THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 525, 11 December 1912, Page 2

THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

(All Rights Reserved.)

By ALBERT LEE,

Author of "The Baronet in Corduroy," " The Key of the Holy House." " King Kloi k of the Netherlands," " The Black Disc." &c.

Published by Special Arrangement,

C H A PTE R XXXlX;—(.Continued). lie said no more, but he to whom he had spoken fell prone upon the rug - before the throne and lay before the monarch for a few moments, then, rising to his feet, called out of the group about his majesty first one warrior and then another until several stood forth. At a word these fell before Sechele, and, rising, quitted the royal presence in haste. "I would go with them," I bade Khonko say to the king, but Sechele shook his head, and commanded me to stay where I was. When time passed, and neither Teresina came nor Komeh, Sechele called to another, and bade him join the search and take warriors with him in great numbers to find the wife of the white man. "Find, Komeh, and bring him hither," he exclaimed, and there was savage anger in the monarch's tone, which was ominous concerning the general's fate if he proved to be guilty. An hour went by, but no one came to bring tidings as to how the search was. faring. To me the minutes passed like long hours, and I saw the growng anger of the king. His foot tapped on the floor, his hands were clenched tightly again and again, as if to aid him in his selfrestraint, and sometimes he grasped the spear which was thrust into the ground at his side, and spent his rage with it by plungng it into the earth with angry energy- As for •myself, I could not keep still, even while in the royal presence, and setting aside all courtly rules such as might exist in Machodi, I paced up and down the chamber, now going to the door and looking down the long lines of warriors who stood in stolid sileftce. At last there was a sound in the distance, and, listening eagerly, I heard the faint beating of drums, which grew nearer and nearer. Glancing back to look at Sechele while I was at "the door, holding back the handsome curtain which covered the entrance, I saw him thrust his spear into the floor at his side, then sit immovable. There was a look of stern expectancy on . his face. To leave the door at such a moment was more than I could do. My whole soul was centred on the thought of Teresina's safety, and I had determined that if she did not come, and Komeh had been found and proved to have played any part in her abduction, I would shoot him down even in the presence of the king. While I stood in the doorway, with my back turned on royalty, and my face towards the spot where the line of warriors began, the sounds grew fast and furious, deafening in their loudness. Then they suddenly ceased. There was a silence that was startling in its intensity by its contrast with the clamour of drums and human voices. It was followed by the tread of naked feet upon the soil, and then at the great gateway of the enclosure there poured in a company of men led by him to whom the king had given his first commands. The warriors entered in perfect order, coming in couples and falling wide apart so as to leave as wide a space between as the lane of shields and spears would allow. At last when the warriors had so parted,'l ran forward with a loud, glad cry, for Teresina was entering. Long as the lane was, a moment or two only seemed to pass before I had covered the separating space, and then I had her in my arms, and she was weeping on my bosom. » But she was sale and unharmed, and that was all in all to me. The warriors swept on, leaving us where we stood until the first couple had reached the entrance of the audience chamber Then the king's messenger called to us, and taking it for granted that he was bidding us approach without delay, we walked up to him, hand in hand. Even the guards lost their stolidity when we went forward for it was more than the iron-hearted tyranny of the African could do to conquer human nature 'and kill curiosity when a white woman passed. Probably they had never set eyes on one before and as she advanced, with the moonlight falling on her face. I had never known it more beautiful, although I could see the tear stains on my darling's cheeks. When we entered the presence of his majesty, and the monarch saw Teresina, he lost his assumed selfpossession, and stared at her in astonishment. Whether he had ever seen a white women before I cannot s;: but my wife's beauty and her . el'ul movement as she walked towards the king and made her

the story of what had passed. With Khonko acting as interpreter, Teresina told him everything'; how, shortly after my departure from the palace Komeh had come into the hut in a friendly manner, followed by two other men. He had done so before, so that she thought nothing of it, and waited, but wondered how-, in Khonko's absence, they were to understand each other. Unexpectedly. he put- his hand to her mouth, so that when she screamed she could not be heard by our men who were left behind. At a word from Komeh the other two men came forward, bound her hand and foot, and gagged her. Evidentlv Komeh feared to take her through the doorway lest some of our men should see them going away, and come to her rescue. While she lay helpless on the floor, the men tore away at the frail wall of the hut with their hands, and made an opening through which they passed. When she was outside they raised her in their arms, one at her feet, the other at her shoulders, and bore her among the trees immediately near. Whither they took her she could not tell, but it was into a dense forest, through which the moonlight only came at intervals. After a long journey, as it seem to her, they halted* and carrying her into a hut they shut her by herself in the darkness. She lay there alone, bound and helpless, in a torment of anxiety, wondering what was to befall her, filled with a terrible dread lest I had been murdered at the palace, and that her turn was to follow. Komeh entered after a while, and, severing her bonds with his knife., sat down before , her, holding a lighted torch in his hand, and gazing into her face with a hungry look which frightened her. She could not understand the words he spoke, whether he was telling her of my fate, or referring to her own, so that she could only sit and wait. After a time she thought she heard some stealthy movements outside the hut. Komeh heard them also, for he rose to his feet, with a look of great fear on his face, and wpnt to the door. There was a sudden inrush as he stood in the doorway; he was struck down, and men entered, trampling over him, and seeing Teresina sitting within, with her hands clasped," and her eyes wide open with terror, they knelt before her, threw aside their weapons, as if to reassure her they would do her no harm, then rose, and turned their attention to her abductor. Komeh lay helpless in a few; moments, for the men dexterously bound him with grass thongs, and carried him out of the hut, where they flung him to the ground heavily. , She heard the thud as his body struck the earth. Believing now that slie was safer than before, she obeyed the leader of the black warriors when he beckoned to her. His words she could not understand, but it was easy to comprehend his desire that she should follow him. With swift steps the men threaded their way through the forest, shewing her the path with a flaring torch, w : hich threw deep shadows everywhere, the leader and another —one on either side —always ready to assist her, and point out the dangers at her feet from tangled roots and earth cracks. In this manner, and with what she felt to be honest kindness and unbounded respect, she reached the palace. Sechele turned and spoke to one of his chiefs, who drew a knife from his belt, and left the royal presence. "The king has bade him kill Komeh," said Khonko to me, in a lowvoice, having overheard his majesty's angry words. "That I would not have Khonko," I exclaimed. "Tell the king I would have his life spared." Khonko repeated my words, but Sechele's answer • was an angry shake of the head. I. was not surprised when, half-an-hour later, we passed with a strong escort a hut which I knew to be Komeh's. Outside, on the scorched-up grass, lay a headless body, and we knew that | the king had avenged the wrong done to Teresina, and the affront j that had been given to his hospitality.

CHAPTER XL. THE TREASURE CAVE, It was approaching midday when a chief came to us from the palace declaring that the king desired him to show us the treasure which had been entrusted to his care by his white friend, Gian Galeazzo. In a very short time we wet'e read} - , and with an escort of twenty warriors, each of whom bore blazing torches, although the sun was scorching, and dazzling the eyes with his noonday glare, we set iorth on our final quest. Our men went with us, for they would no longer trust jjs out of their sight after the experience ve had had with Komeh. Teresina was carried in her hammock, not by our own carriers, but by those whom the king had sent. What the way was like I can scarcely remember, for we were all too eager concerning the outcome of this journey, to take notice of the beauties of the winding road which led to a hill

Malocolo, the chef who was acting as our guide, '-hen turned to the right, and walking jilting the lace ol the cliff, which largely resembled the side of a worked-oul quarry which the forest seemed to have reclaimed as its own, led us to :i spot where the path suddenly descended, and so steeply that Teresina had to be held by mc and Hesketh, lest her feet should slide on the slippery rock. Even we, sure-footed as we were, were glad to grip the creeping plants that were in reach as we went. Some twenty feet below the path ended abruptly, and turning now to the left, thus skirting another face of the cliff, we halted suddenly, and exclaimed in astonishment..' I had left the Gemsbok Trident in my hut with all our belongings, but here, with. the sharp point of the horn thrust into the soil, was another, like my own Tn every particular, and standing erect, with the negro's golden back resting against the rock. At first I was disposed to think that Sechele had obtained posh session of the trident I had found on Patrie Island, and had sent forward one of his minions to place it there, so that the entrance to the treasure-house might be indicated; but the supposition was dismissed when I saw that this one before us was weather-stained, and that little creeping plants had twined themselves about the lower part of it. It must have been standing there for many a month, if not for year's. Going forward, Malocolo grasped the trident near the negro's feet, then tore it out of the earth, and handed it to one of his men who held it with a very positive dread, as if he feared that it would' work him some evil. Tearing away the creepers which clung to the granite rock, Malocolo gazed intently rit it, as if in search of something, and then with a grunt of satisfaction placed the.point of his spear on a hollow spot of blackness, and thrust with all his force. At first he seemed to make no impression, and beckoned to me to come forward and help him. Holding the spear with both hands, I thrust with my whole weight in concert with him, until the spear-head, although made of welltempered steel, bent with the force of the thrust. There came, however, what sounded like the click of a latch, and the face of the rock moved inw r ards slowly, going back wheri we thrust forward, until it stopped with a jerk, as if it had come in contact with a rock behind it, and could not go further. To our left lay an open passage, black as night, and neither Malocolo nor I dared venture in without a light. The torch-bearers now came forward at the chieftain's call, and Malocolo, leading the way, beckoned to us to follow. But Peel declined. He told off a score of our own men to keep us company, but kept the others outside to guard against any possible treachery. Later on he said to me by way of explanation: "I stayed there so that the door might not accidentally close, and shut us all in, like rats in a trap." It certainly was reassuring to know that a way of retreat was kept open in case of emergency. Hesketh and I, with Teresina between us while we followed Malocolo in single file, walked along the narrow passage which seemed to have been a natural fissure in the rock, at which the chisel had wrought laboriouslly to make the passage easier to traverse. In two or three cases, where the path w~as steep, the rocky floor had been cut into steps, and here and there we came upon recesses evidentlv formed to allow those who traversed the path in opposite directions to pass each other. It was probably a workedout gold mine, and, as we suggested while following Malocolo, Sechele and Gian Galeazzo had fixed, upon this mine as the hiding-place for the treasure named in the Scar-let-Cross package. At length the labyrinthine passages opened into a wide cavern, so high that the flaming torches did not shew the roof. As the torchbearers entered at intervals the light began to give us ji full idea of the place. Bevond the bats and nightmoths which flew occasionally into our faces there was no present sign of life, unless one considered the cast-off snake-skins which lay on the floor. Here, without a doubt, was what we suspected —an ancient gold mine, the floor extending some twenty feet on either side, and the walls sloping upwards irregularly to the unseen roof. Out of this great vestibule led passages which opened into others some smaller, and others even greater. The walls of rock, which bore inscriptions in Arabic and other characters, glistened, and, going to them, we saw that the quartz ol which they were formed was veined with gold. It: would well repay some enterprising capitalists to come hither, obtain concessions from Sechele, who seemed ignorant of the value of this possession, and quarry out the rock, and force it to yield its wealth. It had doubtless "done so already in the days when Moses fled into the desert from the vicious Pharaohand as certainly those who had forced their way hither had obtained spoils of fabulous worth. ■ifiJliiiifiiliiifflillTißTfft) fl ff --31