Part 23 (2/2)

”Like enough you do, mate,” answered one of the men, ”like enough you do, but before you have any palaver, just hand us out some of that grub, and a drink of water or anything stronger if you've got it, for we are well-nigh famished.”

”So you look,” said Tom; ”sit down, the gentlemen here will be glad enough to share their provisions with you, so will this n.i.g.g.e.r prince, and after that we will hear what you have got to tell about yourselves.”

The men without uttering another word sat down close to the fire, and eagerly seizing the food we offered them, began munching away in a style which fully confirmed the account they had given of their famished state.

Looking at their countenances more narrowly, I at once recognised the two seamen, Caspar Caper and Herman Jansen, who had escaped during the ma.s.sacre of the Frenchmen.

The two men exhibited a marked contrast, and it seemed surprising that they should have a.s.sociated together. Caspar seemed a good-natured, honest fellow, and as soon as he had satisfied his hunger, he began to laugh and joke with Tom, and to describe the adventures they had gone through, while Jansen sat moody and silent, a frown on his brow, and his looks averted from us. Even when Tom spoke to him he answered only in monosyllables, or did not answer at all, holding out the gourd which had been given him for a further supply of palm-wine.

”I shouldn't like to meet that fellow by myself were I unarmed in a dark place, he looks as if he would attempt to kill a man merely for the satisfaction of committing murder,” whispered Charley to me; ”I wonder he has not before now shot his companion, and I suspect that only the desire of self-preservation has restrained him.”

I fully agreed with my brother, and we settled that we would not allow him to a.s.sociate with us more than we could help. At present common humanity demanded that we should give him food, and such protection as we might be able to afford against the savages. After eating and drinking as much as he required, he got up and strolled away from the camp towards the lake, the sh.o.r.e of which was at no great distance.

We now spoke more freely about him. Harry suggested that hunger and privation had given him the expression we remarked in his features, and that he might notwithstanding be a useful addition to our party, and a.s.sist us, should we make our escape, in navigating our canoe down the river.

”What's the matter with your friend?” I asked, turning to Caspar.

”He's in one of his sulks,” was the answer; ”he is often like that, and I have been in fear of my life over and over again, but I have kept an eye upon him, and generally managed to get hold of his long sheath knife, and to hide it until he got better again. Lately he has become worse, and I would have left him had I been able to do so. My idea is, that he'll do some harm to himself, or he will try to kill some one else, and if he had a gun I should not think any one of us was safe sitting down here.”

”Should there be a chance of his injuring himself, it is our duty to try and prevent him,” observed Harry, ”we must deprive him of his weapon, and watch him narrowly. Perhaps after he has been well-fed for a few days he may recover his temper. I think it would be as well now to go and watch him, and see that he doesn't throw himself into the lake.”

I agreed with Harry, and both getting up accompanied by Caspar, we walked on in the direction Jansen had taken.

The moon which had just risen, afforded us light sufficient to make our way through the forest, which was here not so thick as in most places.

We had gone some little way, when we reached an open spot or glade close to the lake.

”Stop here,” said Caspar, ”I think I see him coming along, it is as well he should not discover us.”

We concealed ourselves behind some bushes. We could hear approaching footsteps, and thought that Jansen, having gone on some way, had turned back and intended to rejoin us at the camp. Just then I saw that the figure of the person approaching was not that of Herman Jansen, but of Captain Roderick. I concluded that he had followed us intending to treat with Prince Kendo for the ivory we had procured, or else that he had come to warn us of some danger to which we might be exposed, should we return to the village. I was on the point of stepping out of our place of concealment to go and meet him, when another person sprang up from behind a bank where he had been concealed, with a large knife in his hand, and before I could cry out to warn the captain, the other had plunged the weapon into his breast. With one piercing cry Captain Roderick fell back, while his a.s.sailant having driven the weapon home, left it sticking in the wound, and with a howl like a wild beast plunged into the forest, which immediately hid him from our sight. We all hurried forward, eager to give a.s.sistance to the wounded man; Caspar drew out the knife.

”Yes,” he said, ”this was Jansen's, he had vowed vengeance against the captain, and we had good reason to hate him, but this is a foul cowardly deed notwithstanding.”

Harry and I meantime lifted up the wounded man; his arms dropped downwards, not a groan, not a breath escaped him, his eyes were fixed and staring in death. The weapon had struck too deeply home for human power to save him. His spirit had fled. We notwithstanding sent Caspar back to obtain a.s.sistance, that we might carry the body to the camp.

In a short time Caspar returned with Charley and Tom and several blacks.

A litter was formed, and we conveyed him to the camp. Though we had every reason to dislike the man who had been the cause of all the hards.h.i.+ps and sufferings we were enduring, yet we felt no animosity towards him, and were horror-struck at his appalling death. Prince Kendo expressed his astonishment at the captain's death. What he said was to the effect that he thought that no human power could injure him, ”but I now see that white men can die like black men,” he observed with a peculiar expression which made us feel that it would be dangerous to offend the black Prince.

”But it was a white man that killed him, remember that,” said Tom, ”the black fellows, from what I hear, tried it very often but could not succeed.”

”Yes, that was the case, but he had a friendly spirit always by to protect him, but that got killed at last, and so you see his power departed from him.”

The prince alluded to Growler, whose death we thus discovered was well known, although Captain Roderick had endeavoured to conceal the fact.

”The sooner we bury the poor fellow the better,” observed Charley.

”While he is in their sight the blacks will be thinking about him, and being reminded how easily a white man is killed, they may take it into their heads to try and put us out of the way, and possess themselves of our guns and the contents of our knapsacks.”

We accordingly asked Kendo to allow some of his people to a.s.sist us in digging a grave. Though they at first showed some indications of fear, yet on Tom suggesting that the spirit of the dead man would haunt them if they did not, they eagerly set about the work, and saved us any trouble whatever. At first they made only a shallow hole, but Tom told them that that would never do, that it was necessary to bury a white man very far down in the earth, as they had such potent spirits that they would otherwise quickly force their way up again. On this they eagerly recommenced their labours, and managed to dig a grave six feet deep. We were going to put the body into it, when Tom advised that we should examine his pockets, and take possession of any doc.u.ments or valuables he might have about him. We found nothing, however, except some ammunition, a knife, and a tinder-box. Not a line or doc.u.ment of any sort to prove his ident.i.ty. Had we not witnessed his death, or discovered his body, no one would have known how he met with his untimely end. Like many another evil-doer, he would have disappeared from the face of the earth and left no trace behind him.

At a late hour we lay down to rest. By Harry's advice, however, one of us kept awake lest the blacks should attempt to play us any trick, or, as was very likely, lest they should all go to sleep, and a leopard steal into the camp and carry some one of us off, or a troop of elephants come rus.h.i.+ng along and trample us under foot. Next morning, although we were very unwilling to continue the hunt, judging it safer to get back to the village and attempt to make our escape without delay, Prince Kendo insisted that we should remain, promising that we should have a share of the tusks of any elephants we might kill.

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