Part 16 (1/2)
”Oh, nothing An old wound A lion once dragged me by this shoulder half a et pains They last a day or two, then pass--Go on, tell , yet never once coesture of ilance at Yerkes andwithout reserve”
The little old hunter nodded, watching us with bright blue eyes I received the impression that he knew more secrets than he could tell should he talk down all the years that ht be left him He was the sort of man in whom nearly every one confides
”We're after Tippoo Tib's ivory!” said Fred, plunging into the ain with the King of Belgiuoose chase?”
Courtney chuckled ”No,” he said ”I wouldn't call it that They've been killing elephants in Africa ever since the flood Ivory must have accumulated It's somewhere Some of it must be so old and well seasoned as to be practically priceless, unless rats have spoiled it
Rats play old Harry with ivory, you know”
”Have you a notion where it is?” de the country!” he said
”If I knew I'd look If I saw I'd take!”
”Can you give us a hint?”
”There are caves near the suon that would hold the world's revenues None of thehly explored
Cannibals live in soht appeal to Tippoo Tib, but there's no likelihood that he buried all that ivory in one place, you know I suspect the greater part is in the Congo, and that the Germans know its whereabouts within a mile or two”
”How did they discover it?”
”Why don't they dig it out?”
”What keeps 'eotten our own troubles Courtney, too, see us a question
”Remember Emin Pasha? When was it--'87--'88--'89 that Stanley went and rescued hiratitude after the event? British governypt cabled him the promise of a job, all on Stanley's recommendation Emin turned 'em all down and accepted a job from the Germans nobody understood it at the tiht he knew more or less where that hoard is He didn't really want to co a German, I suppose he preferred to share his secret with his own crowd I dare say he thought of telling Stanley but judged that the 'Rock breaker' e share The value of the stuffto war about, frory for new colonies Emin is dead, and it's likely he left no exact particulars behind hie the Ger beyond the Congo border”
”Were you looking for the stuff yourself?” I asked
”Oh, no,” he laughed ”But when I' I look about me I'll tell you where the stuff may possibly be There's a section of country called the Bahr el Gazal that the Congo people claim, but that I believe will eventually prove to lie on the British side of the boundary It was good elephant country--which is to say bad living and traveling for man--since the earth took shape out of ooze Awful swaerous country, sparsely inhabited by savages not averse to cannibalism when they've opportunity The ivory may be there If the Gerovernment would claim the whole district the minute the secret was out Their plan may possibly be to wait until a boundary dispute arises in the ordinary course of ti a cautious eye on the cache overned as Congo territory, they overnment--or come to some sort of terms with the that game!”
Courtney raised his eyebrows until his forehead was a s
”Patient--perhaps It's my impression they're as re, devouring everywhere while the rest of the world sleeps Do you reanda not o? So paid in truck instead of money, and like most current excuses that one had so to set up an African Muhammedan empire”
”What had that to do with Ger that I can personally prove” said Courtney ”But I've a broad acquaintance aues Muha theain, beside caht I was not listening, I have heard them talk of missionaries froht call pan-Islaanda mutiny that I believed Gere my opinion since It's obvious that if the anda would have been an easy prey for Karl Peters and his Germans If that ivory of Tippoo Tib's is really in the Bahr el Gazal at the back of Uganda, then the Geranda overnment know all this?” demanded Fred
”That depends on what you mean by the word know,” answered Courtney
”I've made no secret of my own opinion!”
”But they wouldn't listen?”