第24章

Accordingly, as soon as the sun got low, having little or nothing more to hope for-from our friendly wind, we stared.For the first hour or so we managed to row the boat, though with great labor; but after that the weeds got too thick to allow of it, and we were, obliged to resort to the primitive and most exhausting resource of towing her.For two hours we labored, Mahomed, Job, and I, who was supposed to be strong enough to pull against the two of them, on the bank, while Leo sat in the bow of the boat, and brushed away the weeds which collected round the cutwater with Mahomed's sword.At dark we halted for some hours to rest and enjoy the mosquitoes, but about midnight we went on again, taking advantage of the comparative cool of the night.At dawn we rested for three hours, and then started once more, and labored on till about ten o'clock, when a thunderstorm, accompanied by a deluge of rain, overtook us, and we spent the next six hours practically under water.

I do not know that there is any necessity for me to describe the next four days of our voyage in detail, further than to say that they were, on the whole, the most miserable that I ever spent in my life, forming one monotonous record of heavy labor, heat, misery, and mosquitoes.All the way we passed through a region of almost endless swamp, and I can only attribute our escape from fever and death to the constant doses of quinine and purgatives which we took, and the unceasing toil which we were forced to undergo.On the third day of our journey up the canal we had sighted a round hill that loomed dimly through the vapors of the marsh, and on the evening of the fourth night, when we camped, this hill seemed to be within five-and-twenty or thirty miles of us.We were by now utterly exhausted, and felt as though our blistered hands could not pull the boat a yard farther, and that the best thing that we could do would be to lie down and.

die in that dreadful wilderness of swamp.It was an awful position, and one in.which I trust no other white man will ever be placed; and as I threw myself down in the boat to sleep the sleep of utter exhaustion, I bitterly cursed my folly in ever having been a party to such a mad undertaking, which could, Isaw, only end in our death in this ghastly land.Ithought, I remember, as I slowly sank into a doze, of what the appearance of the boat and her unhappy crew would be in two or three months' time from that night.

There she would lie, with gaping seams and half filled with fetid water, which, when the mist-laden wind stirred her, would wash backward and forward through our mouldering bones, and that would be the end of her, and of those in her who would follow after myths and seek out the secrets of nature.

Already I seemed to hear the water rippling against the desiccated bones and rattling them together, rolling my skull against Mahomed's, and his against mine, till at last Mahomed's stood straight up upon its vertebrae, and glared at me through its empty eye holes, and cursed me with its grinning jaws, because I, a dog of a Christian, disturbed the last sleep of a true believer.I opened my eyes, and shuddered at the horrid dream, and then shuddered again at something that was not a dream, for two great eyes were gleaming down at me through the misty darkness.I struggled up, and in my terror and confosion shrieked, and shrieked again, so that the others sprang up too, reeling, and drunken with sleep and fear.And then all of a sudden there was a flash of cold steel, and a great spear was held against my throat, and behind it other spears gleamed cruelly.

"Peace," said a voice, speaking in Arabic, or rather in some dialect into which Arabic entered very largely; "who are ye who come hither swimming on the water? Speak or ye die," and the steel pressed sharply against my throat, sending a cold chili through me.

"We are travellers, and have come hither by chance," Ianswered in my best Arabic, which appeared to be understood, for the man turned his head and, addressing a tall form that towered up in the background, said, "Father, shall we slay?""What is the color of the men?" said a deep voice in answer.

"White is their color."

"Slay not," was the reply."Four suns since was the word brought to me from _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_, 'White men come; if white men come, slay them not.

Let them be brought to the land of _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_.' Bring forth the men, and let that which they have with them be brought forth also.""Come," said the man, half leading and half dragging me from the boat, and as he did so I perceived other men doing the same kind office to my companions.

On the bank were gathered a company of some fifty men.

In that light all I could make out was that they were armed with huge spears were very tall, and strongly built, comparatively light in color, and nude, save for a leopard skin tied round the middle.

Presently Leo and Job were bundled out and placed beside me.

"What on earth is up?" said Leo, rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, Lord! sir, here's a rum go," ejaculated Job; and just at that moment a disturbance ensued, and Mahomed came tumbling between us, followed by a shadowy form with an up-lifted spear.

"Allah! Allah!" howled Mahomed, feeling that he had little to hope from man, "protect me! protect me!""Father, it is a black one," said a voice."What said 'She-who-must-be-obeyed' about the black one?""She said naught; but slay him not.Come hither, my son."The man advanced, and the tail, shadowy form bent forward and whispered something.

"Yes, yes," said the other, and chuckled in a rather blood-curdling tone.

"Are the three white men there?" asked the form.

"Yes, they are there."

"Then bring up that which is made ready for them, and let the men take all that can be brought from the thing which floats."Hardly had he spoken when men came running up, carrying on their shoulders neither more nor less than palanquinsfour bearers and two spare men to a palanquinand in these it was promptly indicated we were expected to stow ourselves.