The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 8, 1903, Page 2

o s Jand of demons; We bave parted by night llere Roy Meldrum could suffer bis ut- nces 1o more and departed frem be- e his pillow to walk the starry might & maze of mysterious wonder. CHAPTER XXIL POMBA OF THE BATONCAS. But Meldrum, though alive to the fact t he had overheard some dark secrets 2 #tood upon the threshold of most un~ d treachery, yet kept his own That Tracy Fain bad not suoc- 1 an effort to circumvent him was attered at present. had, upon his own confession, some enterprise hidden from e r of the expedition, and this fact v 1 ‘s possession—hurled ng bours of night by nd frentio man, but he very subject when dawn his ections and utterances : when beaith should t so soundly that should mnot be more general impor- n's heaith occupied th x and the di 2y more in Batonca territory was great- ncreased since the previous morning. eed, after the destruction incidental to hopes of & friend- Pomba appeared must surely resent bjects, and it was possible to make stice of it formed and a forag- men under Hook dis- backward for fur- e were plenty of of the eanw the explors t ad seck the ne ru! en he saw d to the farce of n before the local to her te edecked bught. b the regular- lized ed Batoncas ® nearer it of mark ne savage of great 1 pres wanderers’ size mediately left et the ap- s soldiers, for his de leave his land.” was Pomba himself appeared to be a His evil but covered by a ad Pomba, nguage,” be- is only what we ed from one whose We are here wit , and we ask for the ) and the palm branch of your warriors of our white men y tortured him. Had soldiers you would h wickedness.” his eyes gleamed toad’s. 1 Queen,” he said, “but 3 queen, you English. b ur Queen would never e y people with no more th f white men and coast fc no Queen.” She Queen’ notwithstanding, a see her you will know that You cause us to marvel much, for your soldiers walk in diers at home, and you d have much learn- hidden from the races with & doubtful and sus- he answered. “I have y things of your ways and that concerns you not. What do you do in my s upturning of land You search with great is for more than ground where the broken seets my eye yonder. 1 am very d I have a famillar spirit that ie secrets of the sun and the thunder and the falling wa- he ways and language of beasts hts of men's hegrts. You me without I know you lie.” ve a familiar also,” answered *“and our familiar has sere, within the fringe of country, hidden without of this deserted town, tore of precious gems— es and emeralds. These f no service to Pomba, king on, but to white people they s; and we come that we may nge for great store of rare fabrics and treasures.” This speech produced an extraordinary effect on the savage king. He glared specchless at Meldrum for & moment, then at Winstone. “By the lightning? this is a small earth live upon—so small that you that matter in your land—yet how should you know? Let me think— lot me think"” . “How should you know that white men when they march, that we Your familiar—did he teach you English 7' asked Wintsone. “It is #0; be did.” “And our familiar taught us where the dewels are.” “Your familiar lied. The Sewels are not thera and they never were there. The precidus stones came from far. I know —I, Pomba, know all, and I—but where- fore should I tell you thess things?” “That raises the first question. Are you going to be our friend or our foe?” asked Winstone quietly. Pomba hesitated before answering. Then the small size of the party, their appar- ent wealth and his own much greater power evidently determined him to be in- solent, . “My warriors could eat you up and not know they had partaken of food; you have not beads enough to give one to each fighting man in my army. Why should I be your friend? You are no use to me.” “You epeak as one ignorant of the answered Winstone. * “Yet your familiar knew something about repeating rifies I'll wager if he was an English demon.” too, have rifies.” ibly; but no powder. TYour fa- miliar wasn’t clever enough to teach you how to make that. We can give you a great store of powder. We have brought it for your friendship, but we cannot trust you yet. If you advance toward us with your soldiers we will burn all the powder away at them. So you would lose a pre- clous thing.” Pomba did not answer this point im- mediately. He sald something in his own Y Droprsp IHE % FOREMOSY WITH s FevorvzrR - - language to one of his head men, who re- tired to the main body: then he turned to “Winstone. “You tell me of rare gems and jewels. Tell me more about them. How did ou learn that suc things were in the tonca country “That we learned from our familiar. Tell us how It is that you speak our language, and we will tell you-how we know there are rare gems hidden here. “You will not like the story; but I will tell you, and I will tell you what you to tell me. I know, now that I d my brain, where you heard ning stones. Let me be seated I will relate it to you., Then you know whether I am a friend or an refuse folding ct Pomba and a big was placed for. umbrella opened and held over his head. Oblivious to this at- he proceeded with his "cynical tive. His English was by no means as perfect as that with which we credit him, but, for the purposes of the story and In order to save trouble In reading, we may allow the monarch & somewhat choicer diction and pronunciation than in reality he exhibited. “Know, then, that long, Inog ago, when I was a young man, I left the land of the Batoncas, moved by some inner spirit, to see and to know more than my own coun- try offered me. There had come a slave- reiding expedition into our territory, and though I escaped the Arabs, yet after they had gone 1 was sorry that I had es- caped, for in me a spirit moved and told me that the white men were wiser than the black, and I longed to share their wisdom and store it in my heart. “So I ran after them and traveled far through the heat of a long season of drouth and until four moons had waxed and waned. But I never found them, though I had news of them once or twice in the shape of burnt-out villages and the bones of men picked clean by hyenas. So 1 saw the white men were very strong and held the black men in their hand, end I yearned with increasing desire to know what the white men knew. “Then, in the Kalonga country, I was at death’s door from hunger, and I sank. by the way and had perished there, but enother wanderer found me, and he was also white.” . Lord Winstone and Meldrum exchanged glances. Roy only thought of the moment and already suspected the sequel of the King’s story, while Winstone, not con- cerned with details, looked on ahead and \ guessed that the man before them knew where the treasure was hidden. The characters of the two friends stood re- vealed. Meldrum's big chest began to heave with suppressed indignation that Pomba had deserted the Englishman and was alive to tell the tale of his death; Winstone's mind actively concerned itself on the main grand problem—how to make Pom- ba a friend. Seeing the huge disparity between the opposed forces, one only way to success presented itself—a cordial and complete understanding with the Batonea chief. At present everything rested with him. Indeed, their very ljves were in his hand. The King continued: “You show some mutual understanding in your eyes. I shall tell you why pres- ently, for I know what you are thinking about; but now listen further and do not busy your brains until you have heard what 1 am to gpeak to you. “The white man saved my life. He gave me food and drink. He learned my lan- guage and I learned his after many days. By night I struggled and sweated with my tongue and teeth. to fit them to the words he used. I never slept until I had repeated the hardest sounds many times over and made them come right. And then the white man poured great store of white wisdom into my brain, and I gath- ered and gathered and gathered, as the bee gathers honey—to use in time future. “Meanwhile the white man wandered far, seeking for a road to his people, but I did what was in my power to keep him from them and soaked his wisdom up, as thirsty ground soaks rain. ‘‘Then, on the banks of a river that attracted him in his wisdom of metals and minerals and the things hidden un- der the earth, the man found great store of small stones of divers colors that were very good to him, and he told me that these same dull pebbles, many-of them less in size than beads, were more pre- clous than cowrles or ivory, than skins or gunpowder, than glass or anything in the whole wide world. Whereat I saw that too much learning and wisdom and deep knowledge of the ways of the stars and eclipses, and of the sun and moon, had polsoned the man’'s head; that wan- dering through the world and never rest- ing his thinking parts had at last turned the man's brain sour to his skull, and I feared that I should win no more wis- THE SUNDAY CALL. dom from him, and that he would soon babble empty nothings, like an aged man, or an infant, or those who are born with wind. in their heads instead of brains. “But it was not so. The man’'s mind continued to send forth great stores of learning. And while each day he packed my understanding with a new thought and a new thing, I, on my side, worked for him and befriended him and made his ways : for we were now approaching my own land, because the man desired to g0 to the M'wooian N'zigo, the great waters to the north. of Batonca land— those sweet, vast lakes that you call after your queen and her husband, who is dead. You see, I know all these things. My thought ‘was to bring the white man to my own people, that he might spread his knowledge and that I might win greatness, “So the time nassed by, and all the while [ grew in knowledge and wisdom until one day, when we were camped in the land of my fathers, the man said: ‘Lo! Pomba, my faithful friend and fol- lower, vou are now grown wise as I There s 'no more that T can teach you.' Then said 1: ‘There Is yet another th teach me why this dust and gr: you have gathered bv the way ble, Tell me wherefore these little hard stones are precious beyond all earthly things.’ “Then he answered, ‘I cannot tell; but men have ngreed that they shall so be esteemed: The n will be cut and polished until the fire hidden within them flashes forth and gleams and sparkles like the eyes of the whd beasts by night. And then our women wiil wear them about their necks and wrists, upon thelr fingers and in their hair, for they love them better than the brightest beads of gold or silver, “So I knew that he was too mad to teach me any more. Then we came to my na- tive land and built a house there beside that ground you are vainly digging yon- der. M'wenga was king of the Batoncas in those days and his village stood here long ago; but mine is a march distant. “Next I schemed how best to become very great and 1 found that with M'wen- ga, not with the white man, my hopes rested. So I played a double part and tempted the white man to say harsh things to M'wenga, and translated the white man’s speech wrongly and made M'wenga his enemy. Then arose the Ba- toncas against the white man and he be- gan to go in fear. “We had already planned to fly with such stones as we could carry, but the rest he had hidden in the forest beside the Golden Falls, hoping that on a better day, in time to come, he might return his gems. But he did not know that I had changed against him; he only knew that the Chinkakko, the fetich of the Baton- cas, was against him, according to the chief, M'wenga. ““I'he Chinkakko was a fetich of gold, the guardian of the Batoncas, and it grew bright if & man had good heart toward the tribe and dull against him if he was evil minded against us, according to the words of the medieine men. “So I threw in my lot against the white man and, going softly, went up to him while his back was toward me and his pen busy making silent words, and stab- bed him; so that he rolled over at my feet. And I took the silent words he had set on paper and gave them to the king. And he was very glad, and having no son of his loins made me his son and set me at his right hand. But the silent words did M'wenga take for high fetich, and he wrapped them round about Chinkakko, and wore them upon his bosom for power and protection, according to the fancy of the ignorant who know not wisdom. | i i g = | g- : g E g g s b i many of his best men with him. “Then the 3atoncas came to me, and I spoke in the way with the white men, for 1 knew their tongue; and we made a peace and gathered up the dust of M'wenga and buried him as it is fitting to bury a king. But upon his breast we found no fetich, for the white men nad stolen Chinkakko from our father's neck and with it the high fetich of the silent writing. Therefore the silent writing and the Chinkakko of the Batoncas passed beyond the distant sea, and I reigned over my people by force of wisdom and power until this day. ‘““There {s one thing more. You had not come among us but for lust of the shining stones that the white man hid. You had not braved the unnumbered perils of this land but for keen desire toward the splinters of red and green and white dust. Therefore you, too, are mad in this, even as the first man was. And, further, you had known nothing of all this but for the slent speech upon the paper. That came to your hands, 80 you set forth, and with it there also came into your h kakko—our Golden nds our long-lost Chin- Fet'ch—with the sign of the Batonchs set upon its face. ‘‘SBee how wise I, Pomba, am become in my green age! You have heard from the tribes of my Familiar Spirit. It is most true; I have such a spirit, and his name is Wisdom." The King made an end of his long ch, and s eyes looked far away over the heads of the crowd about him. For a moment Lord Winstone did not answer. He, too, was deep in thought. hen, ignorant of what had passed and bearing the Golden Fetich—the guard- fan of the Batoncas—on her white fore- head. Bess.e came forth, attended by her black boy and two of the Soudanese. CHArilbi XXIII, THE KING'S FAMILIAR. The girl came forward and stood be- side Roy. Then Pomba lifted his dark eves to her face and she saluted him gravely. Both Winstone and Meldrum saw the Golden Fetich and shivered with appre- hension; but the King did not fmmedi- ately percelve it. He was intently ab- serving Bessie's features, nevertheless. They puzzled him a little—a circumstance not strange, considering that never be- fore this moment had he seen a white ‘woman. But his followers, with quicker eyes than their monarch, had already per- celved Bessie's scarlet frontlet and the ornament it carried. They pointed, stared in blank astonishment, then be- came petrified with amazement, and finally raised their voices In one huge shout. “Chinkakko! Chinkakko!’ The magic word strongly affected not only the troop of Batoncas behind tkem, but also Pomba himself. His attention was now called to the golden guardian of the tribe, where it sparkied on the white ‘woman's forehead; and as he gazed, a scene of weird significance was enacted among the rank and file of the monarch's bodyguard. Before the precious symbol each man passed, gazed at the familiar figure on the gold, then dropped upon his knees and touched the earth with his head. Winstone was relleved to see that Bessie herself had become an object of some reverence at this crisis, and there was ng effort made to crowd upon her or regain the fetich, She clearly stood un- der the sheltering aegis of it—a saered thing, sharing the indescribable virtues of the golden amulet upon her forehead. Pomba, however, did not .partake in this general veneration for the disk, but as a statesman, he vef'y fully realized the value “I?. toy to himself, and now de- ‘manded ‘So! I epoke true words. I told you what you would not tell me; and here is confirmation. Bid yorider woman remove Chinkakko from her brow. 'Twas borne for many above the heart of M" jong years; now it has returned int: Batonca territory, and, by virtue of my kingship, belongs to me. Quick! Bid the woman take it from off her forehead!” But Winstone Had not noted th:d -:- and t of the Batoncas toward the tmeh“‘!»o.: nothing. He appreciated its possible priceless value at this juncture and determined to play a big game. - “0, King Pomba!” he cried, “let it be known that the fetich confers sover- elgnty and that the dark hidden gods who control men’s lives and crown mon- archs and dethrone them at will, have chosen the white queen to take the place of Pom have sent the white queen from afar to the great tribe of the Ba- toncas. The sign of power, the writing of the hidden gods, is upon her forehead, and there is no strength in ten thousand spears that can avall against one chosen of the gods.” “What mad speech is this?” roared back the King. “Am 1 a child to be frightened by your talk of gods? There are no gods. My familiar hath oftentimes told me there are none.” “Have a care, King Pomba. Your fa- millar may lie, to galn his own ends. The hidden gods are ‘everywhere. They roll the clouds together when it thunders; they flash their eyes when It lightnings; they weep for the wilderness of bad mon- archs when it rains. We come -as the servants of the gods and under the sign of the Chinkakko-¢sacred of old in this land—we conquer. ' Therefore give heed to me, and if you would retain your kingdom meet us in friendly spirit, yleld up to the uttermost splinter the treasures of shining stone, and we on our part will make no claim upon your kingdom, but render to you the Chinkakko and retore to your tribe this fetich of healing and power.” “Fool! I have put to ralse my hand, and you and your puny party are swept away.” “Raise your hand, Pomba, and you die,”” sald Winstone, quietly. There was a_revolver in his hand. Each had his eye fixed upon the other. Ten yards off the Batoncas were still doing obeisance to Bessle and the Golded Fetich: while Roy, with the help of the Zanzibaris, opened a big case of beads and wire nd was presenting the warriors and head men with gifts of exceptional value. Pomba answered his lordship’s threat. “What is death to me? I do not fear Nor I; but a man is a fool to dle, if he can help it before life has lost its salt. You are in your prime. Power Is sweet, and knowledge Is sweet. Why fling a kingdom away, when you might live to reign over it for fifty years more? Consider your added strength if Chin- kakko returns to you. And all you give in exchange is a handful of the ground and dust, as useless to you as the ground you walk on." “Who are you, to offer terms to me?"” “The stronger party, in that the gods are on my side. Regard your own fol- lowers. They are under the power of the White Queen already. Bid them destroy her! You hesitate, Pomba—you fear them. You have ruyled by hard ways so long that they would fling off your yoke to- morrow, if they but dared.” Pomba glared at his dauntless antag- onist. “You play with a wild elephant,” He said. “I have but to return to my capi- tal city and send forth my chosen troops under my men of blood, and you vanish like the grass before the fire.” “You speak as one of little memory,” answered Winstone. “It 1s not thus that the Batoncas will treat the possessor of Chinkakko; it is not with naked spears that they will welcome the White Queen, who has traveled through a million perils to bring them back their guardian that M'wonga, the King, lost in death.” “Then the need of more words ceases between us. I will return to my people and we shall see who is the strongest, my familiar and myself, or your milk- White girl and that golden toy.” “S8o be it, Pomba. Until the day after to-morrow we will awit your decision. Longer we cannot walt. You boast your wisdom; be wise now if you want to keep your crown upon your head. Fare- well."” ‘““You have the llon’s voice, white man; but you lack the lion's paw. Farewe! Pomba arose from his folding chair and Bessle approached him, carrying a handsome coat of red cloth trimmed with golden braid. A similar gift had delighted many dusky kings, but this gne waved it aside, while his followers &oked on in fear. For a moment he stared at the Golden Fetich, then spoke to his bodyguard and foremost men in harsh and angry accents. ‘That he had directed them to relinquish their gifts was evident, but only a few immediately obeyed him. He repeated his dommand in a volce of thunder, and the rest dropped ° their newly acquired treasures, though with no small show of surly reluctance. Then they took military order and fell back upon the main body of the Batoncas. For one critical moment Winstone ap- prehended an immediate attack, but his big words and mysterious threats had not been uttered in vain. There were, more- over, other causes in Pomba's camp why an immediate onslaught was impossible. At any rate the Batoncas presently vand ished, and Meldrum's expedition was left in peace for a while. Winstone hastily put the case to his® friend and explained how, in his judg- ment, the Golden Fetich might, after Prove the salvation of the expedition and the means whereby the main object should yet be achieved. “Pomba knows whers your jeweler's shop is—that's very clear. The cold- blooded brute killed the poor beggar who found them, then hid them somewhere and sealed the treasure with the seal of Chinkakko—whatever that means.” “It means this strange design fetich, I expect,” hazarded Roy. what's our next move?' ne nt “Shall we wait for the two days? Pose we must. Anyway, that w Dan t to rejoin us.” “Yes, and meantime I must take a | The the | “But son or two from Mabrukl. says he knows Batonca, or a little of it € I'm glad we didn’t hang him. We fnust appeal to the mass of these people \hrough their superstition and rever Jor the jen Fetich. My own beilef ® that our friend Pomba has foes in his Swn b If we could get his war tlors to mutiny against him, we mll"; score s bloodless victory after all, and witness the exhilarating spectacle of Miss Ogllvie crowned Queen of the Batoncas in right of the Golden Fetich; but that would lead to a good many subsequent difficul- tles. My hope is that Pobmba, seeing dan- ger, and perhaps not too certain of how his troops would like making war against their blessed Chinkakko, will and hand over the gems in exchangs the fetich. Mabruki's alleged knowledge of Baton- ea amounted to very little, but some fow useful words proved to be at his com- mand and half a dosen phrases werll learned by Winstone and Meldrum. These they taught their little force and it was explained that, should it be necessary to fight the people of the land, they must 3 advance to battle shouting: “We con- quer under Chinkakko!” “The guardian of the Batoncas leads us to victery!™ Winstone hoped that these war cries might carry weight, and he also trusted that the King’s bodyguard—thoss Baton- cas who had seen the fetich and witness- ed Bessle’s kindly Intentions toward them—would blaze abroad the wonder among thelr friends. Later in the day, with & view to get- ting general information of the land and ascertaining the position of Bangillo, King Pomba's capital, Meldrum, Bilack- bird, Mabruk! and two others of the hard fest and speediest from among the Bou danese started just before sunset for a nocturnal survey of the adjacent Baton- ca headquarters. A full moon would I them and as there was but one main road carved through the thick forest old capital to the new, no mistake exis the expedit drum and } They took only thus lig! cumbered proceeded trot and made rapid Dprogress. Y ground sloped southwesterly when two miles of the forest had been trav and as the moon flooded the with silver plain M n space, much tramg used for meetings re extended. It was surr ed on the three sides by the woods, W fourth side a path wound dow mered Bangillo It appeared a colony of exc: spread under the moon; and night was now far advanced no diate signs of s! the native settlement. and twinkled everywhe: and thither, like sparks at has just t from t y of torches, and a littl dwarfed by distance to fire, crept out of Bangl cended the hill in the directio: troop departed Meldrum not tir behind it detachment und had proceeded a mile fr the village, all lights had been guished about the dwelling houses ar streets. Bangillo slept, but the red worm climbed onward until Meldrum saw that it was approaching by the steep path up the hill and would soon be where he him- self was standing. The extreme smallness of the native force now approaching Impressed Ro: not a little and served to render the i3 cident void of alarm. Five and twenty to thirty persons represented the full strength of the procession, and as they came nearer, under flickering torchlight, Meldrum made out some detall ob- served that many figures in fantastioW ralment marched together, that a litter, on which lay a single shaps, was oar- ried in the midst, and that one maa of great size with torchbearers on his right and left marched at the head of the approaching company. Guessing that their destination was the open space at the edge of the woed be- hind him, Roy now fell back and in- formed his companions of the approach- ing procession. A bhasty survey of the meeting place showed & ring of rough stones at its center and one loftier boul- der In the midst. This hypaethral cham. ber was evidently much frequented, and Meldrum suspected it must be & sort of parliament house or council ball of the tribe. Immediately outside the ring appeared another stone, black with blood long shed, while also at hand lay the charred ashes of numerous fires — indications that led the beholder to change his mind and assume he stood within gome grim Golgotha or place of sacrifice ard execution. Now, however, came «gounds of ap- proaching voices and the torchlight and moonliget strove for mastery whereupon Meldrum and his party fell back into the fringe of the forest, and there in safe hidir3, watched the Baton- cas. Some thirty of them appeared, sot their torches in a ring around the circle of stones and immediately busied them- selves about various matters. Their burden they first depusited upon the ground; then ten aged men, attired In bizarre garments of many colors, sat round the stone rostrum; thelr gi- ‘ gantic leader mounted it to harangue them from the summit; whilo the rest of the party were active with prepara- tions among the dead fires close by These men planted two heavy tree stumps, each six feet high, at a distance of six yards apart, then bullt up be- tween them a square and solid pile of brushwood. Meantime Mabruki, at Meldrum’'s ear translated, as best he could, the speech of Pomba his medicmne men. For Pomba himself it was who presided at this weird scene of flery words and sav- age deeds under the silver mnon “Know, my wonder-workers and ye, honored fathers of my kingdom, t things are come about that call for ac tions. The spirit of M'wenga mov where in time past he reigned a king and, In the song of the river and the rustle of the ripe seeds on high trees, he Ras spoken to me. “Chinkakko has come agat: Chink- akko is at our doors! How, then, must we regain the treasure, the guardian of the Batoncas, so that our light may be lifted up among the nations and the sad spirit of M'wenga sleep In peace? I wil tell you, even as the ghost of a greater than 1 told me. “These white people are stronz because Chinkakko is with them; that is thelr only strength. There is a Hand that s the scales and a Volice that calls Y\k great sacrifice from me—the sacrifice ‘! that which is most precious to me In the wide world. For my people I would give my life: but that is not demanded from me. The Voice spoke and bid me seek . my Familiar Spirit, and I spoke with him, as you know, and he made answer thus: