The Essential Edgar Wallace Collection. Edgar Wallace

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СКАЧАТЬ the child with a fine gesture.

      "Henry Hamilton Bones, sir," he said grandly. "The child of the regiment," he went on; "adopted by me to be a prop for my declining years, sir."

      "Heaven and earth!" said Hamilton, breathlessly.

      He went aft to recover his nerve, and returned to become an unseen spectator to a purely domestic scene, for Bones had immersed the squalling infant in his own india-rubber bath, and was gingerly cleaning him with a mop.

      CHAPTER XI

      BONES AT M'FA

      Hamilton of the Houssas coming down to headquarters met Bosambo by appointment at the junction of the rivers.

      "O Bosambo," said Hamilton, "I have sent for you to make a _likambo_ because of certain things which my other eyes have seen and my other ears have heard."

      To some men this hint of report from the spies of Government might bring dismay and apprehension, but to Bosambo, whose conscience was clear, they awakened only curiosity.

      "Lord, I am your eyes in the Ochori," he said with truth, "and God knows I report faithfully."

      Hamilton nodded. He was yellow with fever, and the hand that filled the briar pipe shook with ague. All this Bosambo saw.

      "It is not of you I speak, nor of your people, but of the Akasava and the N'gombi and the evil little men who live in the forest--now is it true that they speak mockingly of my lord Tibbetti?"

      Bosambo hesitated.

      "Lord," said he, "what dogs are they, that they should speak of the mighty? Yet I will not lie to you, M'ilitani: they mock Tibbetti, because he is young and his heart is pure."

      Hamilton nodded again, and stuck out his jaw in troubled meditation.

      "I am a sick man," he said, "and I must rest, sending Tibbetti to watch the river, because the crops are good and there is fish for all men, and because the people are prosperous, for, Bosambo, in such times there is much boastfulness, and the tribes are ripe for foolish deeds deserving to appear wonderful in the eyes of woman."

      "All this I know, M'ilitani," said Bosambo, "and because you are sick, my heart and my stomach are sore. For though I do not love you as I love Sandi, who is more clever than you, yet I love you well enough to grieve. And Tibbetti also----"

      He paused.

      "He is young," said Hamilton, "and not yet grown to himself--now you, Bosambo, shall check men who are insolent to his face, and be to him as a strong right hand."

      "On my head and my life," said Bosambo, "yet, lord M'ilitani, I think that his day will find him, for it is written in the Sura of the Djin that all men are born three times, and the day will come when Bonzi will be born again."

      He was in his canoe before Hamilton realized what he had said.

      "Tell me, Bosambo," said he, leaning over the side of the _Zaire_, "what name did you call my lord Tibbetti?"

      "Bonzi," said Bosambo, innocently, "for such I have heard you call him."

      "Oh, dog of a thief!" stormed Hamilton. "If you speak without respect of Tibbetti, I will break your head."

      Bosambo looked up with a glint in his big, black eyes.

      "Lord," he said, softly, "it is said on the river 'speak only the words which high ones speak, and you can say no wrong,' and if you, who are wiser than any, call my lord 'Bonzi'--what goat am I that I should not call him 'Bonzi' also?"

      Hamilton saw the canoe drift round, saw the flashing paddles dip regularly, and the chant of the Ochori boat song came fainter and fainter as Bosambo's state canoe began its long journey northward.

      Hamilton reached headquarters with a temperature of 105, and declined Bones' well-meant offers to look after him.

      "What you want, dear old officer," said Bones, fussing around, "is careful nursin'. Trust old Bones and he'll pull you back to health, sir. Keep up your pecker, sir, an' I'll bring you back so to speak from the valley of the shadow--go to bed an' I'll have a mustard plaster on your chest in half a jiffy."

      "If you come anywhere near me with a mustard plaster," said Hamilton, pardonably annoyed, "I'll brain you!"

      "Don't you think!" asked Bones anxiously, "that you ought to put your feet in mustard and water, sir--awfully good tonic for a feller, sir. Bucks you up an' all that sort of thing, sir; uncle of mine who used to take too much to drink----"

      "The only chance for me," said Hamilton, "is for you to clear out and leave me alone. Bones--quit fooling: I'm a sick man, and you've any amount of responsibility. Go up to the Isisi and watch things--it's pretty hard to say this to you, but I'm in your hands."

      Bones said nothing.

      He looked down at the fever-stricken man and thrust his hands in his pockets.

      "You see, old Bones," said Hamilton, and now his friend heard the weariness and the weakness in his voice, "Sanders has a hold on these chaps that I haven't quite got ... and ... and ... well, you haven't got at all. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you're young, Bones, and these devils know how amiable you are."

      "I'm an ass, sir," muttered Bones, shakily, "an' somehow I understand that this is the time in my jolly old career when I oughtn't to be an ass.... I'm sorry, sir."

      Hamilton smiled up at him.

      "It isn't for Sanders' sake or mine or your own, Bones--but for--well, for the whole crowd of us--white folk. You'll have to do your best, old man."

      Bones took the other's hand, snivelled a bit despite his fierce effort of restraint, and went aboard the _Zaire_.

      * * * * *

      "Tell all men," said B'chumbiri, addressing his impassive relatives, "that I go to a great day and to many strange lands."

      He was tall and knobby-kneed, spoke with a squeak at the end of his deeper sentences, and about his tired eyes he had made a red circle with camwood. Round his head he had twisted a wire so tightly that it all but cut the flesh: this was necessary, for B'chumbiri had a headache which never left him day or night.

      Now he stood, his lank body wrapped in a blanket, and he looked with dull eyes from face to face.

      "I see you," he said at last, and repeated his motto which had something to do with monkeys.

      They watched him go down the street towards the beech where the easiest canoe in the village was moored.

      "It is better if we go after him and put out his eyes," said his elder brother; "else who knows what damage he will do for which we must pay?"

      Only B'chumbiri's mother looked after him with a mouth that drooped at the side, for he was her only son, all the others СКАЧАТЬ