[GEORGE _looks down sulkily, and in default of excuses keeps silent_.
ALEC.
I came to the conclusion that it was hopeless. You seemed to me rotten through and through.
GEORGE.
[_With a little laugh._] Like my father before me.
ALEC.
I couldn"t believe a word you said. You did everything you shouldn"t have done. The result was that the men mutinied, and if I hadn"t come back in the nick of time they"d have killed you and looted all the stores.
GEORGE.
You always blame me for everything. A man"s not responsible for what he does when he"s down with fever.
ALEC.
It was too late to send you back to the coast then, and I was obliged to take you on. And now the end has come. Your murder of that woman has put us all in deadly peril. Already to your charge lie the deaths of Richardson and almost twenty natives. Tribes that were friendly have joined with the Arabs, and we"re as near destruction as we can possibly be.
GEORGE.
What are you going to do?
ALEC.
We"re far away from the coast, and I must take the law into my own hands.
GEORGE.
[_With a gasp._] You"re not going to kill me?
ALEC.
Are you fond of Lucy?
GEORGE.
[_Brokenly._] You--you know I am. Why d"you remind me of her now? I"ve made a rotten mess of everything, and I"m better out of the way. But think of the disgrace of it. It"ll kill Lucy.... And she was hoping I"d do so much.
ALEC.
Listen to me. Our only chance of escaping from the confounded fix we"re in is to make a sudden attack on the Arabs before the natives join them.
We shall be enormously outnumbered, but we may just smash them if we can strike to-night. My plan is to start marching as if I didn"t know that the Turkana were going to turn against us. After an hour all the whites but one, and the Swahilis whom I can trust implicitly, will take a short cut. The Arabs will have had news of our starting, and they"ll try to cut us off at the pa.s.s. I shall fall on them just as they begin to attack. D"you understand?
GEORGE.
Yes.
ALEC.
Now I must have one white man to head the Turkana, and that man will run the greatest possible danger. I"d go myself, only the Swahilis won"t fight unless I lead them.... Are you willing to take that post?
GEORGE.
I?
ALEC.
I could order you, but the job"s too dangerous for me to force it on any one. If you refuse, I shall call the others together and ask some one to volunteer. In that case you will have to find your way back alone as best you can to the coast.
GEORGE.
No, no! Anything rather than the shame of that.
ALEC.
I won"t hide from you that it means almost certain death. But there"s no other way of saving ourselves. On the other hand, if you show perfect courage at the moment the Arabs attack and the Turkana find that we"ve given them the slip, you may escape. If you do, I promise nothing shall be said of all that has happened here.
GEORGE.
All right. I"ll do that. And I thank you with all my heart for giving me the chance.
ALEC.
I"m glad you"ve accepted. Whatever happens you"ll have done a brave action in your life. [_He holds out his hand to_ GEORGE, _who takes it_.] I think there"s nothing more to be said. You must be ready to start in half an hour. Here"s your revolver. Remember that one chamber"s empty. You"d better put in another cartridge.
GEORGE.
Yes, I"ll do that.
[_He goes out._
d.i.c.k.
D"you think he has any chance of escaping?
ALEC.
If he has pluck he may get through.
d.i.c.k.
Well!
ALEC.
To-morrow we shall know if he has that last virtue of a blackguard--courage.