CHAPTER XIX
FENCING
Russell sat unmoved; he was not acting without due deliberation, though he realized that he had a dangerous foe to deal with. For some time Uzali played with the string, tying and untying the knots as if he were making up his mind what to do next. To Wilfrid Mercer, looking on, the incident reminded him of two chess masters bent over a table.
"You are a stranger to me," Uzali said.
"That, to a certain extent, I am prepared to admit," Russell replied. "I don't know whether you are a religious man or not, Mr. Uzali, but probably you will agree with me – "
"So you know my name at any rate," Uzali said.
Russell shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't want any credit for that," he said. "I could have learnt your name from a score of people since I have been here. Besides, it is no news to me seeing that I am under the impression that you are using it as a nom de guerre. On the other hand my name is Swan Russell, and this is my friend, Dr. Wilfrid Mercer. I have spent a great deal of time in Borneo seeking a fortune, which, until a short time ago, appeared to be within my grasp. Unfortunately, I had unscrupulous people to deal with, and am really hard up for a hundred pounds. My friend, Dr. Mercer, is even in worse case than myself. He had the misfortune to be a medical attendant on board a steamer which was wrecked in the East. I should not be surprised if you have heard of a boat called the Guelder Rose, which was owned by Mr. Samuel Flower, of the Flower Line of steamers. Believe me, I am not occupying your time merely to hear myself talk."
Uzali glanced keenly at the speaker. The look of suspicion had died from his face. Something like a smile lurked in the corners of his mouth.
"I may be mistaken," he said, "but I think you are a man after my own heart. Now tell me candidly – have you suffered any wrong at the hands of this Samuel Flower? Is your friend in the same predicament?"
"That is so," Russell said gravely. "But for Samuel Flower I should be a rich man. But for Samuel Flower my friend Mercer would not be so desperately situated as he is. I think I have given you enough evidence of my bona fides in the piece of string which you are holding in your hand."
"I am not going to deny it," Uzali said. "And I see the necessity for caution. I suppose you realize that Mr. Flower is in some danger?"
"Flower is in imminent peril of his life I know," Russell replied. "Upon my word, I hardly know how to go on. To all practical purposes, you are as good as an Englishman, Mr. Uzali, and you know our laws as well as I do. If anything happened to Flower now and the trouble were traced home to you, for instance, you would have considerable difficulty in saving your neck. In other words, I am going to accuse you of being concerned in a conspiracy to put an end to Samuel Flower. I know this is a bold assertion."
"Oh, we will grant it for the moment," Uzali said coolly. "I confess you startled me when you passed me that piece of string. I see you understand the significance of those five knots, and, indeed, you have already told me that you have spent a good deal of your time in North Borneo. You pay me the compliment of deeming me to be an antagonist worthy of his steel, and I have an equal respect for your courage and audacity. But you are wrong in asserting that Samuel Flower stands in danger from me at the present moment. Later, perhaps, circumstances may alter. In the meantime he is as safe as yourself."
The last words were uttered with a grimness which was not lost upon the listeners.
"I thank you for those words," Russell said gravely, "and none the less because they prove to me that you don't know everything. You are unaware, I suppose, that two of your fellow-countrymen were, until recently, engaged to a circus proprietor who is touring in Kent. It does not matter who this circus proprietor is. The main point is that he picked these men up in the Mediterranean and they have been a great draw to his show. A little time ago the circus was at a place called Castlebridge, which happens to be quite close to Maldon Grange, the country residence of our friend Mr. Samuel Flower."
Uzali nodded his lean yellow head restlessly. It was evident that this information was new to him. He looked at Russell rather searchingly, as if trying to read his inmost secrets. The company in the theatre was beginning to get smaller. Not more than a score or two of guests remained, and these were mostly men who had crowded into the refreshment-room.
"You cannot tell how vastly I am obliged to you," Uzali said. "But please go on. I give you my word of honour that I had not the least idea of this. I had not the remotest knowledge that one of my own clansmen was in England. But I still see you have something important to say. I am all attention."
"Well, how, I don't know," Russell resumed, "but these men found out that Samuel Flower was in the neighbourhood. They made one or two excursions to Maldon Grange, because my friend Mercer happened to see them himself. He will describe to you what incantations they were going through and the mysterious way in which they vanished when he interrupted them. Late that night an attack was made on the life of Mr. Flower, and, but for the intervention of Dr. Mercer, the ship-owner's troubles would have been at an end. But perhaps my friend had better tell the story in his own way."
"Incantations," Uzali muttered. "Oh, yes, I understand. There were brass crucibles, a peculiar smell, strange globes of light. Oh, yes, I have seen it all before. And, mind you, it is not the poor make-believe of magic such as you get in Europe. That was the real thing. But I am interrupting you, doctor. I shall be greatly obliged if you will tell me everything."
Nothing loth, Wilfrid proceeded to tell his story which Uzali followed with breathless attention.
"I assure you I knew nothing of this," he said, when at length Mercer had finished. "I never guessed anything of the kind. On the contrary, I would give more than half I possess to insure Samuel Flower's safety for the next few weeks. We are wasting time here. I shall be glad if you gentlemen will come with me as far as Castlebridge without delay so that I may interview these fellow-countrymen of mine. They will listen to me as they will listen to nobody else. When they have my commands they will obey them as well-trained hounds should do. It is perhaps fortunate that Samuel Flower is in town, but those men are so fearless, so reckless of life, that it is little – but we must be moving. I shall be glad if you will come with me as far as my house so that we can take the motor without delay and get to Chatham before daylight. It is the only way I can see."
"But I cannot leave town," Mercer protested. "I have some urgent business which will keep me here till Saturday at the least. You seem to have forgotten what I told you about those countrymen of yours. They were fetched back to the theatre at the end of a whip by the proprietor and his big negro, but by the morning they had vanished. It seemed so strange to see them return in that docile fashion. I am afraid you will have great trouble in finding them now."
"It is annoying," Uzali muttered. "I had forgotten that those fellows had given the circus proprietor the slip. At any rate, I shall not have to look for them in the country. If they are not already in London, they are on their way here. And now, gentlemen, will you do me the honour of coming with me as far as my house? There is still much to be said between us, much to explain, and I am sure that if you will only put out a hand to help me, I shall do everything in my power to assist you. Is that a bargain?"
The lights were going out one by one. The few late stayers were drifting away from the bar. It was not far short of three o'clock in the morning, but none of the trio were disposed to sleep. The air seemed to be charged with magnetic fluid; something like danger lingered in every nook.
"By all means," Russell said. "I should like to tell you my story, and then you can judge whether I am right or not in what I have resolved to do."
Without another word Uzali slipped into his overcoat and bade his companions follow. They entered a cab and were whirled westwards until they came to a tall block of flats at the corner of Oxford Street. Uzali put his key in the latch and opened the door. Then he stood back with a bow signifying that his companions might precede him.
CHAPTER XX
THE WATERFALL
The flat was not a large one, but the new-comers could see it was most luxuriously furnished and fitted with every modern convenience. Uzali led the way into a cosy dining-room where he switched on the electric lights. The walls were dark red, showing up the pictures and china to perfection, and the overmantel was fitted with a bookcase. With a wave of his hand Uzali bade his guests be seated.
"Oh, yes, it is fairly comfortable," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I am getting to the time of life when one takes a philosophic view of things. After all, I have little more than I want. I have my many friends in London and I have my books. Still, I cannot forget that if I had my deserts I should be in a very different position. I ought to be a prince in my native country, with the control of some thousands of men, and there are times when the longing for the old life grips me and I could commit a thousand crimes to feel my feet on my native soil again. But all that is past and done with. I am waiting my time, and when one man pays the penalty for his crime I shall be free to go my own way again. But I did not bring you here to talk about myself. On the contrary, I am anxious to hear Mr. Russell's story."
"I am afraid there is very little story I have to tell," Russell replied. "I have been a rolling stone all my life, always seeing a fortune and never finding one. I have no doubt if I had stayed at home like the average man I should have done well enough, but from my earliest days the fever of adventure has been in my blood and I cannot settle down. I have been everywhere where gold is to be found. I have risked my life a score of times only to come out of each adventure a little poorer than I went in. Three years ago I was stranded at Key West penniless and without a notion how to get a night's shelter. There by great good fortune I found a man I had met years before, and to him I explained how I was situated. He had not much to offer me, save that he was going to Borneo orchid-hunting, and he wanted some one to accompany him. I jumped at the chance. Anything was better than the slow starvation that stared me in the face. To make a long story short, we landed five weeks later in North Borneo and proceeded to push our way inland. It was all right for a day or two, then we began to have some notion of the difficulties which surrounded us.
"The natives were bad, to begin with, and matters were made all the worse by the discovery that those people regarded certain flowers as sacred. They attacked us one night when we were quite unprepared for an assault, and in the morning I was the only one of our party who was left alive. My life was spared by accident. I happened to have in my possession a medicine-chest out of which I had given one of our native followers some quinine which cured him of ague. Of course I need not tell you that we were betrayed, and that my native patient was one of the traitors. I thought my time had come as I lay there before one of the camp fires, picking out words here and there from their jargon, a portion of which was familiar to me. After a day or two I gathered that I was going to be taken up country and brought into the presence of one of the chiefs who was suffering from some illness.
"Well, we jogged along for two or three weary days until we came to what, at one time, must have been a considerable town. I was surprised to find huge stone buildings divided into streets. I was amazed to see what must have been a magnificent circus. I saw scores of baths hewn out of the side and filled with most deliciously cool lake water. It was only afterwards that I learnt that the town was situated at the foot of a lake, and that hundreds of years ago a great dam had been built across the waters to keep them from flowing into the town. I have seen nothing so remarkable since I visited old towns in Mexico. One thing struck me as particularly strange. For all the town was so large, there could not have been more than five or six hundred inhabitants. Oh, you will pardon me, Mr. Uzali, but they were, for the most part, the image of yourself. The natives who had destroyed our expedition were a different class of men altogether. They were big, ugly black men. There were thousands of them up in the mountains, but they appeared to be terribly afraid of the people who occupied the town."
"A matter of civilization," Uzali muttered.
"Well, perhaps so," Russell went on. "At any rate, they made me comfortable. I was led to understand that they regarded me with a certain amount of reverence, and I felt safe so long as I made no attempt to escape. I was free to roam the mountains, and the valleys below the town, indeed, I was free to do everything I pleased so long as I showed up at twilight. By this time I had established my reputation as a doctor. I was well in with the chief of the tribe. I had learnt a great deal of their past history. I had learnt something on my own account, too, which I regarded as still more valuable. Below the town in one of the valleys I found traces of gold. I worked a place for weeks until I was certain that the gold was alluvial and that it had been washed down from the lake during hundreds of centuries. I calculated the amount of gold there. It was worth perhaps a couple of hundred thousand pounds, and when all that was extracted there would be nothing left. There was nothing for it but to bide my time and hope for the best. Sooner or later my store of drugs would be exhausted, and then it was possible that I might be allowed to go down to the coast and replenish the chest.
"There was another discovery I made about the same time and that was a large amount of treasure which was hidden away in the chief's palace, I found it out by accident, too, though I feared at one time that the accident was going to cost me my life. I don't think I have ever seen a man so majestically angry as the chief was when he caught me gloating over his treasures.
"'The cause of all our troubles,' he said. 'But for those accursed things I should be master of this island from one side to the other. They bred greed and murder amongst my followers, they caused the shedding of blood. Base treachery followed wherever they went. No one knows they are here but myself. No one shall ever know but myself, for after my death there shall be no more chiefs of the clan, and gradually we shall fade away and die, as our brethren perished across the seas in Mexico. I will make a bargain with you, if you like. If I die first you shall have your freedom, you shall take six of my mules and six of my ponies, and you shall load them up with everything here that you most desire. With my seal upon them they will be safe from all men until you reach the coast.'
"There was nothing more to be said or done after that, only to wait my time and trust to fortune for a means of escape. So far as the chieftain's offer was concerned I thought no more about it, for he was a man in the prime of life and likely to last as long as I should.
"But one never knows. A week or two later came rumours from the mountains that certain white men had penetrated there and that they meant to make a raid on the town, accompanied by a gang of desperadoes whom they had bought over by promises of reward. We thought nothing of it, though it occurred to me once or twice that the chief looked grave and that he did not go quite so far afield as usual. It was late one afternoon when he came limping back into camp, and a messenger came to me post-haste to say that he had poisoned his foot with a prickly cactus. No sooner had the attendants left us alone than the chief turned to me eagerly.
"'I have deceived them all,' he whispered. 'It is no cactus which is the cause of the trouble. I was attacked in the woods this afternoon by a handful of natives who have hitherto been faithful. I managed to escape under cover of darkness, but not before I received this wound in my heel, which will be fatal.'
"I smiled at the chief's fears, but he shook his head with the utmost gravity.
"'I tell you I am right,' he said. 'I know the poison well. There is nothing in your box that can cure me, and when I am out of the way those people will swoop upon the town and not one of my followers will live to tell the tale. Say nothing to anybody about this, but gather my most faithful men about you and let them know what has happened, so that they may be ready when the times comes, but not to-night – wait till the morrow. Meanwhile, all I want to do is to be left alone to sleep.'
"There was nothing to be done but to obey the chief's commands and I went sorrowfully out. I did not return to the palace till the moon was high and the town asleep. The chief was slumbering peacefully, but his leg had swollen horribly, and it was evident that he had told me no more than the truth.
"Sick at heart and utterly undetermined in my mind what to do I climbed the moonlit street till at length I came to the majestic weir which bordered the lake and kept the tide back from flooding the town. It seemed to me as I stood there that I could hear whispered voices, and I hastened to hide myself behind a mimosa bush. Then a figure emerged into sight – a face and figure quite familiar to me. The light fell full upon his features and disclosed the last man I expected – "
"I know," Uzali cried, "Samuel Flower!"
CHAPTER XXI
A DOUBLE FOE
Russell smiled slightly in reply. Apparently he expected Uzali to make that guess, for he went on again unsurprised. Nor had Mercer time to show any astonishment.
"I am obliged to you for saving me so much trouble," Russell said. "It is so pleasant to have an appreciative audience. I don't mind admitting that at the time I was more surprised than Mr. Uzali appears to be now. Mind you, I knew Samuel Flower well enough. I had done a variety of work for him from time to time, some of it shady, but nothing that one could call positively dishonourable. But to see that man on that side of the globe came on me like a shock. I thought the blackguard was in London, engaged in his congenial occupation of sending coffin ships to sea and profiting by their wrecks. When I came to think of it, I remembered Flower once telling me that he had been pretty well all over the world in his youth, and now I guessed what he was doing in that out-of-way spot. I knew he was there with sinister designs upon my friendly host. I knew he must be at the head of the faction of natives who were bearing down upon the devoted city."
Russell paused and helped himself to a fresh cigarette.
"Mind you, I am not taking credit to myself for any philanthropy," he went on. "I admit those people were very good to me, but I wanted to get back to civilization nevertheless. And I am afraid I was thinking more about those jewels than anything else. If I could succeed in reaching the coast with them, why, then, my fortune was made. All these thoughts passed swiftly through my mind as I crouched behind the friendly shelter, watching Flower and his companions. There were two Europeans besides himself, and some half-a-dozen natives who stood at a distance waiting for orders. It puzzled me to know what they were doing up there, and it was some little time before I could make out. But gradually the thing began to appear plainer, for one of the Europeans came along with something in his hand which I made out to be an electric battery. This man silently paced along the whole length of the dam, then he proceeded to make pencil notes in a pocket-book. Flower seemed to be watching him carefully, as if waiting for a verdict.
"'No great difficulty,' said the man with the pocket-book by and by. 'On the whole the thing appears feasible. It only means removing a stone or two and applying a big charge of dynamite and the thing is done. I don't think we need take the trouble to keep our men here. The less people we have about us the better. We can easily find some excuse for sending them to the coast. It is by far the most expeditious plan, to say nothing of its absolute safety.'
"'And those places down there?' Flower asked.
"The man with the battery shrugged his shoulders.
"'What does it matter?' he asked. 'It will only make the game exciting afterwards – the finest game of hide-and-seek you ever had in your life. You leave it to me and I'll fix it all right. And the sooner it comes off the better.'"
Russell made another pause.
"I daresay you will think me stupid," he said, "but for the moment I could not make out what those fellows were doing. I knew there was mischief on foot. I knew that Samuel Flower would never come all that way for nothing. But, for the life of me, I couldn't see what they were driving at. I stayed there thinking the matter over long after Flower and his companions had gone, but the more I pondered the more muddled I grew. Still, I decided to go down presently and see how the chief was progressing. It only wanted a glance in the moonlight to see what had happened. The poor fellow was dead. He had told me the sober truth. He had fallen by a poisoned arrow shot by one of those miscreants who had guided Flower and his companions to that out-of-the-way corner of the world.
"But there was nothing for it but to wait for the morning. I went back to my own quarters sorrowfully enough, feeling that I had lost what little power I possessed, for since the chief was dead my reputation for surgery would vanish to nothing. I might alarm the natives in the morning and try to show them what was in store for them if they had not much faith in my diplomacy. I lay on my bed full of fears and none the less alarmed because I did not know in which quarter to look for the danger. I suppose I must have dozed off into a sort of sleep, when I was alarmed by a tremendous crash and boom overhead as if a mighty thunderstorm were in progress, and a moment later I heard the torrents of rain roaring down the flinty streets. Even then I did not connect this with the peril to come, though it was impossible to sleep for the noise of the rushing waters, and I sat up in bed. Presently I could see the yellow flood creeping into my room and almost before I knew where it was it was knee-deep on the floor.
"And then it flashed across me what had happened. The truth came too late. I saw once more in my mind's eye the man jotting down his calculations in a pocket-book. It came back to me with vivid force what he had said about the dynamite, and I knew. They had removed some of the heavy coping-stones from the top of the dam, then with the aid of their battery they had fired a mine of dynamite, and in the twinkling of an eye the dam was no more. The huge wall had been removed as if by a gigantic knife, and the great lake overhead was rushing on to the destruction of the city. In a few minutes every man, woman and child would perish, and the gigantic buildings be torn apart like so many packs of cards.
"I rose from my bed and rushed into the street where the torrent was already high. With a shudder I looked upwards and saw a huge wall of water bearing down upon me like some all-compelling cataract down an Alpine mountain side. I could hear a cry now and again as something human flashed by me, but I was powerless to give any assistance; I was even powerless to secure my own safety. A moment later and the water had me in its grip, tossing and turning me over as if I had been a chip. I remember sliding over a ledge of rock and finding myself pinioned by a great mass of bushes whilst the water slid over me, leaving me free to breathe, and indeed, the mass of rock forming a huge cascade as it did, saved my life.
"Goodness knows how long I was held there. It seemed that the night changed to day and the day to dusk again before the mighty roar ceased and I was free to creep from under the shelter of the rock and gaze on the destruction which had taken place around me. As to the city itself, it had vanished. The great stone buildings were gone, the mass of temples were no more, nothing remained to speak of what had been except a mighty jumble of stones at the foot of the valley. I was the sole survivor of that appalling calamity. It did not need any one to inform me that I witnessed one of the most awful tragedies of modern times. For the time being I could not even think.
"But gradually my strength and courage came back to me. I knew that I was not altogether alone. I knew now what Flower and his fellow-miscreants were after. They had not dared to meet the people of the granite city single-handed; they had taken this murderous way of sweeping life out of existence, so that they might recover the lost treasures of the city without interruption.
"This knowledge was my one chance of salvation. If I could keep on the track of those people without being seen, then it was just possible that I might make my way down to the coast. I could hang about the camp at night, for they would not be likely to keep a very close watch, so that I could help myself to what food I required. For the best part of three days I hid myself closely in the daylight and prowled about at night until I got on the track of those people. As I had expected, they were after plunder alone, and gradually began to collect a mass of loot. But with all my caution there was one thing I did not succeed in finding out, and that was, where the stuff was hidden. At the end of a week they appeared to be satisfied, and one morning they moved off towards the coast. It was only by a bit of sheer luck that I managed to keep up with them. You see, I had my life to think of, for all the treasure on the island was worthless to me without that. At the end of a week we began to see signs of civilization and I could afford to drop back and let Flower and his party go their own way. The strange part of the whole thing was this – when Flower reached the sea, save for one European he was alone. I don't insinuate anything, but I feel certain that not one of Flower's escort lived to tell the tale. I believe that every native who went with him as far as the granite city was murdered. Oh, that would be nothing to a man like Flower. It would be easy to make a present of a case of whisky to those natives and see that it was heavily drugged with poison. And now I think I have told you everything. Every word of it is true."
"Absolutely true," Uzali said. "I can confirm it if necessary. For the chief you spoke of just now was well known to me; in fact, I may say that he was my elder brother."