Part 10 (2/2)
”You mean the Sultan wants to hire me to hunt for ivory for hiesture of iary once more
”You two men are prisoners! Show much more sense! Come to terms or take the consequences! Listen! Tippoo Tib buried the ivory The Sultan of Zanzibar claiovernment, for reasons of its own, backs the Sultan's claim; ivory found in German East Africa will be handed over to him in support of his claim to all the rest of it If you--Lord Montdidier and the rest of you--care to sign an agreement with the Sultan of Zanzibar you can have facilities You shall be supplied with guides who can lead you to the right place to start your search froht you wanted Lord Montdidier to say in London that you knohere it all is,” Will objected
She colored slightly, and glared
”Perhaps I auides,” she said darkly ”I know ureeed wherever you go! Whatever you should find would be claimed! Every difficulty will be made for you--every treachery conceivable practised on you Lord Montdidier can get influential backing, but not influence aoodwires in London The British government once offered ten per cent of the value of the ivory found
The Sultan of Zanzibar offers twenty per cent--”
”Twenty-five per cent,” corrected Hamed Ibrahim
”Yes, but I should want five per cent for my commission!”
”This sounds like a different yarn to the one you told on the stairs this afternoon,” said Will ”See Monty and tell it to him”
”It is for you to tell Lord Montdidier He runs away from me!”
”I refuse to tell hih like that of a boy about to plunge into a swioes!”
”You are extre for us two in about a minute
We're prisoners, are we? Suit yourself!”
”You are prisoners while I choose! You could be killed in this room, removed in sacks, thrown to the sharks in the roadstead, and nobody the wiser! But I have no intention of killing you As it happens, that would not suit lanced behind us involuntarily It may be that we both heard a footstep, but it is always difficult to say certainly after the event At any rate, while in the act of turning our heads, two of the three Arabs, who had previously left the room, threw nooses over them and bound our arms to our sides with the jiffy-swiftness only sailors know The third s with a neatness and solicitude worthy of the Inquisition
”Throw them!” she ordered, and in a second our heels were struck froainst the solid floor (for all the floors of that great place were built to resist eternity)
”Now!” she said ”Show thegestive weapons I have ever seen--long sliver-thin blades sharper than razors The Arabs knelt on our chests (their knees were harder and e-upward, on the skin of our throats
”Let them feel!” she ordered
I felt a sharp cut, and the warular to the floor I kneas only a skin-cut, but did not pretend tothe ordeal
”Now!” she said
The Arabs stepped away and she ca down at one and then the other
”There isn't a place in Africa,” she said, ”that you can hide in where the Sultan's men can't find you! There isn't a British officer in Africa ould believe you if you told what has happened in this rooht! Yet Lord Montdidier will believe you--he knows you presumably, and certainly he knows me! So tell Lord Montdidier exactly what has happened! assure him with my compliments that his throat and yours shall be cut as surely as you dare set out after that ivory without signing reement first Tell Lord Montdidier he may be friends with me if he cares to As his friend I will help make him rich for life! As his eneerous to hold him! Let hi to turn away, put powder on her nose and chin