderable amount of discussion among themselves, Grosvenor wasinformed that the whole nation was racked with anxiety concerning thehealth of the young Queen Myra, who seemed gradually becoming deranged;the especial significance of their anxiety being explained by the fact--stated with the utmost gravity--that an ancient prophecy, in which theyplaced the most implicit faith, foretold that should ever a monarch diewithout issue, the fall of the nation and its absorption by its savageneighbours would immediately follow. The point of it all lay in thefact that the Queen was unwedded, and insisted on remaining so, whilethe savages who surrounded Izreel on every side were daily becoming moreaggressive!

  "Now, here is your chance, Dick," explained Grosvenor delightedly, whenhe had translated the above particulars to his friend. "You sail inwith your pills and potions, cure the Queen, marry her, make me yourPrime Minister, and we all live happily ever afterwards, like the peoplein the fairy tales--eh, what? Shall I tell these chappies that theyneed not worry any further about their Queen, for that you are preparedto cure her, whatever her malady may happen to be?"

  "Of course not," answered Dick seriously. "But you may say, if youlike, that I shall be very pleased to see Her Majesty and do what I canfor her. And pray try to be serious, Phil, for once in a way; frivolityis well enough at a proper time, and in its proper place, but it willnot improve these people's opinion of us if they see us laughing andobviously joking over a matter that seems to be a serious enough one forthem, and may be sufficiently serious for us, too, in the long run."

  "Yes--yes--of course," assented Grosvenor, completely sobered by hisfriend's grave words; "I quite see what you mean, old chap, and Ipromise you there shall be no further ill-timed attempts at jocularityon my part. The poor old chappies look a bit put out as it is; but I'llsoon make it all right with them."

  Therewith he proceeded to explain to the Elders that, while his friendcould not promise anything definite without first seeing the Queen, hewas willing to have an interview with her at once, or at Her Majesty'searliest convenience, and would do everything in his power to restoreher to perfect health.

  This announcement at once banished the glum looks which Grosvenor's ill-timed levity of demeanour had called up, and restored matters to thefavourable condition that had been momentarily endangered. A briefconsultation was held, and at its conclusion Malachi, the chief Elder,hurried away to seek an audience of the Queen with the object ofendeavouring to secure her consent to an interview with the wonderfuldoctor from afar. Meanwhile the two Englishmen were conducted up amagnificently wide marble staircase to the building that formed thesecond story, as it were, of the immense edifice in which they had beenbrought to trial, and which they now learned was the Government buildingin which the business of the nation generally was transacted, and thechief officials of the Government had lodging, the topmost story of allbeing a temple to which the Elders were wont to resort in times ofespecial national stress and danger, and where they were supposed toseek--and obtain--inspiration and guidance enabling them to successfullygrapple with the crisis.

  The second story of this curious building, which was part legislativepalace and part temple, was the portion especially devoted to thelodgment of the Government officials, and it was a gratifying indicationto the two friends of their future status in their new country that theywere now assigned apartments in this portion of the building. Theseapartments consisted of two large and exceedingly lofty rooms, one toserve as a sleeping chamber, and the other as a sitting- and working-room combined. Each room was lighted by an exceptionally large windowthat opened like a door and gave access to the projecting roof of thestory below, which was some sixty feet wider, each way, than the storyimmediately above it. This roof was flat, and was beautifully laid outas a flower garden, with winding walks through a level lawn thicklystudded with beds of beautiful, sweet-scented flowers. The garden wasprotected all round by a breast-high parapet, and commanded amagnificent view, not only of the entire island, but also of the lakeand the encircling hills. The Elder who installed the newcomers in thissumptuous suite of apartments having enquired whether their lodging wasto their liking, and received a reply in the affirmative, informed themthat, that being the case, the belongings which they had brought withthem to the island would at once be placed in their new lodging. Then,having asked whether he could do anything more for their immediatecomfort, and being answered in the negative, he indicated an immensecopper gong on the landing outside their door, informed them that asingle stroke upon it would at once bring the attendant who had beenappointed to wait upon them, and so bowed himself out.

  Meanwhile, Malachi, the chief Elder, was having a rather difficult timewith the self-willed young Queen. First of all she positively refusedto grant him an
audience at all; and when at length he succeeded inobtaining admission to her apartments by his persistent representationsthat the matter upon which he desired to see her was of the most vitalimportance, she at once angrily ordered him out again as soon as sheunderstood that he had found a new physician whom he desired her to see.But if the Queen was self-willed, Malachi was the very incarnation ofpertinacity; he protested, wheedled, entreated, and was indignant byturns, but all to no purpose until he happened to mention that thephysician in question was a stranger from a far country beyond the GreatWater; when, first commanding him to repeat his statement all overagain, she suddenly developed a sweet reasonableness, that caused theastonished Malachi to doubt the evidence of his senses, by announcingthat she would see the stranger, who was to be brought into her presenceforthwith.