Part 22 (1/2)

”If thou hadst not severed my bonds, the scavengers of the forest would long ago have cleaned my bones,” the tall, keen-eyed savage answered, leaning upon his spear. The fine goatskin he had worn as a mark of chieftains.h.i.+p had been replaced by a strip of common bark-cloth, and he no longer wore his curiously-shaped helmet, with its swaling plume. His village had been burned by the fiendish brigands of Tippu-Tib, nearly all his people had been murdered or enslaved, his treasure-stolen, and he was now a homeless wanderer. Briefly I explained to him the accident that had befallen us, at the same time expressing a fear that the pigmies might discover us.

”Fear not that,” he answered. ”I have ever been an ally of the dwarfed people of the Wamb.u.t.ti, and in my company not a hair of thine head shall be injured.”

”Art thou on thy way to them?” I inquired.

”Yea, and nay,” he answered. ”Since thou didst release me, I have followed closely thy footprints.”

”Followed me!” I echoed, remembering how many days he must have journeyed.

”Since the raid of the destroyers I have been ever behind thee, and have ofttimes watched thee and thy companion unnoticed.”

”For what reason hast thou sought to thus keep observation upon me?” I asked, puzzled. The small fire he had lit still threw a faint glow, sufficient to reveal his dark and not unhandsome face, and Tiamo stood by, speechless and wondering.

”I desired to ascertain that thou wert journeying along the right path,”

the chief replied, mysteriously.

”The right path? What meanest thou?”

”An Arab dareth not to journey with one slave through the Kivira, unless he hath some definite object in view,” he said, with a low, rather harsh laugh. ”At risk of thy life thou didst release me from a certain and horrible death, and in return I have secretly watched thy progress towards thy goal.”

”My goal!” I cried. ”What knowest thou of my goal?”

”Already have I told thee that, since my rescue, I have been as thy shadow. I followed thee to Kalunga, and there overheard thy conversation with the brutal headman Ngalyema, in which thou didst tell him of thy search, and he, with consummate craftiness, offered to send his armed men with thee. As I lay hidden, I heard thee tell him of thine anxiety to reach the Rock of the Great Sin, because upon the success of thy mission depended the happiness of the woman thou lovest.

My life was in thine hand; therefore I determined at once to a.s.sist thee.”

”To a.s.sist me!” I exclaimed, breathlessly. ”Knowest thou where the Rock of the Great Sin is situated?”

”I do, O my friend,” he answered solemnly, still leaning upon his spear, with the other hand resting upon his hip.

”And canst thou direct us thither?”

”In order to accompany thee unto the rock, I dogged thy footsteps, determined not to make my presence known if thou couldst obtain from others the information thou seekest. Until sunrise to-day thou didst travel in the direction of the abode of evil, but after last night's sleep thou didst turn off from the right track, and hence I found it imperative to make my presence known and give thee warning, so that thou mayest turn back and again strike the right path. In consequence, I sped forward, expecting to find thee settling down for the night, but instead I discovered thou hadst fallen headlong into a trap set for elephants. Thou hast been, however, extricated--”

”Thanks to thee,” I interrupted, laughing. But he continued,--

”Extricated by one whose life thou hast saved for no other reason than because the condemnation was unjust,” and he paused. Then, looking round, he added, ”Come, let us be seated at yon fire; let us eat and sleep that we may be refreshed for to-morrow's journey.”

All three of us walked to the fire, and seating ourselves, the pagan chief produced some ripe bananas and some wild fruit, which we ate ravenously while he chattered on unceasingly.

”Have thine eyes ever gazed upon the Rock of the Great Sin?” I asked presently, when he had described how he had followed the men of Tippu-Tib for many days at imminent risk of detection.

”Yes. Once, years ago, I gazed upon it from afar, but dared not to approach it.”

”Why?” I inquired.

”Of a verity the spot is sacred. He who endeavoureth to ascertain its secret, will a.s.suredly be smitten by a terrible pestilence--the hand of the Evil One who dwelleth therein, will strike swiftly, and the adventurous investigator will wither like a rootless flower beneath the sun.”

Tiamo, silent, with eyes opened wide, hugged his knees and drank in every word Yakul uttered. My curiosity was also thoroughly aroused, and I urged the chief to relate to me all he knew regarding the strange, unexplored spot. Its mystery had been deepened by each superst.i.tion or legend I had heard regarding it, yet it was curious that nearly every popular belief a.s.serted that some strange deity of good or evil dwelt therein, or in its vicinity. But at length I had now discovered one who had actually gazed upon it with his own eyes, and knew the way thither.

There was no longer doubt of its reality; it actually existed, rising lonely and solitary from the dark waters of the Lake of the Accursed, just as it had been mirrored in the heavens.