Part 35 (2/2)
”A messenger here from Doctor Schmidt, an acquaintance of mine in East Africa,” he announced. ”Mr. Seaman came home from South Africa with me,”
he explained to his visitor.
The two men looked steadily into each other's eyes. Dominey watched them, fascinated. Neither betrayed himself by even the fall of an eyelid. Yet Dominey, his perceptive powers at their very keenest in this moment which instinct told him was one of crisis, felt the unspoken, unbetokened recognition which pa.s.sed between them. Some commonplace remark was uttered and responded to. Dominey read the few lines which seemed to take him back for a moment to another world:
”Honoured and Honourable Sir,
”I send you my heartiest and most respectful greeting. Of the progress of all matters here you will learn from another source.
”I recommend to your notice and kindness my cousin, the bearer of this letter--Mr. Ludwig Miller. He will lay before you certain circ.u.mstances of which it is advisable for you to have knowledge. You may speak freely with him. He is in all respects to be trusted.
”KARL SCHMIDT.” (Signed)
”Your cousin is a little mysterious,” Dominey remarked, as he pa.s.sed the letter to Seaman. ”Come, what about these circ.u.mstances?”
Ludwig Miller looked around the little room and then at Seaman. Dominey affected to misunderstand his hesitation.
”Our friend here knows everything,” he declared. ”You can speak to him as to myself.”
The man began as one who has a story to tell.
”My errand here is to warn you,” he said, ”that the Englishman whom you left for dead at Big Bend, on the banks of the Blue River, has been heard of in another part of Africa.”
Dominey shook his head incredulously. ”I hope you have not come all this way to tell me that! The man was dead.”
”My cousin himself,” Miller continued, ”was hard to convince. The man left his encampment with whisky enough to kill him, thirst enough to drink it all, and no food.”
”So I found him,” Dominey a.s.sented, ”deserted by his boys and raving. To silence him forever was a child's task.”
”The task, however, was unperformed,” the other persisted. ”From three places in the colony he has been heard of, struggling to make his way to the coast.”
”Does he call himself by his own name?” Dominey asked.
”He does not,” Miller admitted. ”My cousin, however, desired me to point out to you the fact that in any case he would probably be shy of doing so. He is behaving in an absurd manner; he is in a very weakly state; and without a doubt he is to some degree insane. Nevertheless, the fact remains that he is in the Colony, or was three months ago, and that if he succeeds in reaching the coast you may at any time be surprised by a visit from him here. I am sent to warn you in order that you may take whatever steps may be necessary and not be placed at a disadvantage if he should appear.”
”This is queer news you have brought us, Miller,” Seaman said thoughtfully.
”It is news which greatly disturbed Doctor Schmidt,” the man replied.
”He has had the natives up one after another for cross-examination.
Nothing can shake their story.”
”If we believed it,” Seaman continued, ”this other European, if he had business in this direction, might walk in here at any moment.”
”It was to warn you of that possibility that I am here.”
”How much do you know personally,” Seaman asked, ”of the existent circ.u.mstances?”
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