"In the night," explained this former slave of science, "the subject has developed symptoms of mania, and has entirely dispensed with her clothes--to wit, by destruction."
"She"s torn up her clothes?" gasped Bones, his hair rising and Ali nodded.
Now, the dress of a native woman varies according to the degree in which she falls under missionary influence. Isongo was well within the sphere of the River Mission, and so M"lama"s costume consisted of a tight-fitting piece of print which wound round and round the body in the manner of a kilt, covering the figure from armpit to feet.
Bones went to the open window of the prison cabin, and steadfastly averting his gaze, called--
"M"lama!"
No reply came, and he called again.
"M"lama," he said gently, in the river dialect, "what shall Sandi say to this evil that you do?"
There was no reply, only a snuffling sound of woe.
"Oh, ai!" sobbed the voice.
"M"lama, presently we shall come to the Mission house where the G.o.d-men are, and I will bring you clothing--these you will put on you," said Bones, still staring blankly over the side of the ship at the waters which foamed past her low hull; "for if my lord Sandi see you as I see you--I mean as I wouldn"t for the world see you, you improper person,"
he corrected himself hastily in English--"if my lord Sandi saw you, he would feel great shame. Also," he added, as a horrible thought made him go cold all over, "also the lady who comes to my lord Militini--oh, lor!"
These last two words were in English.
Fortunately there was a Jesuit settlement near by, and here Bones stopped and interviewed the stout and genial priest in charge.
"It"s curious how they all do it," reflected the priest, as he led the way to his storehouse. "I"ve known "em to tear up their clothes in an East End police cell--white folk, the same as you and I."
He rummaged in a big box and produced certain garments.
"My last consignment from a well-meaning London congregation," he smiled, and flung out a heap of dresses, hats, stockings and shoes. "If they"d sent a roll or two of print I might have used them--but strong religious convictions do not entirely harmonize with a last year"s Paris model."
Bones, flushed and unhappy, grabbed an armful of clothing, and showering the chuckling priest with an incoherent medley of apology and thanks, hurried back to the _Zaire_.
"Behold, M"lama," he said, as he thrust his loot through the window of the little deck-house, "there are many grand things such as great ladies wear--now you shall appear before Sandi beautiful to see."
He logged the happening in characteristic language, and was in the midst of this literary exercise when the tiny steamer charged a sandbank, and before her engines could slow or reverse she had slid to the top and rested in two feet of water.
A rueful Bones surveyed the situation and returned to his cabin to conclude his diary with--
"12.19 struck a reef off B"lidi Bay. Fear vessel total wreck. Boats all ready for lowering."
As a matter of fact there were neither boats to lower nor need to lower them, because the crew were already standing in the river (up to their hips) and were endeavouring to push the _Zaire_ to deep water.
In this they were unsuccessful, and it was not for thirty-six hours until the river, swollen by heavy rains in the Ochori region, lifted the _Zaire_ clear of the obstruction, that Bones might record the story of his salvage.
He had released a reformed M"lama to the greater freedom of the deck, and save for a shrill pa.s.sage at arms between that lady and the corporal she had bitten, there was no sign of a return to her evil ways. She wore a white pique skirt and a white blouse, and on her head she balanced deftly, without the aid of pins, a yellow straw hat with long trailing ribbons of heliotrope. Alternately they trailed behind and before.
"A horrible sight," said Bones, shuddering at his first glimpse of her.
The rest of the journey was uneventful until the _Zaire_ had reached the northernmost limits of the Residency reserve. Sanders had partly cleared and wholly drained four square miles of the little peninsula on which the Residency stood, and by barbed wire and deep cutting had isolated the Government estate from the wild forest land to the north.
Here, the river shoals in the centre, cutting a pa.s.sage to the sea through two almost unfathomable channels close to the eastern and western banks. Bones had locked away his journal and was standing on the bridge rehearsing the narrative which was to impress his superiors with a sense of his resourcefulness--and incidentally present himself in the most favourable light to the new factor which was coming into his daily life.
He had thought of Hamilton"s sister at odd intervals and now....
The _Zaire_ was hugging the western bank so closely that a bold and agile person might have stepped ash.o.r.e.
M"lama, the witch, was both bold and agile.
He turned with open mouth to see something white and feminine leap the s.p.a.ce between deck and sh.o.r.e, two heliotrope ribbons streaming wildly in such breeze as there was.
"Hi! Don"t do that ... naughty, naughty!" yelled the agonized Bones, but she had disappeared into the undergrowth before the big paddle-wheel of the _Zaire_ began to thresh madly astern.
Never was the resourcefulness of Bones more strikingly exemplified. An ordinary man would have leapt overboard in pursuit, but Bones was no ordinary man. He remembered in that moment of crisis, the distressing propensity of his prisoner to the "eradication of garments." With one stride he was in his cabin and had s.n.a.t.c.hed a counterpane from his bed, in two bounds he was over the rail on the bank and running swiftly in the direction the fugitive had taken.
For a little time he did not see her, then he glimpsed the white of a pique dress, and with a yell of admonition started in pursuit.
She stood hesitating a moment, then fled, but he was on her before she had gone a dozen yards; the counterpane was flung over her head, and though she kicked and struggled and indulged in m.u.f.fled squeaks, he lifted her up in his arms and staggered back to the boat.
They ran out a gangway plank and across this he pa.s.sed with his burden, declining all offers of a.s.sistance.
"Close the window," he gasped; "open the door--now, you naughty old lady!"
He bundled her in, counterpane enmeshed and reduced to helpless silence, slammed the door and leant panting against the cabin, mopping his brow.
"Phew!" said Bones, and repeated the inelegant remark many times. All this happened almost within sight of the quay on which Sanders and Hamilton were waiting. It was a very important young man who saluted them.
"All correct, sir," said Bones, stiff as a ramrod; "no casualties--except as per my nose which will be noted in the margin of my report--one female prisoner secured after heroic chase, which, I trust, sir, you will duly report to my jolly old superiors----"
"Don"t gas so much, Bones," said Hamilton. "Come along and meet my sister--hullo, what the devil"s that?"
They turned with one accord to the forest path.
Two native policemen were coming towards them, and between them a bedraggled M"lama, her skirt all awry, her fine hat at a rakish angle, stepped defiantly.
"Heavens!" said Bones, "she"s got away again.... That"s my prisoner, dear old officer!"
Hamilton frowned.
"I hope she hasn"t frightened Pat ... she was walking in the reservation."
Bones did not faint, his knees went from under him, but he recovered by clutching the arm of his faithful Ali.
"Dear old friend," he murmured brokenly, "accidents ... error of judgment ... the greatest tragedy of my life...."
"What"s the matter with you?" demanded Sanders in alarm, for the face of Bones was ghastly.
Lieutenant Tibbetts made no reply, but walked with unsteady steps to the lock-up, fumbled with the key and opened the door.
There stepped forth a dishevelled and wrathful girl (she was a little scared, too, I suspect), the most radiant and lovely figure that had ever dawned upon the horizon of Bones.