The Long Trail: A Story of African Adventure by Herbert Strang - HTML preview

CHAPTER XXXIV
 THE GREAT REWARD

Challis shuddered with horror as he realised how narrow Royce's escape had been. A moment later, and Royce must have been dashed from his footing on the staple by the massive form of Goruba, and have fallen, like him, to the bottom of the well.

"Hurry up, Tom! What are you so long about, man?" Royce asked.

Challis leant over the coping.

"All right," he said, conscious that his voice was shaking. "Just a minute."

Pulling himself together, he set his foot on the first staple and began to descend very slowly, not daring to look down into the black depths. He reached the hole in the wall, struck a match, lit a candle end he had in his pocket, and followed Royce into the tunnel.

"What's up?" asked Royce. "You're as white as a sheet. Surely that little bit of a climb didn't make you dizzy?"

"No, I'm all right. Goruba's gone!"

"Gone? What do you mean? Of course he's gone."

"Down the well," said Challis, almost in a whisper. "He was climbing up with a knife. I went for him, and he fell."

For a moment Royce was speechless with astonishment. Then he said:

"But I don't understand. Where did he come from? He didn't pass me. Are you sure it was Goruba?"

"Certain. It was horrible."

"Poor old chap! Look here, you're shaken. Rest a bit while I go down. Perhaps the fellow isn't much hurt."

He took the candle from Challis's hand and went carefully down by the staples to the bottom of the well. There, huddled in a pool of water, lay all that was left of the gigantic negro. He was quite dead. It was clear that in his descent he had struck the stone slab projecting into the well. His neck was broken.

Awed by this strange tragedy, puzzled at the presence of Goruba here, Royce climbed up again and rejoined his friend.

"The poor wretch is dead," he said. "What an extraordinary fatality! He must have been in the darkness below. But what could he have been doing there?"

Together they sat on the stone floor with the candle between them. For some time neither spoke.

"I see part of the explanation," said Challis at last. "When he escaped from us he must have guessed that we should continue the pursuit, and slipped back at full speed to secure his treasure, or some of it, in our absence."

"The ruling passion!" said Royce. "Yes, that's it. But still I don't understand why he was down the well. If I had met him in the tunnel, now, there would have been no mystery about it."

"Perhaps he was in the room above, saw us coming, and came down to be out of our way."

"Ah! and to follow us through the tunnel and stab us in the back. That's it, to a certainty. Your going back for the matches saved our lives, Tom."

"We've a lot to be thankful for," said Challis.

"We have indeed! ... Now for Rabeh's hoard, old man."

They went along the tunnel, found the slab in the floor, lifted it, and made their way into the cave. Challis gasped when he saw the immense array of tusks.

"They are worth a fortune," he said. "No wonder Goruba wanted to drive us out."

"He has been moving things!" exclaimed Royce. "That row at the end there isn't as I left it. At least a dozen tusks are gone. I wonder what he has done with them. Let us go on to the farther entrance."

But halfway through the narrow tunnel beyond they found the path blocked. From floor to roof the tunnel was choked with a mass of earth, plants, and trees.

"The roof has fallen in," said Royce, scanning the obstruction by the light of the candle. "Things are becoming clearer. Look! Here's a tusk. Goruba must have been carrying it, or lugging it, for it's tremendously heavy, when the ground above sank. That accounts for his being at the other end. We shall have to go back, enter from the wood, and get our men to clear the rubbish away."

They retraced their steps, and rejoining their men, led a party of them into the wood.

"Here's a horse tethered!" cried Challis. "I wonder if it is Gamba's."

He sent Gambaru back to fetch the man, who the moment he caught sight of the horse yelled with delight, threw his arms round the animal's neck, and allowed it to rub its nose over his back. Then he sprang into the saddle.

"Not so fast," cried Royce, catching at the bridle. "Tell him I can't let him go yet, Gambaru. We must have a talk first. Keep him safe until I have time to attend to him."

He took the men on to the concealed entrance. Goruba had patiently removed the material with which it had been blocked up. Leading the men to the spot where the subsidence had occurred, Royce ordered them to clear away the rubbish and then report to him.

"Now we must find the tusks he removed," he said to Challis. "I daresay they are hidden somewhere in the undergrowth."

But though a hundred men spent hours in searching the wood, no trace of the tusks was discovered. It was not until later in the day that the mystery was solved. Some of the negroes, who had gone down to the stream to fetch water for their evening meal, came running back in great excitement. They had seen two long, yellow tusks gleaming through the water. Royce at once went to the stream with a number of Hausas, who hauled out the tusks, and after searching for some time found ten others concealed under the bank.

Meanwhile the tunnel had been cleared, and Challis superintended the men as they brought the whole treasure out into the open air. Some of them knew that the ivory was very valuable, others were more interested in the useless objects, like the kepi, a rusty sword or two, and particularly a gilt mirror, in which they examined their smiling features with great delight.

When the cave was cleared, Royce put John in charge of the treasure and sent for Gamba.

"I am going to let you return to your chief," he said. "You will take him a message from me. Goruba is dead. He lies at the bottom of the well in the fort. Your people may fetch him, if they will. He coveted this treasure, which was stolen, I have no doubt, by his master Rabeh. It is now mine.

"You will tell your chief all that has happened, how we have beaten his men in fair fight, how their man Goruba has met his death through greed. You will tell him that we will fight his men again if they come to this side of the Yo. These people are no longer afraid of the Tubus. They mean to be left in peace. Tell your chief that.

"We have taken some forty Tubus prisoners. We shall keep them until your chief sends word that he will do as I say, and keep his men from raiding on this side of the river. The country here belongs to the Great White King, and if your people do wrong again, the Great White King will send men with big medicine to punish you. Now you may go, and remember my words."

Gambaru translated this solemnly, sentence by sentence, and Gamba listened gravely. When he had permission to go, he leapt upon his horse, gave a shrill whistle, and galloped away to the north.

"I hope the Tubus have learnt their lesson," said Royce to Challis. "Now what are we to do with this ivory? I suppose it is booty, fairly won in war, but we ought to go shares with the crowd."

"You mean turn it into money?"

"Yes, though money will be no good to the negroes. The first thing, at any rate, is to carry it to the coast. I think our Tubu prisoners might do that for us. We'll sell it, and consult somebody, a missionary perhaps, as to what we can best do for the people."

"What about the tin mine?"

"Well, we shall simply have to come back again. It's a terrible loss of time, but, after all, we're in no hurry to be rich, and if we have managed to secure the peace of this country we shan't regret our trouble. Don't you agree with me?"

"With all my heart. It's a sort of lesson to us, Hugh. We came out thinking only of ourselves, and in this strange way we have been led to think of others. It's a fine thing to have been able to do some good in the world."

Next day the whole company set off for the south, the Tubus being laden with the ivory. It was a sort of triumphal progress for the Englishmen. The tale of their doings had already been carried through the country, and at every village through which they passed the people could not do enough to show their gratitude.

The party grew smaller every day as men broke away to rejoin their own people. When the coast was reached, after weeks of toilsome marching, the Englishmen had with them only their Hausa boys, the Tubu prisoners, and a few men from various tribes who clung to them because they wished to see the strange and wonderful things about which the Hausas had told them.

The ivory fetched £3000, a sum much in excess of what the Englishmen had expected. Royce, who had plenty of money, refused to accept any part of the proceeds for himself. Challis, after some consideration, decided that £1000 would come in very useful in buying machinery for his tin mine.

They happened to meet a medical missionary and his wife who had just arrived from England. To them they handed over £2000 on condition that they would use it for the good of the natives south of the Yo. And when, after a month's rest, they returned to the scene of their adventures, they were accompanied by the missionaries and a new band of Hausa boys, with John again as headman. The old band felt so rich on the generous pay they had received that they meant to retire from business, at least for a time.

John treated them with contempt.

"Plenty silly chaps," he said. "Dey hab got lots of cash; me savvy all same. What dey do? Spend, spend, spend all time. Bimeby all gone. What do den, sah? Dey want 'nother massa; no can find one. Dey go sick. Wah! Me hab got good massa; me savvy all dat, sure 'nuff."

When Royce and Challis were last heard of they were working a rich tin mine, with two hundred contented negro labourers in their employment. A little settlement had sprung up in the midst of the great plain, with two large bungalows, one for Royce and Challis, the other for the missionary and his wife, and a number of neat grass huts for the labourers and their families.

The country in their immediate neighbourhood was troubled no more by the Tubus. A brisk trade grew up between their settlement and the surrounding villages, and once a year the people for miles around go in procession to visit the white men, carrying presents for the strangers who saved them from the raiders and brought peace and prosperity to the countryside.

THE END