But the old man"s soft weeping stopped presently and in a firmer voice he said:
"My wife and my sons? Can you tell me anything of them?"
As a newspaper man Billy recollected very clearly the s.p.a.ce that had been given some five years before to the death, at a ripe old age, of the wife of George Desmond the lost explorer.
"She is dead," he said gently.
They heard the castaway sigh, and then he asked in a voice he strove to render firm, but which trembled in spite of itself:
"And my sons?"
"They are all alive and in business in New York," said Billy. "Your wife died believing to the end that you would come back. They placed her chair so that she could face the east. She died at daybreak with her eyes turned toward the sea beyond which lay Africa."
"Africa!" echoed the tired, disused voice. "Africa! it has cost me everything I had."
There was silence for some time after this. Neither of the boys wanted to intrude on the silent grief of the explorer so strangely found, though each was dying to ask him a host of questions. It was the aged man himself who broke the silence at length.
"But I am selfish," he exclaimed. "I should have thanked you before this for saving my life. The priests were determined that, as I was old and useless, my life should be offered to the Sun-G.o.d to appease a sickness that has of late carried off hundreds of the Flying Men.
They are a dying race, young men. As a man of science, I predict that in five years or less there will not be a single one of the once numerous tribe alive. I have studied them closely and can predict their extinction."
"Then you have not been a prisoner always?" asked Billy.
"No, my young friend, I have not. When first I came here I was received warmly and was paid high honors. I was allowed to record my observations in writing--fortunately I carried a supply of ink and paper."
"You still have the ma.n.u.script?" gasped Billy, with the reporter"s instinct to the fore.
"I have," sighed old Mr. Desmond, "in the cell that I so long called home then, the pages still lie. But I have neglected them for many years. I had no more writing materials when I used up my slender supply and I never thought to regain civilization.
"But now did you ever get here?" asked the amazed Billy.
"That is a long story," replied the captive, "but briefly told, it is as follows: In the season of 1870, as you perhaps know, my ill-fated expedition left Grand Ba.s.sam. My avowed object was to collect specimens and data for the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute, but my real and secret desire was to find the tribe of Flying Men of whose existence I had heard in a fragmentary way on previous expeditions to the West Coast. I have found them--" he went on with a heavy sigh--"but at what a cost--at what a cost!"
There was silence for a few minutes and then the old voice went on, gaining in strength as he proceeded, and resumed acquaintance with words to which his tongue had been long unused.
"My expedition, as you know, was never heard of again. The reason was this. In some way the Arab slave-traders--who were thick in this district then and plied their nefarious trade almost openly--gained the belief that my expedition was a pretense for a plan of espionage on them and they attacked my camp one night and slaughtered every man in it but myself. Why they did not kill me I do not know, unless it was because of the intercession of a young Arab, a mere youth and the son of the chief. I have never forgotten his name or his kindness."
"What was his name?" asked Billy, who was deeply interested and wanted to get every detail of the extraordinary story.
"Muley-Ha.s.san!" was the amazing reply.
"Muley-Ha.s.san," echoed Billy, "why, he is the most cold-blooded fiend in the slave-trade to-day."
"Perhaps," answered the old man, "but he was good to me when he was a young man and I have never forgotten it."
"Well," he went on, picking up his narrative, "it was not long before retribution overtook the Arabs. One night their camp was attacked by a tribe whose village they had raided and sacked some time before and only a few of them escaped, among them must have been Muley-Ha.s.san, though, till you told me of him, I believed him dead. The savages, seeing that I was not one of the Arab race took care of me and I fared well at their hands. But a great longing to see civilization--to clasp my wife in my arms, to see my children and America once more, was always with me, and one night I escaped from their village. I wandered half-delirious from fever and starvation for many days after that, for I lost my way in the forest, and, as I had no compa.s.s, wandered aimlessly seeking a river by which I might follow down to the coast. One night such a sharp attack of fever overtook me that I was-stricken unconscious. I gave myself up for dead before I lost my senses and only recollect awaking in this village. From that day to this, although I have repeatedly endeavored to escape I have never been able to do so.
The ladder is guarded day and night,"--(this information dashed a half-formed hope in Billy"s mind of escape by that way,) "and it would be suicide to attempt to penetrate the great jungles on the other side. I thought to end my days here, but I never dreamed till the other day that my life was destined to end as it would have, had it not been for your brave intervention.
"The malady of which I have spoken has devastated almost every family in the cliff and at the instigation of Agagi, the head priest--a man who has always hated my influence over his people--I was blamed by the other priests for being the cause of the affliction.
"They pretended to have a revelation from the Sun-G.o.d stating that if my life were sacrificed the curse that rested on the cliff-dwellers would be removed. Accordingly I was seized and chained and would certainly have died had it not been for you. But alas, young men, I fear you are doomed to forfeit your lives as the cost of rescuing an old man who is not long for this life in any event. I wish that you had been far away and had never had the brave impulse to risk your young lives for my worthless old one."
Now it is a remarkable thing, but Billy, who should have replied to the aged man in all sorts of high-sounding language, could find nothing to reply to this but:
"Oh, that"s all right."
"I think you are the bravest boys I have ever heard of," the old man was beginning when a soft "hiss-s-st!" caused them all to turn their eyes to the direction in which they knew the door lay, and from which the sound had proceeded.
"H-s-s-s-t," came the sound again.
Did it mean a friend or an enemy?
CHAPTER XIX
FRIENDS IN NEED
They were not kept long in suspense. After being a.s.sured that their attention was attracted, the voice that had made the hissing signal whispered through some aperture of which the boys had no knowledge:
"Listen to me, white boys, and you, too, old man, you can escape if your hearts are stout."
Stunned by the suddenness of this joyful news the boys sat silent.
"Are you listening, white boys?" said the voice impatiently.
"Yes--yes," whispered Billy eagerly.
"Then when a man comes in a short time to you with food and drink do not touch it, for it is poisoned with a deadly drug; but curb your appet.i.te. In a short time the same man will come back to see if you have yet become insensible. Then you must be of stout heart and leap upon him and kill him. After that leave your cell and I will show you how to gain freedom."
The boys had recognized the voice at once as that of their friendly guide, though why he should have taken such a risk to aid them did not manifest itself till he whispered:
"And as a reward, I ask of the fat white boy with the gla.s.s eyes his fire-weapon which a.s.suredly contains a great fetish and of the red-headed one some of his hair for a fetish also. Of the old man I would have the round box containing the strange G.o.d that says by day and by night "tick-tick"."
"He means my watch," answered the old man, "it was a present from my dead wife to me on our wedding day, but he shall have it."
The boys also promised their "fetishes."
There was a guttural sound of satisfaction from outside the cell as the bargain was struck and then all was silent.
How they pa.s.sed the time till the door swung open and the man whom their friend had foretold would bring them food and drink appeared, they never knew; but somehow it went. The new comer set the stuff down without a word and then stuck the flaming torch he carried in a niche in the wall so that they might have light to eat by. He made several gesticulations intended, apparently, to signify that what he had set before them was very good.
"Hum," said Billy when he had gone, "I"d as soon eat a mess of toads as touch any of this stuff--although it smells mighty good," he added regretfully, "and I"m hungry enough to gobble up a crocodile, claws and all."
But they all abstained from touching it and spent the time between the second promised visit discussing whether they would carry out the instructions of the friendly savage.
"But we can"t kill the fellow," objected Lathrop.