Part 6 (2/2)
”If I die, then every man in Mo will seek blood revenge upon thee, and Zomara will guide them into this, thy land, and arm them with spears of fire.”
”I care nought for thy Naya nor thy pagan Crocodile-G.o.d,” exclaimed the Mohammedan chief impatiently. ”Bow unto my divan, or of a verity my slaves shall compel thee.”
”I refuse.”
”May thine entrails be burned,” cried Samory in anger, and raising his hand he ordered the guards of the divan to cast us both to earth before him.
They threw us down, and their ruler, rising, placed his foot firmly on the neck of the heir to the throne of Mo, saying in a loud voice:
”As I hold thee thus within my power, so also will I, ere many moons have run, hold thy country. Cursed by the Prophet may be thy detested race.
There is neither peace nor friends.h.i.+p, there is neither grat.i.tude nor love in the people of Samory, and they shall be the first to curse thee.
When I enter Mo every day shall the knife of the executioner be fed with blood; thy cities shall mourn the loss of their sages, husbands their wives, wives their children, and children their fathers. The country shall be devastated to its most northerly limits and it shall be rendered a wilderness of silence and sorrow.”
Then withdrawing his foot, amid the plaudits of his crowd of fierce-looking courtiers, Omar sprang to his feet in rage, and facing him, cried:
”The men of Mo are forewarned already against thy designs, notwithstanding that our ex-Grand Vizier Kouaga, the son of a dungheap who betrayed us. .h.i.ther, hath joined thine accursed ranks. The soldiers of the Naya are still anxious for the fourth time to try conclusions with thy white-cloaked rabble. Come, march forward into Mo--thou wilt never return.”
”Thou defiest me, even as thy mother hath done,” he roared, his hand upon the bejewelled hilt of his curved blade. ”Were it not for one fact I would smite thee dead.”
”I fear thee not,” Omar answered with a calmness that astounded me.
”Sooner or later thou wilt, I suppose, order my death, therefore the sooner the better.”
”Why insultest thou our race by bringing hither with thee this dog of a Christian?” the chief enquired, looking at me with a terrible expression of hatred.
”He cometh as my companion,” replied Omar briefly.
”As thy companion he shall accompany thee to the grave,” Samory cried fiercely, his eyes swimming in malice.
”So be it,” answered Omar, with a smile of contempt. ”May Zomara curse thy work.”
”Speak, infidel!” Samory said, fixing his fiery glance upon me. ”Whence comest thou?”
”From England,” I answered briefly, in fear.
”From that country where dwell the accursed of Allah,” he said, as if to himself. ”They are pig-eaters who despise the Book of Everlasting Will and declare our great Prophet--on whom may be everlasting peace--to be a false one. Accursed be thy country, infidel! May thy people suffer every torment of Al-Hawiyat; may their food be offal, and may they slake their thirst with boiling pitch. The white men have sent their messengers to me time after time to urge me to ally myself with them, but it shall never be recorded that Samory besought the a.s.sistance of infidels to extend his kingdom. We fight beneath the green banner of Al-Islam, and will continue to do so until we die. Ere long, the day of the Jehad will dawn; then the forces of Al-Islam will unite to sweep from the face of the earth those white parasites who seek the overthrow of the Faithful. Allah is merciful, and his servant is patient,” added the old scoundrel piously.
There arose, as if with one voice from those a.s.sembled, the words: ”Samory hath spoken! Allah send him blessings abundant!” and as they did so each fingered his amulets, little sc.r.a.ps of parchment whereon verses from the Koran were written in sprawly Arabic. At that moment, too, I noticed, for the first time, that right opposite us was the grinning, evil face of the black giant, Kouaga, the man who had so foully betrayed us.
We exchanged glances, and he laughed at us in triumph.
”Dost thou intend to keep me as hostage?” Omar asked his mother's enemy boldly.
”Until thou hast performed the service for which I caused thee to journey hither with our good Kouaga.”
<script>