The Voodoo Gold Trail Part 35

And with a sudden movement he produced something he held between his fingers, and which he threw into his mouth. He'd got the vile habit, he told me, one time when he was in hiding among some Chinese.

"Oh, it's been 'ell 'ere," continued Hawkins, "when the boss 'as been away a long time, an' the dope 'as all run out. Oh, I 'ave run round this 'ell 'ole, and tried to climb the rocks, and tore my 'ands; and once I like to broke my neck in a fall."

He told me that when Duran was away the only other inhabitant was a black, called Limbo. Hawkins said that it must be he was named for the place he lived in. The two were engaged in the gold-digging; and even when Duran was gone, the black kept spurring him at the work. For when the "boss" came back, and there wasn't a showing to please him, Hawkins said there was "'ell to pay."

"But I sye, pard," he went on, giving me a poke in the side, "Hi'm slick, Hi am; an' when your friends gets us out o' this, an' the boss is gone, you an' me'll come back, and I'll show you enough o' the yeller stuff, 'id syfe awye, to keep us in dope, and drinks, an' livin' 'igh all our d'ys."

Night had turned the place into a dark pit, and the mosquitoes were abroad on their nightly foray. I struggled to my feet, and got my crutch under my arm, telling Hawkins that my friends would be expecting to hear from me; and I began to hobble back down the dark vale. It was with some feeling of disrelish that I accepted Hawkins' shoulder, to a.s.sist me in steadying myself on this unwonted leg. Hawkins hoped that my friends were as high-cla.s.s n.i.g.g.e.rs as myself. "Leave me alone to know a 'igh-toned n.i.g.g.e.r when I sees one," he said. The irregular twitching of his shoulder proved rather a doubtful support, and more than once all but upset me. But he certainly made my progress more rapid.

"It happens my friends are all white," I told him, "except one; and he's less than half black, the rest of him being Indian."

"You don't sye!" cried Hawkins, coming to a sudden stop. "I'll be very 'appy to meet some folks of my own degree--meanin' no disrespect to you; you ain't just a common n.i.g.g.e.r, you know."

I disclaimed any disposition to take umbrage at his show of preference for the white race; and we continued our walk.

When we arrived opposite Duran's ladder, I detected the rattle of stones over at the cliff wall. I began to fear that Duran had returned, till I heard low voices, and then I got the conviction that it was my friends, who were coming down by Duran's rope stairway. I hurried over close, and called to them, directing them down the inclined ledge. And at last Norris and Ray stood before me.

"I couldn't keep this kid, Norris, back any longer," explained Ray. "I had to tell him how the ladder worked, and--"

"Who's your friend, Wayne?" said Norris.

Hawkins, who had held back, was now moving forward.

"This is Andrew Hawkins," I began. "He--"

"Yes, gentlemen, my nyme is Handrew 'Awkins," interrupted that individual. "An' right proud I am to make yer acquyntance," he bowed; "an' to bid you welcome to--to--this--this--"

"'Ell 'ole," I prompted him, by way of cutting short his disgusting performance.

"Yes, 'ell 'ole, right you are, my black friend, 'ell 'ole. And 'aven't I 'ad reason to know, bein' 'ere this two years or about?"

Ray and Norris were leaning forward in the dark, the better to see this grimacing, dancing being that accompanied me.

"Well, I say now, if this ain't a bloomin' countryman of mine!" broke out Grant Norris, seizing Hawkins by the hand, with a squeeze that caused that being to writhe and dance on the sod, with mingled agony, joy, and the contortions of his infirmity. When at last Norris turned him loose, he nursed his crushed hand, saying--"Ow, yes, G.o.d bless Queen Victoria and all others in authority."

From that moment the little pickpocket deserted me, and fastened himself like a barnacle to the big, hulking, patronizing Norris.

"What kind of a plaything have you got here?" demanded Ray, putting his hand on my improvised crutch.

And then I had to tell all the story of my descent into the sink. And Ray told how he and Robert were put to it, at the watching on the cliff top, to keep awake, and to dodge Duran on his trips to the cave. When at last Duran was observed to start down the path to Crow Bay, Captain Marat, Robert, and Carlos followed, leaving Ray and Norris to wait on my signals. And here was a strange circ.u.mstance; Duran had gone off empty-handed, leaving behind in the grotto, not only that stack of gold; but his bag and pack straps he left on the floor there as well.

"I guess," said Ray, "that he went to get a mule, or an a.s.s, or something, to carry it for him. You see he didn't know about Norris being--"

Ray got behind me for protection, and cautioned Norris to be careful of my sore foot.

"Come on now," said Norris, "we're going to see where Carlos' gold mine is. Lead on Brother 'Awkins." And with that he seized me under the shoulders and threw me on his back.

Hawkins, like a little dog eager for the chase, trotted on ahead, twisting his shoulders, and bobbing his head in a manner without rhyme or reason. Ray, I could see, had curious interest in the miserable being's antics; and I knew he was priming for some sort of explosion, and wondered when it was to come.

When we had crossed the ridge, our way went through the wood, and I had to keep my head well down a share of the time, to avoid having my eyes put out by branches that overhung the trail. And then at last we came upon a clearing of some extent, in which stood an occasional cabbage-palm, left, it might be, for decorative effect. And as we moved forward, there loomed two or three structures of undetermined size or contour.

We now came to a halt, and Norris set me on the ground, and the four of us got our heads together to whisper.

"It strikes me," I said, "that we're a little too precipitate. Here's this black fellow, likely snoozing over yonder in one of those shacks.

There's no one here to talk with him and explain our presence; even Hawkins, here, hasn't in two years, learned the language he speaks. Now, if he sees us, who's to say he won't tell Duran about us when he returns. And we're not yet ready to try conclusions with that--that--"

"Polecat, skunk," prompted severally, Ray and Norris, in the same breath.

"So," I continued, "we'd best get back in the brush; and depend on Hawkins to steer the black boy out of the way in the morning, till we have seen what we want to see. And then we'll get back to our own camp, till the time's ripe for our next move."

"And then clubs will be trumps," said Grant Norris.

"Hear--hear!" said Ray.

We were led by Hawkins to a sheltered place, and he soon had brought a pair of mosquito-bars from the shacks. Protected thus, it was not many minutes till I had dropped off. I opened my eyes once during that night, and that was to hear the crowing of roosters nearby. They were no doubt the same birds whose music I had heard faintly the previous night and confused with the mosquitoes. There were not less than three c.o.c.ks out there vieing with one another, and each sang out perhaps a dozen times.

Ray, who lay beside me, got on his elbow. He listened silently for some time; then he said, "Say--don't it listen good to hear something talk good old United States again?"

It was soon after daybreak that Hawkins appeared, to say he had managed by their sign language, to talk the black boy into going far up the vale for a jag of dry wood. And then he told us where to find the gold workings, and other matters of interest. "When we're comin' back, I'll be singin', 'She died of the fever,' so'll you can 'ide out," said Hawkins.

"Well now, Hawkins," said Norris. "We'll soon have you out of this and back in civilization again, if you play square with us, and don't give that skunk any hint that we're here, and--"

"You don't need for to 'ave no fear, 'ee'll never know," declared Hawkins. "Hi'm slick, Hi am. Hi can 'old my gab--Hi'm old at that."

And away he went with his head and shoulders still cutting capers that rendered Ray dumb with fascination. And then finally, Ray broke out.

"There goes our gold mine," he said. "We mustn't lose him! When we get back in the States we'll join a side show.--'Ladies and gentlemen: it is my privilege to present to your astonished eyes the one and only living rubber-man. Observe the wonderful effect, as the breath and pulse of life courses through him. The only self-inflating--why, the only dread we have is that he may chance on some unhappy occasion to sit down on a bent pin or a sharp tack. In our travels we found him in the tropical jungles, where he had been lost, and where he had subsisted for two years on the juice of the rubber tree. In truth, ladies and gentlemen, even now, the only sustenance he is able to take is the milk of the rubber plant, and--oh, I say now, ladies and gentlemen, who have kindness and charity in your hearts, if you have any old, worn out overshoes, garden hose, and--'"

Grant Norris had picked up a length of dead limb and was now manipulating it menacingly, with an eye on Ray. And then there came through the brush the voice of Hawkins, singing. It was a s.n.a.t.c.h of "Twickenham Ferry," ending with a--

"Oh! yo ho. Oh! yo ho. Oh! yo ho. Oh!"

"That means they're on their way for the load of wood," said Norris.

We waited some minutes, to insure the black boy getting out of view with Hawkins; and then we went forward, and out across the semi-clearing.

There were four palm-thatched structures over there, with frames of pine saplings and bamboo. Beside the fourth, was the chicken yard of bamboo held together with tough gra.s.ses. In this corral were some hundreds of fowl, scratching and clucking much in the fas.h.i.+on of chickens back home.

"Chick, chick, chick, chick!" called Ray.

The fowl flocked toward the fence.

"I told you!" broke out Ray. "They sure understand United States."

"Oh, come on," pressed Grant Norris. "Let's get up to the diggings."

"Poor old Norris," murmured Ray, as if talking to himself, while he followed. "He'll be so disappointed when he finds out there's no gold mine."

Ray took shelter behind me as Norris, ahead, cast about for some kind of missile. We pa.s.sed by a vegetable garden as we went; neat rows, carefully weeded.