The Blind Lion of the Congo Part 13

"An ivory zareba," went on Montenay. "Made o' tusks, clear around the hut. They were set with points up, curvin' out. But I didn't get much chance to see it then. We were taken into the village and I was given a hut to myself. The young chap, Mbopo, reported to an old, wizened witch-doctor who was the boss. I judged he was speakin' in my favor, but the old fellow shook his head an' waved a hand at the separate hut. The whole crowd set up a yell o' 'Pongo!' Then they threw me into the hut.

"I stayed there for eight days, too. Ye'll mind that there were just eight slaves an' mysel' in the party. They treated me well, fed me fine, but every night I heard a big jamboree goin' on. On the ninth evenin'

they brought me out. The village was surrounded by the usual thorn zareba, an' the whole tribe was gathered just inside the gates, feastin'. Mbopo an' three others tied me up an' carried me out halfway to the separate hut. Here they laid me on the ground beside a small fire.

"The old wizened chap came out after us with a long iron which he stuck in the fire. Then he pulled off my s.h.i.+rt an' did--this." Captain Mac slipped down his s.h.i.+rt collar and exposed the scarred shoulder that Critch had seen on the boat. As the others gathered around with exclamations of astonishment, Burt could see that the scar was in the form of a cross, except that a long loop took the place of the head-piece. Besides this, the whole shoulder seemed a ma.s.s of cicatrices.

"Yon's the shape o' the bit o' wood I found in Yusuf's packet," went on Montenay, when Mr. Wallace interrupted him in wonder.

"Mac! Do you know what that symbol is?"

"It's the sign o' Pongo," returned the other. "From what I saw later it had to do wi' ancient Egypt--"

"I should say it had!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Wallace, sinking back into his chair and staring at Montenay, who slipped his s.h.i.+rt back into position.

"Why, that sign is the Egyptian cross, or ankh--the symbol of life, and the peculiar insignia of Maat, the ancient G.o.ddess of Truth!"

"So I found out, if ye'd given me time to finish," replied Montenay drily. "Mbopo an' the rest staked me out there an' left me. What wi' the burn an' the insects that settled down, I was pretty nigh gone inside an hour. The fire was out, an' just after moonrise I heard a 'pad-pad' o'

steps near by. Then a minute later I caught one glimpse of a monstrous lion, just as he sprang an' grabbed me by the wounded shoulder. That finished me for sure, and I fainted."

CHAPTER X

THE SACRED ANKH

"When I came to," continued Montenay, "I thought sure I was crazy. I was lyin' in a palm-thatch hut, on a floor littered wi' bones an' refuse an'

smellin' to high heaven. To one side was a little dish full o' palm oil, with a lighted wick floatin' in it. Leanin' up against the wall, behind the lamp, was a big painted mummy. Layin' in front o' the mummy was an ankh, four foot long an' made out o' solid gold."

"What!" Mr. Wallace stared at the other, almost speechless. The two boys, fascinated by the deadly earnestness of Montenay's recital, were pale with excitement. "But go ahead, man. I can talk later."

"I was still trussed up like a turkey, but I wriggled and squirmed until I got loose. My shoulder was badly torn up," went on Captain Mac, "and I was nigh frantic wi' the pain. A little o' the palm oil helped, but wi'

them things around me I thought sure I was crazy. I crawled to the door, an' found I was in the hut inside the ivory zareba.

"The whole business must ha' gone to my head, for I don't remember very well what happened then. I know I went back to the mummy an' saw that his neck was torn open. There was somethin' s.h.i.+nin', and I grabbed at it. Just then I heard somethin' behind me, an' there was the big lion, standin' and las.h.i.+n' his tail. I remember laughing, then I caught up the lamp an' flung it at him. The oil blazed up as the vessel smashed him fair between the eyes, he gave a roar, and I fainted again.

"Next I remember was Mbopo bending over me. The poor fellow had come to the hut in the mornin' an' found me. It seemed that I had been staked out as a sacrifice to Pongo. This Pongo was a combination o' the lion and ankh. The ankh was the real G.o.d, but the lion had taken up livin' in the hut, so the lion was called Pongo and wors.h.i.+pped as the reg'lar deity. In short, whoever had possession o' the ankh could boss the whole country. Pongo, which was the lion, had carried me to the hut. I was in possession o' the hut an' was the first who had ever escaped the sacrifice. Therefore, I was sacred and in the way o' bein' a G.o.d mysel'. I didn't find this all out right off, mind. I stayed in that village for six months.

"I taught Mbopo some English an' learned some pigmy talk. No, I didn't bother none whatever wi' the lion. He showed up later an' took possession o' the hut again. My shoulder was a long time healin' and I guess my nerve was gone for a while. Man, but I wanted to carry off that gold ankh an' that ivory! But the thing was impossible. After six months I got a chance while I was out wi' hunters, and I lit out. I worked my way out by strikin' a bunch of Arabs who treated me white. That's the yarn."

There was a moment of silence. Burt and Critch stared at Montenay in fascination. Mr. Wallace was looking down at the table. Finally he glanced up and spoke, slowly.

"Mac, you said something about proofs."

"I did that." Captain Mac unbuckled his belt, and took a small silk-wrapped package from it. "I told ye that I grabbed something from the mummy. Here it is."

Mr. Wallace unwrapped the package, while the boys leaned over his shoulder in high excitement. From the oiled silk fell out three linked scarabs, set in wrought gold. Critch gave a gasp, but Mr. Wallace turned over the scarabs and held them closer to the light as he examined their inscriptions.

"Hm!" he exclaimed at length. "Montenay, your proofs are pretty good.

This seems to have formed part of a necklace belonging to one Ta-En-User, high priest of Maat. I should say the scarabs belonged to about the Twenty-first Dynasty."

"Ye're no child yersel'," chuckled Captain Mac in delight. "That's just what they told me at the British Museum. Now, here's another queer thing.

"Ye know more about old Egypt than I do, Wallace. From what I could learn from Mbopo, it seemed that long ago these white pigmies migrated from the east to where they are now. On their way they struck a half-ruined "City of the G.o.ds," as Mbopo called it. They brought away a lot o' stuff from there, which they looked on as sacred. All that's left is the mummy and the ankh. Is that possible?"

"Possible," returned Mr. Wallace, "but hardly probable. They might have run across one of the extreme southern Egyptian cities, and indeed that would be the only logical explanation of the presence of these things so far west. Yes, the tradition must be true. It's a strange bit of prehistoric African history you've run into, Mac."

"It is that," rejoined the other. "Well, for a year I've been tryin' to make up a party to carry off that ivory an' that gold ankh. I got hold o' Tom Reynolds at Cairo, an' put it up to him. He called me a plain fool. I found McConnell in London. He laughed at the yarn. I tried to find you, but ye'd vanished around Tripoli. So at last I came down to tackle the job alone.

"When I struck your party, I knew right off that wi' the laddies along ye'd never tackle it. Man, I was fair desperate! I determined to lead ye off to the edge o' the pigmy country, where we are now, an' then put it up to ye. There ye are, Wallace. Will ye come in wi' me an' try it? The pigmies won't hurt me, mind."

Mr. Wallace stared at the scarabs. Burt stole a glance at his chum, and the two waited in breathless interest, not daring to urge the project.

At length Mr. Wallace sighed.

"You've tempted me, Mac, tempted me more than you know! I'd like nothing better than to make a dash for that place with you--not only for the treasure, but for the discoveries we could make. But with the boys here it is impossible. I am responsible for them, and I dare not go off and leave them in this country. If you'd told me this back up the river I'd have left them at the trading station and made a dash in with you."

"Oh, uncle!" burst out Burt, dismayed. "Ain't it perfectly safe? Take us! Let's all go! Cap'n Mac says they won't hurt him; he's a kind o'

G.o.d, an' he can fix it so's we'll all--"

"No," broke in his uncle decisively. "I refuse to take the risk, Burt.

No use, lad. That's final. You'll have to trust to my judgment in this affair."

"Ye're right," nodded Montenay dejectedly. "I can't blame ye, Wallace.

But do ye understand? Ye won't hold the compa.s.s business against me--"

Mr. Wallace sprang to his feet and held out his hand.

"Nonsense! Shake, old chap, and forget it!" And the two clasped hands silently, while the boys gave a shout of delight.

"I knew it!" cried Burt joyously, dancing around the two men. "I knew Cap'n Mac was all right! Hurray!"

"I wish you'd take us an' get after them white pigmies, though," put in Critch disconsolately.

"I'd certainly like to get hold of that mummy," a.s.serted Mr. Wallace, his eyes sparkling. "To say nothing of the ankh!"

"An' to say nothin' o' the ivory an' gold," laughed Montenay.

"But," cried Burt excitedly, "why didn't you get after that lion an'

kill him? I should ha' thought you'd do that right away!"

"No," and Montenay shook his head. "As I told ye, my nerve was pretty well gone, laddy. The pigmies had guns, but they were old trade-muskets.

None o' them except Mbopo, mebbe, would ha' stood up to the lion. That chap Mbopo was a good sort. He stood by me right along, took care o' me when I was sick wi' fever, cured up my wounds, an' learned to speak pa.s.sable Scots dialect. It was amusin' to hear the boy speak the tongue."

"That feudal business interests me," said Mr. Wallace thoughtfully. "Was this Mbopo a chief?"

"I don't know, rightly," returned the other. "The old witch-doctor was the boss, but Mbopo seemed to be second in charge. The women o' the place cultivated yams an' plantains, while the men hunted. They didn't seem to use poison, like the black dwarfs. That's another queer thing.

They had poisoned weapons, right enough, but they got supplies o' the stuff from the blacks. Ye mind, the Wambuti and other black dwarfs are simply parasites on the bigger tribes. Well, these white chaps were parasites on the black dwarfs, near's I could figure it out."

Critch related what had happened on the launch coming upstream, when the black boy had caught a glimpse of Montenay's shoulder. The eccentric explorer laughed heartily.