Then she began, and Bones listened with open mouth...later he was to feel his hair rise and was to utter gurgling protests, for she spoke with primitive simplicity about things that are never spoken about at all. He tried to check her, but she was not to be checked.
"Goodness, gracious heavens!" gasped Bones.
She told him of what women think of men, and of what men think think women think of them, and there was a remarkable discrepancy if she spoke the truth. He asked her if she was married. women think of them, and there was a remarkable discrepancy if she spoke the truth. He asked her if she was married.
"Lord," she said at last, eyeing him thoughtfully, "it is written that I shall marry one who is greater than chiefs."
"I"ll bet you will, too," thought Bones, sweating.
At parting she took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. "Lord," she said softly, "tomorrow when the sun is nearly down, I will come again and tell you more..."
Bones left before daybreak, having all the material he wanted for his book and more.
He took his time descending the river, calling at sundry places.
At Ikan he tied up the Zaire Zaire for the night, and whilst his men were carrying the wood aboard, he settled himself to put down the gist of his discoveries. In the midst of his labours came Abiboo. for the night, and whilst his men were carrying the wood aboard, he settled himself to put down the gist of his discoveries. In the midst of his labours came Abiboo.
"Lord," said he, "there has just come by a fast canoe the woman who spoke with you last night."
"Jumping Moses!" said Bones, turning pale, "say to this woman that I am gone"
But the woman came round the corner of the deck-house, shyly, yet with a certain confidence.
"Lord," she said, "behold I am here, your poor slave; there are wonderful things about women which I have not told you"
"O, D"riti!" said Bones in despair, "I know all things, and it is not lawful that you should follow me so far from your home lest evil be said of you."
He sent her to the hut of the chief"s wife M"lini-fo-bini of Ikan with instructions that she was to be returned to her home on the following morning. Then he went back to his work, but found it strangely distasteful. He left nothing to chance the next day.
With the dawn he slipped down the river at full speed, never so much as halting till day began to fail, and he was a short day"s journey from headquarters.
"Anyhow, the poor dear won"t overtake me today," he said only to find the "poor dear" had stowed herself away on the steamer in the night behind a pile of wood.
"It"s very awkward," said Hamilton, and coughed.
Bones looked at his chief pathetically.
"It"s doocid awkward, sir?" he agreed dismally.
"You say she won"t go back?"
Bones shook his head.
"She said I"m the moon and the sun an" all sorts of rotten things to her, sir," he groaned and wiped his forehead.
"Send her to me," said Hamilton.
"Be kind to her, sir," pleaded the miserable Bones. "After all, sir, the poor girl seems to be fond of me, sir the human heart, sir I don"t know why she should take a fancy to me."
"That"s what I want to know," said Hamilton, briefly, "if she is is mad, I"ll send her to the mission hospital along the Coast." mad, I"ll send her to the mission hospital along the Coast."
"You"ve a hard and bitter heart," said Bones, sadly.
D"riti came ready to flash her anger and eloquence at Hamilton; on the verge of defiance.
"D"riti," said Hamilton, "tomorrow I send you back to your people."
"Lord, I stay with Tibbetti who loves women and is happy to talk of them. Also some day I shall be his wife, for this is foretold." She shot a tender glance at poor Bones.
"That cannot be," said Hamilton calmly, "for Tibbetti has three wives, and they are old and fierce"
"Oh, lord!" wailed Bones.
"And they would beat you and make you carry wood and water," Hamilton said; he saw the look of apprehension steal into the girl"s face. "And more than this, D"riti, the Lord Tibbetti is mad when the moon is in full, he foams at the mouth and bites, uttering awful noises."
"Oh, dirty trick!" almost sobbed Bones.
"Go, therefore, D"riti," said Hamilton, "and I will give you a piece of fine cloth, and beads of many colours."
It is a matter of history that D"riti went.
"I don"t know what you think of me, sir," said Bones, humbly, "of course I couldn"t get rid of her"
"You didn"t try," said Hamilton, searching his pockets for his pipe. "You could have made her drop you like a shot."
"How, sir?"
"Stuck your finger in her eye," said Hamilton, and Bones swallowed hard.
THE STRANGER WHO WALKED BY NIGHT.
Since the day when Lieutenant Francis Augustus Tibbetts rescued from the sacrificial trees the small brown baby whom he afterwards christened Henry Hamilton Bones, the interests of that young officer were to a very large extent extremely concentrated upon that absorbing problem which a famous journal once popularised, "What shall we do with our boys?"
As to the exact nature of the communications which Bones made to England upon the subject, what hairbreadth escapes and desperate adventure he detailed with that facile pen of his, who shall say?
It is unfortunate that Hamilton"s sister that innocent purveyor of home news had no glimpse of the correspondence, and that other recipients of his confidence are not in touch with the writer of the chronicles. Whatever he wrote, with what fervour he described his wanderings in the forest no one knows, but certainly he wrote to some purpose.
"What the d.i.c.kens are all these parcels that have come for you for?" demanded his superior officer, eyeing with disfavour a mountain of brown paper packages be-sealed, be-stringed, and be-stamped.
Bones, smoking his pipe, turned them over.
"I don"t know for certain," he said, carefully; "but I shouldn"t be surprised if they aren"t clothes, dear old officer."
"Clothes?"
"For Henry," explained Bones, and cutting the string of one and tearing away its covering revealed a little mountain of snowy garments. Bones turned them over one by one.
"For Henry," he repeated. "Could you tell me, sir, what these things are for?"
He held up a garment white and small and frilly.
"No, sir, I can"t," said Hamilton stiffly, "unless like the a.s.s that you are you have forgotten to mention to your friends that Henry is a gentleman child."
Bones looked up at the blue sky and scratched his chin.
"I may have called him "her"," he confessed.
There were, to be exact, sixteen parcels and each contained at least one such garment, and in addition a very warm shawl, "which," said Hamilton, "will be immensely useful when it snows."
With the aid of his orderly, Bones sorted out the wardrobe and the playthings (including many volumes of the Oh-look-at-the-rat-on-the-mat-where-is-the-cat? variety), and these he carried to his hut with such dignity as he could summon.
That evening, Hamilton paid his subordinate a visit. Henry, pleasingly arrayed in a pair of the misdirected garments with a large bonnet on his head, and seated on the floor of the quarters contentedly chewing Bones" watch, the whilst Bones, accompanying himself with his banjo, was singing a song which was chiefly remarkable for the fact that he was ignorant of the tune and somewhat hazy concerning the words.
Did you ever take a tum-ty up the Nile,Did you ever dumty dumty in a camp,Or dumpty dumpty on m- m-Or play it in a dumty dumty swamp.
He rose, and saluted his senior, as Hamilton came in.
"Exactly what is going to happen when Sanders comes back?" asked Hamilton, and the face of Bones fell.
"Happen, sir? I don"t take you, sir what could could happen to whom, sir?" happen to whom, sir?"
"To Henry," said Hamilton.
Henry looked up at that moment with a seraphic smile.
"Isn"t he wonderful, sir?" asked Bones in hushed ecstasy. "You won"t believe what I"m going to tell you, sir you"re such a jolly old sceptic, sir but Henry knows me positively recognises me! And when you remember that he"s only four months old why, it"s unbelievable."
"But what will you do when Sanders comes really, Bones, I don"t know whether I ought to allow this as it is."
"If exception is taken to Henry, sir," said Bones firmly, "I resign my commission; if a gentleman is allowed to keep a dog, sir, he is surely allowed to keep a baby. Between Henry and me, sir, there is a bond stronger than steel. I may be an a.s.s, sir, I may even be a goop, but come between me an" my child an" all my motherly instincts if you"ll pardon the paradox all my paternal that"s the word instincts are aroused, and I will fight like a tiger, sir"
"What a devil you are for jaw," said Hamilton; "anyway, I"ve warned you. Sanders is due in a month."
"Henry will be five," murmured Bones.
"Oh, blow Henry!" said Hamilton.
Bones rose and pointed to the door.
"May I ask you, sir," he said, "not to use that language before the child? I hate to speak to you like this, sir, but I have a responsible "
He dodged out of the open door and the loaf of bread which Hamilton had thrown struck the lintel and rolled back to Henry"s eager hands.
The two men walked up and down the parade ground whilst Fa"ma, the wife of Ahmet, carried the child to her quarters where he slept.
"I"m afraid I"ve got to separate you from your child," said Hamilton; "there is some curious business going on in the Lombobo, and a stranger who walks by night, of which Ahmet the Spy writes somewhat confusingly."
Bones glanced round in some apprehension.
"Oblige me, old friend," he entreated, "by never speakin" of such things before Henry I wouldn"t have him scared for the world."
II.
Bosambo of the Ochori was a light sleeper, the lighter because of certain stories which had reached him of a stranger who walks by night, and in the middle of the night he suddenly became wide awake, conscious that there was a man in his hut of whose coming the sentry without was ignorant.
Bosambo"s hand went out stealthily for his short spear, but before he could reach it, his wrist was caught in a grip of steel, strong fingers gripped his throat, and the intruder whispered fiercely, using certain words which left the chief helpless with wonder.
"I am M"gani of the Night," said the voice with authoritative hauteur, "of me you have heard, for I am known only to chiefs; and am so high that chiefs obey and even devils go quickly from my path."
"O, M"gani, I hear you," whispered Bosambo, "how may I serve you?"
"Get me food," said the imperious stranger, "after, you shall make a bed for me in your inner room, and sit before this house that none may disturb me, for it is to my high purpose that no word shall go to M"ilitani that I stay in your territory."
"M"gani, I am your dog," said Bosambo, and stole forth from the hut like a thief to obey.
All that day he sat before his hut and even sent away the wife of his heart and the child M"sambo, that the rest of M"gani or the N"gombi should not be disturbed.
That night when darkness had come and the glowing red of hut fires grew dimmer, M"gani came from the hut.
Bosambo had sent away the guard and accompanied his guest to the end of the village.
M"gani, with only a cloak of leopard skin about him, twirling two long spears as he walked, was silent till he came to the edge of the city where he was to take farewell of his host.
"Tell me this, Bosambo, where are Sandi"s spies that I may avoid them?"
And Bosambo, without hesitation, told him.
"M"gani," said he, at parting, "where do you go now? tell me that I may send cunning men to guard you, for there is a bad spirit in this land, especially amongst the people of Lombobo, because I have offended B"limi Saka, the chief."
"No soldiers do I need, O Bosambo," said the other. "Yet I tell you this that I go to quiet places to learn that which will be best for my people."
He turned to go.
"M"gani," said Bosambo, "in the day when you shall see our Lord Sandi, speak to him for me saying that I am faithful, for it seems to me, so high a man are you that he will listen to your word when he will listen to none other."
"I hear," said M"gani gravely, and slipped into the shadows of the forest.
Bosambo stood for a long time staring in the direction which M"gani had taken, then walked slowly back to his hut.
In the morning came the chief of his counsellors for a hut palaver.