Читать книгу Lieutenant Bones - Edgar Wallace - Страница 7

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LIEUTENANT AUGUSTUS TIBBETTS, of the Houssas, sat in his canvas chair under the thatched shelter which constituted his orderly-room. Before him was a table neatly set with the paraphernalia of justice. There were three yellow crime reports, a sheet of foolscap paper, an open volume of "The Manual of Military Law," a company report ledger, and the defaulter sheets of the delinquents, who waited, between an escort with fixed bayonets, for the word to step up and accept the judgment of the gods.

By the side of Bones, in his most comfortable wickerwork chair, gaily cushioned and not wholly in harmony with the solemnity of the proceedings, sat Patricia Hamilton in a big and shady panama and a dress of dazzling white drill.

"You are sure that I am not in the way, Bones?" she asked anxiously.

Bones screwed his monocle into his eye and turned slowly and impressively toward her.

"Dear old miss," he said, with a certain stern quietness, "havin' invited you here, havin', so to speak, given you a seat on the bench, I ask nothin' of you save that you—" He coughed and looked at her significantly, and, turning again to his front, cried fiercely: "Silence in court, all of you, confound it!"

"Bones," said the horrified girl, "you really mustn't use strong language."

Bones blinked at her. "Must terrify 'em, dear old Miss Patricia," he said, in a hoarse whisper. "Iron hand in the velvet glove, an' all that sort of thing. Silence!" This to the wholly silent group before him.

He nodded to the sergeant, and the first prisoner stepped smartly forward, accompanied by one of the escort. "Lord," said the sergeant, in liquid Arabic, "this man owes Mahmut Ali twenty cupfuls of salt, and because Mahmut Ali asked for his own this man beat him."

Bones glared at the offender, but the offender was unperturbed.

"Lord Tibbetti," he said suavely, "it is true that I owed Mahmut Ali ten and ten cups of salt, but Mahmut Ali borrow my beautiful breeches for the wedding of his woman's sister, and fought with them on his legs, so that they came back to me in rags."

Bones beckoned the witness, the offended one.

"Lord, that is true," he said frankly; "but I did not promise this man that I would not fight in his breeches, whereas he promised he would give me back my salt."

Bones stroked his chin.

"For beating Mahmut Ali you shall drill for two days in the hour of sleep. As for the breeches, Mahmut shall pay you their value and shall have the breeches. You shall pay him his salt. The palaver is finished."

"What happened?" asked the girl, in some anxiety, for Arabic was Arabic to her, as Greek was Greek to Cicero.

"A rather indelicate matter," said Bones gravely.

"I'm sorry," said the girl hastily, and settled back.

"Summon the next case," said Bones.

The next case was, as it happened, a serious military offence, and had been sent from the Upper River for judgment.

There had been an outbreak of measles in the territory of the Old King Beyond the hills, and a quarantine guard had been set upon the Ochori frontier. It was alleged that the three men and a corporal who constituted that guard had abandoned their post for two days. In a European force this would have been a very serious offence indeed, but there were certain extenuating circumstances which permitted Captain Hamilton to allow his subordinate to deal summarily with the offenders.

"Lord," said the spokesman for the prisoners—the offending corporal—"it is true that we men left the hill path and went back and feasted with the chief of the Ochori, but before now we have taken his commands and obeyed them. And, lord, we knew that Bosambo had a very cunning plan to overthrow Sandi's enemies, so that when he sent for us, and there came ten warriors of the Ochori to take our places, we went away."

"Hum!" said Bones profoundly. "Very serious—ver-y serious!"

"Is it really?" asked the girl, impressed. "What are you going to do?"

"I ought to shoot 'em." said Bones, shaking his head.

"Bones!"

"I really ought—'pon my word, I ought! O man,"—this in Arabic—"because this offence was ordered by a reigning chief, it shall stand against him and you shall escape."

The third and last one, curiously enough, had also a connection with Bosambo. It was a charge preferred by a native against a Houssa who had taken the law and a pliant rhinoceros whip into his own hand. There was no question as to the fact, for a corporal had witnessed the assault.

"This is true, lord," said the soldier; "but this Kaffir told me many lies, for he said that the Chief Kulubu was the rightful Chief of the Ochori, and that all men knew this thing and that Sandi kept Bosambo in his place because they were sons of the same father."

"Is this true, man?" asked Bones.

"Lord, I said the thing, yet I meant no evil," confessed the complainant, "for this way men talk all along the river. And, lord, was not the mother of Kulubu the daughter of the old king of the Ochori, and was not Bosambo a foreigner who came from a strange land, and did he not seize the Ochori city by wickedness?"

An embarrassing question for Bones, since Bosambo, chief of the Ochori, had undoubtedly come from Monrovia, a fugitive from justice. He had in fact, broken out of prison whilst serving a twenty years' sentence, and, making his way across country, had found himself in the city of the pusillanimous Ochori, and had been received as a guest. And when the weak chief of the tribe had died most mysteriously and unexpectedly, Bosambo had seized the reins of chieftainship and had turned the Ochori—whose courage had been a reproach and a shame—into a first class fighting tribe. Also it was true that the rightful heirs had been set aside by Bosambo, and that Sanders in his wisdom desiring an end of the old dynasty, had confirmed Bosambo in his self-appointment.

"Let all people hear this," said Bones, after a long pause. "Bosambo is the true Chief of the Ochori, for Sandi has made him so by law; but men will always speak badly of those who are in authority and give the law to their people. Therefore you did wrong to speak against Bosambo, and you, Mahmut, did wrong to beat this man, for it is written in the Sura of the Spider, 'Dispute not except in kindliness.' Therefore you shall drill for one day in the hour of sleep. The palaver is finished."

He explained the last case to the girl as they walked to the beach to meet Sanders and Hamilton, who had been out to sea with their fishing lines.

"And if you ask me my opinion, dear old miss," he said, "I think that Kulubu is a silly old silly." A statement which proved to be true.

"Bosambo must be warned not to interfere with the men," said Sanders later. "I particularly wish to keep infectious disease out of the country, and by his folly he might have caused an epidemic. I am more annoyed because I explained to the villain the rapidity with which the disease spreads. It isn't really very dangerous, for natives are seldom susceptible to a bad attack."

"Poor Bosambo!" smiled the girl. "He is always in trouble lately."

Sanders nodded. "He is in bad trouble now. There's a big plot on foot to weaken his authority. I believe Kulubu has some hereditary right to the chieftainship, and it might be extremely awkward if the people of the Ochori demanded a union between the Territories. Some of Bosambo's headmen have been visiting Kulubu lately—that smells like trouble."

"Do you think we ought to warn Bosambo?" asked Hamilton, and Sander's eyes lit with a transient smile.

"He has already warned me," he said. "The fact is, the Ochori are very poor; their crops have been bad, and their fishing unsuccessful. Kulubu is a rich man—the fighters are always rich—and he has bribed and corrupted the Ochori until poor Bosambo hasn't a friend he can trust. The Ochori have treated him badly, for he made them a nation. However, we shall see. Send ten men and a sergeant to within marching distance of Wumbi, Hamilton, and let Bosambo know they're there."

Between the day and the night, in that thinnest grey wedge of dusk which marks the close of the tropic day, an ironwood canoe swung in from the centre of the Upper River, and, caught broadside on by a swift current, drifted a diagonal course to the white beach of Wumbi. The man who sat in the stem of the boat had judged the distance perfectly, and digging his paddle first to the left and then to the right with long strong strokes which set the water gurgling about the polished blade, he drove the nose of the canoe to the sloping beach. Wumbi lay against the red west, a purple blot of high trees sparkling with the fires of the village. The lazy blue smoke spiralled first greyly against the forest back-ground until it topped the tree heads and waved in little streamers of black gauze against the glowing skies.

The man in the canoe rose slowly and stepped with that peculiar deliberation which is wholly native into the shallow water. He pulled the canoe higher on the beach, and, bending over, took from its interior a bundle of spears, a skin food bag, and a dead monkey. This he slung over his shoulder and walked slowly toward the path which, running an erratic course between the trees joined the beach near the hut of N'guro, the fisherman. Beyond was a thick tangle of grass reaching to the water's edge, and this he investigated. He found a long canoe well hidden by the vegetation, and was satisfied.

The hunter was tall and, save for the leopard skin about his waist, naked. His shoulders were broad and muscular, his neck well-set, and there was in the swing of his body a suggestion of unusual strength and agility. He halted at the edge of the village, leaning on a spear, the blade of which stood higher than his own tall head, and peered forward, for the light was growing dim. What he saw was evidently satisfactory to himself, for he resumed his advance. Before him, and evidently his objective, was a hut larger than any other. Before its door were two thick posts set at such a distance apart that a big man with outstretched arms might just touch either with the tips of his fingers. They were carved in strange designs, and were veritable fetishes through which an enlightened man might, with proper ceremony, commune with ghosts and ju-jus. Ahead of this a log fire smouldered, and, grouped about, the stranger could see the vague figures of five men. There were no others near, for this was the great house of Kulubu, Chief of the fighting Akasavas, and there was a clear space of ground about the hut, across which no man might walk without invitation, for Kulubu, who had started this era of chieftainship in the most promising circumstances—"All men shall be my brothers, and I shall be the slave of my people," was the rash promise he had made in grand palaver—had edged toward a greater autocracy than even the Akasava had known.

The newcomer took three steps towards the fire before the surprised "Wa!" of one of the low-speaking group indicated that he had been seen. For a second he stood at the implied challenge of that "Wa!" and in that second he was recognized.

Swiftly two of the five melted away in the darkness, leaving Kulubu, the king, and his two gnarled counsellors alone to greet the visitor.

"I see you," boomed the stranger conventionally.

"I see you, Bosambo," said Kulubu quickly. "This is a wonderful day for me that the great Chief of the Ochori should come to my village and sleep in my hut. Now, my young men shall feast your paddlers and spearmen, and for you I will kill a fat goat."

Bosambo had sunk on his haunches by the side of the fire, his spears, gripped in his powerful fist, lying across his knees, his head cocked sideways and upward, for the king sat upon a fine carved stool, and was higher than he.

"O Kulubu," said Bosambo, "there shall be no feasting for me or for my men, for I killed near the Pool of Stones, and, more than this I journey alone."

The three men did not speak, but Bosambo, eyeing them keenly from under his drooping lids, saw the swift exchange of glances.

"Lord," said Kulubu at length, "we three men who have sat alone, thinking great wonders for the good of our people—"

"Sometimes there is a sickness which comes up from the river this day," interrupted Bosambo, "and men see those things which are not. Now, I tell you, Kulubu, that I saw not three, but three and two."

"Slaves are never seen," quoted Kulubu glibly. "That is the saying of the Akasava. And these men were slaves, Bosambo, who brought fish and manioc."

"Between a slave and a warrior is the length of a spear," Bosambo returned tag for tag, "and it was part of my madness that I saw spears in the hands of your slaves. And though all men know that you are very rich, with great stores of ivory buried beneath your hut, yet even great kings are not served by spearmen."

Kulubu coughed and looked first to one and then to the other of the grim visaged old men who sat on either side of him. They offered no assistance, and Kulubu rushed in where many wiser men might have hesitated.

"It is true, Bosambo, that these men carried spears," he said, "but they were the brothers of my second wife, and, being lowly men, felt shame for me that you saw them at my palaver. Now, Bosambo, I will tell my women to sweep a great hut for you."

Bosambo blinked up at his host. "I sleep in the forest this night, Kulubu," he said, "for I am on my way to meet Sandi, our father, for he desires to speak secretly with me."

Kulubu's head craned forward. "There are many stories here in the Akasava," he said softly, "for bad news floats with the river. Some men say that your people have made a cry against you to our Lord Sandi, and that they took their spears to your great house because you struck them cruelly. Also they ask for another chief."

He paused invitingly, but the Chief of the Ochori stared at him in silence.

"Now, I think," Kulubu went on, with a certain confident insolence which was duly noted, "that the Ochori are fools, for you are a good king and, by all sayings, well loved by Sandi. Yet men are born to rule, and have a great ju-ju from their eyes-opening to help them. If you have not this ju-ju, Bosambo, you cannot rule."

Bosambo shifted his position. "Listen to me, O Kulubu M'faga," he said, "for I speak with the tongue of wisdom. Between me and my people is a bad palaver, for they are lazy, and on the day when I must take rubber and corn to Sandi for his Government, they bring me empty palms, and I am put to shame before my lord. Therefore I beat them and set them to make roads for me. Then came men plotting against me and against Sandi. Kulubu, from whence do they come? Also, certain headmen of the tribes go down the river and make a secret palaver with my enemy, and sit by his fire and speak evilly of me. Who is that enemy? Wa! Kulubu, I have seen three kings of the Akasava die—two upon a high tree and one under my spear. Shall I see three and one?"

Kulubu stood up, his eyes upon the bunched spears on Bosambo's knee.

"All this is madness, Bosambo," he said mildly, "for is not Sandi more powerful than devils? And if you cannot hold your people, is it not true that they need a stronger hand? Now, I have taken counsel with my brothers because I love you, Bosambo, and I will do a great thing. On a certain day I will go to your city and be as king over your people and you shall come to Wumbi and sit in my place and at the full of the next moon I will ask the Ochori and you shall ask the Na-aka-sava: 'Who shall be king of you—Bosambo or Kulubu?' This I will also ask the people of my own country, standing by your side, and by Ewa and the head of my head by salt and blood and by all the Ghosts of the World, I will abide by their word. But this I say, Bosambo—that in the time of change you shall not go to the Ochori, nor shall I come to my land."

Bosambo rose.

"This is a big matter," he said, "and I must have my thoughts."

He strode out of the circle of light along the path that led to the river. On the beach he halted and sat down.

"I think Bosambo will let you go," said Kulubu's headman, "for he is a very simple one."

"Then there will be no more Bosambo in the Ochori," said Kulubu, "for after a while I will go to Sandi, and I will show him how I have ruled these people, and I will take him great gifts of rubber and fish, more than the taxes, and then Sandi will put down Bosambo."

"O chief," said the other counsellor, "what shall Bosambo do here? For if you put him in your place, may he not do evil things against you? And, chief, is there not buried in a secret place behind your great house much treasure of ivory and rubber?"

Kulubu nodded. "But are you not here, and also my brethren, and the little chiefs who come and go from the villages about? And will there not always be at his side those in authority to watch him? Let all headmen know that I have gone to steal Bosambo's country, and that, while Bosambo stays, they shall be very cunning toward him."

On the first day of the new moon the change was effected. Bosambo came with his belongings in a canoe which brought also his four faithful attendants, and was installed in the great hut of Kulubu, and all men—at any rate, outwardly—gave him obedience, and the head men brought him salt and corn, and the warriors their spears to touch, and though they were mirthful at this game, they did not show their mirth.

Bosambo took their homage very seriously. He called a small palaver of petty chiefs and headmen of villages, and discussed with them certain improvements of the law, such as, for example, the rights of husbands to claim a return of a portion of a price they paid for unsatisfactory wives, and the small palaver listened attentively and politely, agreed with all he said, acclaiming his wisdom in set phrases, and went out of his presence painfully charged with unuttered laughter.

They had less cause to laugh when they discovered that Bosambo did not discharge them to their several avocations as was the custom after a council, but maintained them in the village, calling them together every morning and night, demanding their views upon problems as far apart as the breeding of crocodiles and the preparation of manioc. At the sixth of these conferences Gisivulu, a person of some importance, since he ruled eighty square miles of territory, abandoned any pretence of polite interest.

"O Bosambo," he said, "we are men with many tasks, and for six days and six nights you have kept us here, talking of fish and corn and rubber and hunting, whilst our people are awaiting our return, and our wives are very sorrowful, and our children cry for us. Give us leave to go, O chief!"

Bosambo looked at him thoughtfully.

"On a certain day you may go to your villages, but that day is not yet," he said.

Bosambo summoned a palaver of 'all chiefs and heads of families' for that evening, to discuss the effect of moons upon fishing, and held a weary assembly from eight o'clock in the evening until dawn. He followed this up by an afternoon palaver which lasted till close on midnight, and this meeting was in the nature of Convocation of Laymen, for the matter under discussion was "Ghosts."

At the end of the second week the petty chiefs had a palaver of their own, and sent a delegation to Kulubu, urgently requesting that he should return; and Kulubu, who had enlisted the enthusiastic allegiance of his new subjects by a succession of dances and feasts, and by the remission of all 'chief taxation'—a monthly tribute paid by the tribe to their lord—was puzzled.

"How may I come, Gisivulu," he asked, "for have I not sworn with Bosambo that neither shall I go to the Akasava, nor he shall go to the Ochori, until an appointed time? And yet another week must pass before the full of the moon. I tell you, therefore, to go to his palavers and listen with deaf ears, and speak whatever your stomach tells you. In three and four sunsets I will come to my people, and as for Bosambo, he will neither have land nor people."

"Lord," said the aggrieved Gisivulu, "this Bosambo has made a great call for taxation. When the full moon wastes to a rind, we must bring him from every village, and for every man of that village, as much rubber as one may hold in four hands."

Kulubu beat his fists together in joy.

"O ko-ko!" he chuckled. "At that time there will be no Bosambo sitting in my house, for I shall return chief of two great tribes."

The delegation went away a little comforted, and Kulubu turned his mind to the entertainment of the Ochori people, for he had planned that night a festival of superlative grandeur, being no less than the Dance of the Weaver Birds. At three o'clock in the morning Kulubu went to his sleeping hut and sat down upon his skin bed, only to jump up again very quickly, for somebody was already lying upon his robe.

"Fish!" said Kulubu. "Who are you that comes to my fine house and sleeps upon my bed?"

"Lord," said a quavering voice, "every night I have lain on your wonderful bed whilst your lordship has been dancing. Also my sister, who is here beside me."

Kulubu dragged them into the light of the fire outside, and saw a youth and a girl obviously not of the Ochori people. A shout from Kulubu brought Bosambo's treacherous counsellors to him.

"Who are these people?" asked Kulubu.

"Lord," said the headman, "they are foreigners."

Kulubu turned to the trembling intruders, who were staring at him.

"Master," said the youth—he was a thin reedy creature, wearing nothing more than a girdle of native cloth—"master," he said, "this is magic, for I thought I lay in the hut of the great chief Bosambo."

"You speak true, little snake," said Kulubu, "for this is the hut of Bosambo. Speak and tell me how you came here."

The boy looked at the frightened girl at his side, and then from face to face before he sat down and began, in that singsong tone which is peculiar to the people of the Old King, the recital of his strange story.

"Master," he said, "I come from the village of Lichi-lichi; which is beyond the mountains, in the territory of the Great: King. And there was much sickness amongst the people, and also our chief beat us, and some he killed to please the devils who put fever in our bodies. So we came across the frontier, this woman and I, and we saw the soldiers of Bosambo, who brought us to him, and he told us that by his magic he would cure us. He took us away to a hidden place in the forest and gave us food, and every night we were to come and sleep in his bed whilst he was at the feasts. Lord, he made a secret door to the hut, through which we could crawl, and every night we have come, this woman and I, and have lain on his bed, so that his magic might cure us, and every night when we heard his feet we have crept away, save only tonight, lord, when we were tired and slept."

Kulubu listened without understanding. "This was madness of Bosambo," he said at last, "for if you slept on his bed, might he not also get the sickness? Go back to your place in the wood, and, it you return to this city, I will have you beaten."

In the days that followed the natives of the Lower River saw many pigeons flying north and south, and they knew there was a big book palaver between Sandi and his spies. One letter in particular which came to headquarters may be quoted:

"From Ahmet Ali, by the fork of the river, with ten soldiers.

"To Sandi at his grand house by the sea.

"In the name of God the Compassionate and Merciful, etc. Peace on your house.

"There is a new sickness in the Ochori which has come across the hills from the land of the Old King, and even Kulubu is stricken. So I have put a guard on the river, and none may leave nor enter the Ochori. Thus you told me, should the sickness come to any of the tribes. Bosambo is now the chief of the fighting Akasava, is giving many dances. This he does because Kolubu has not returned. He has sent all the little chiefs to their villages, and they are glad to go; because of the long palavers which Bosambo made, they are weary. Also Bosambo has dug up the great treasures of Kulubu, and has given every chief and headman a beautiful present. And he has dances and feasts in the city of Wumbi, and all men love him."

Sanders read the missive at breakfast, his lips twitching with sheer delight.

"And the end of that adventure is," he said, "that Bosambo has a new country, and Kulubu has measles. Get the Zaire ready, Hamilton. This will take a lot of straightening out."

"Is there nothing I can do, dear old Excellency?" asked Bones eagerly. "No little job for poor old Bones?"

"You can go to the Ochori," said Sanders, "and settle the measles."