Into the Unknown Part 11

The Zulu watched them like a lynx, but what was his astonishment and even delight to behold the master whom he had believed to be dead, standing amongst his enemies; with great chains upon his hands and feet, it is true, yet still alive and well, and preserving upon his face the impress of that habitual coolness and determined bravery which had so won upon the heart of this untutored savage.

With longing eyes Amaxosa gazed upon his friend, but he was a shrewd man as well as a courageous one, and he foresaw that any attempt at a rescue could at this moment have no good result, but rather the reverse.

Just as the two bands parted, Grenville was forced up against the wall, and quick as lightning the Zulu shot out his hand and dropped a small pistol into his friend's coat-pocket. So neatly was the action performed that our hero, who had been roused out of his sleep, and led away to be interviewed, he was told, by the Holy Three, did not know what had happened, thinking he had only knocked his side against a corner; but on moving his hand directly after, his forearm struck something heavy, and carefully feeling in his pocket, his fingers closed like a vice on his own favourite Derringer, and in an instant he realised that he had stood within a foot or two of his devoted Zulu friend without knowing it. Cautiously hiding the pistol in his breast, where his chained hands could more easily reach it, he found himself once more ushered into the presence of the Mormon Trinity.

As soon as the guards had retired, which they did at a sign from the Mormon prophet, the triumvirate commenced to question Grenville upon the number of his friends, the quant.i.ty of their ammunition, the range of their weapons, and so forth.

To all these reiterated inquiries he made no answer save an amused smile.

Then Brother Ishmael Warden, as usual, lost his temper.

"Dog of an Englishman!" he thundered, "answer or you die."

"Death," was the cutting reply, "is the home which welcomes brave men, the shadow which frightens cowards. Our rifles are more than sufficient to sweep from the face of the earth the few men your nation has left."

The Prophet now interposed, and, to Grenville's amused disgust, offered him life and magnificent terms if he would throw in his lot with them and conform to their laws, bringing his party and his weapons with them.

To all these offers he had but one answer:--

"I am the conqueror, you the conquered--it is for me to offer terms, not for you; and if I must die, why the sooner the better; but merely to save my life I will never consent to herd with murderers, thieves, and vagabonds. Listen, you three misguided men. Here are the terms Richard Grenville dictates, and think well ere you refuse them:--This country is now the property of her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India. You, the so-called Holy Three, will at once abdicate and give up your power to the young girl known as the Rose of Sharon, Queen of the Mormon people by hereditary right, returning to her all her moneys, lands, and property feloniously retained by you. To me, and to my party, as your conquerors, you will pay twenty thousand ounces of gold, and provide us with bearers for same, and guides out of the country forthwith. I have spoken."

Suddenly Warden sprang to his feet, fairly foaming at the mouth--

"Here!" he yelled, "is your pa.s.sport out of the country and direct to h.e.l.l!" and levelling a pistol at Grenville's head, he fired. The bullet missed our hero by a hair's breadth--indeed, it grazed the side of his face--but the very next second Brother Ishmael Warden, the most universally-hated member of the Mormon Trinity, fell to the ground with a bullet through his heart, and Grenville coolly threw his pistol down, saying as he did so--

"The fellow was a dog, and like a dog he died;" then he quietly looked his remaining judges in the face, and waited their action.

Father and son had sprung to their feet in fear upon seeing Grenville in possession of a weapon, but they now quietly sat down again, and his keen eye noted that upon the face of the old man there sat an expression of indifference, whilst the younger man obviously eyed the corpse of his late colleague with unconcealed relief, and looked at our hero with absolute approbation. Another circ.u.mstance, however, was significant to Grenville, and he had not failed to notice it; this was the fact that the guards could be heard pacing up and down outside the room, never seeming the least disturbed by the pistol-shots. It was, therefore, clear that murder in the presence of the Holy Three was far from being uncommon; indeed, when some minutes later the men entered, by order, to take him away, even before they observed the body of their late tyrant, Grenville saw looks of astonishment cast upon him.

And now an honour as unexpected as it was unsought was offered to the young Englishman, for father and son, having held a private conference, the elder man turned to Grenville, and in brief but distinct language offered him the seat of the man he had just killed, together with all its emoluments.

"Nay, my son," said he, as our friend was about to speak, "take time to think before you give your answer. I much wish to save you alive, but our laws are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, and by them the Holy Three, who have power of life and death, are obliged to condemn you, and you are too young to die. In the one way indicated we can save you.

Live, then, and become the prop of our Holy State."

"Sir," replied Grenville, moved by the kindly manner of the patriarch as no threats would ever have moved him, "I appreciate your kind wishes, and G.o.d forbid I should insult the beard of a man old enough to be my grandsire, but I regard your faith and your own exalted office here with utter abhorrence and loathing. I have a most healthy contempt for your laws and your nation, and having the courage of my opinions I prefer to die for them."

The old prophet eyed him sadly for a moment; then his face grew stem, and drawing himself up proudly, "'Tis well," he said, "ere long, foolish headstrong youth, thou wilt regret thine impetuosity. At sundown, three days hence, you die by the rifle--farewell." Then touching a small gong, "Guards, remove the prisoner;" and as he noted the looks of the officer directed at Warden's corpse lying in a pool of blood, "Brother Harper, remove this body, and see that the Saints are notified of the decease of a member of the Holy Trinity, and the necessity of choosing out one of the elect to supply his place."

The officer merely bowed, and the guard then removed Grenville; but as soon as they got outside the officer turned to his prisoner, asking eagerly, "Did you kill yonder fiend?"

"I did," replied our hero coolly, "and I'm sure I never killed a greater scoundrel in all my life."

In reply the officer seized Grenville's hand and shook it heartily.

"You are a plucky fellow," he said; "if you _have_ killed about half our people, you've prevented that scoundrel from making away with the other half. Tell me, did you shoot Radford Custance?"

"I did," was the stern reply; "the coward struck a man who had his hands tied."

"Well," rejoined the other, "taken all through we owe you a debt of grat.i.tude. It's a shame to shoot you; but what must be--must be, you know."

"Quite so," responded Grenville, cheerfully, "don't let us fall out over that; I see the necessity, I have done my work, and I am ready to go.

But look here, my friend; your prophet--very nice old chap he is, too-- told me I was to die by the rifle. Now as you've no powder, how will you work it? Shall I give you a line to my people asking them to let you have a flask of your own powder for the occasion?"

"See here," replied the officer, "I owe you some information, and as you are to die I don't mind telling you we have just twelve charges of powder left in the whole community, and as you've used up all the rest we've decided to give you the benefit of what little we have left--it's a great compliment, let me tell you."

Thus laughing and talking they drew near the prison; but though Grenville had engaged in conversation with the Mormon, he had nevertheless been straining every faculty to try and discover the whereabouts of his Zulu friend. Nowhere, however, could he see him or detect any sign of his presence.

On seeing the prisoner into his cell, the officer again shook hands, and Grenville, with the intention of giving information to his friend if he were lying hidden close by, called out, "You'll come and see me to-morrow, won't you? I'm to be shot at sundown on Friday, you know; so you'll have to entertain me until then."

"With pleasure," was the laughing rejoinder. "Good-night!"

Grenville's precaution was well taken, for it so happened that Amaxosa had at that instant arrived within earshot of his friend's words, which he heard with a grunt of satisfaction, as he had feared that after causing the death of Warden--of which act he had been an unseen and exultant witness--his chief would have been executed at daybreak.

The audacity and self-abandonment of the Zulu on this night had been simply magnificent. He had fearlessly climbed to the window of the room in which he believed Grenville to be, and had watched every movement of friend and enemy with eyes like coals of fire; and ill would it have fared with the two remaining members of the Mormon Trinity had they attempted any further violence against their prisoner.

As it was, Amaxosa had watched the movements of the patriarch, and having seen him, after the departure of his colleague, open a strong box and take out a lot of papers similar to that which his friend, the Rose of Sharon, had recognised as her own, he had quietly slipped in, brained the venerable "witch-finder," and walked off with his possessions, coolly setting the house on fire before he departed, as silently as he had come. And now his fingers itched to slay the man who held the key to his friend's prison, but knowing that in a few minutes the whole place would be agog with the fire, and the death of the prophet, he decided to postpone his operations until the following night. "His father" knew he had been at his side, and Amaxosa was content.

Hardly had Grenville laid himself down to sleep than his prison door was torn open, and he found himself the centre of a raging mob of human beings, all clamouring for his life; and had his friend the officer not been at his side, our hero would have been lynched forthwith. Finding out at last that he was in some way accused of causing the death of the Mormon Patriarch, Grenville asked to be permitted to speak; and when silence had been obtained he briefly and succinctly related the night's events to the crowd--omitting of course the presence of the Zulu--and added meaningly, "You say your prophet has been murdered and the treasures of the Holy Three stolen. Believe me, I would never lift my hand against an old man who could not defend himself--I murder not, nor do I rob. With whomsoever you find the treasure, let him die; but do not attempt to sully my good name, which is all that is left to me now."

Finally, after the officer had harangued the crowd, he succeeded in getting rid of them; and congratulating Grenville on his escape, he again took his leave, when our friend once more laid himself down--not, however, to sleep at once, but to reflect on the events of the night.

Truth to tell, he was inclined to ascribe the murder and robbery of the Patriarch to one of the Mormon's own people, for though he knew Amaxosa hated the triumvirate with a bitter hatred, yet he, strange to say, was not given to "looting" in any shape or form; and Grenville was wholly at a loss to understand, moreover, how the Zulu could possibly have obtained access to the treasure chamber of the Mormon leader. In any case, he felt that whether Amaxosa was or was not responsible for the affair, he personally had lost a friend at Court, but that the Mormon community had at the same time been deprived of their best and wisest head.

Clearly there was nothing for the prisoner to do but to watch and wait.

He had made up his mind to die, but with sublime confidence in his friends he felt certain that some effort would be made to save him, and he was fully determined that when the attempt came off, it should at least not fail from lack of readiness on his part.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

IN DURANCE VILE.

As Leigh and his betrothed sat talking by the fire that night, and keeping watch until Amaxosa's return, they were surprised to see the sky suddenly lighten in the distance, and finally to observe great sheets of flame springing up in the direction of East Utah. These, however, soon died out, for, as it happened, the Mormon prophet's house stood entirely apart from the other buildings in the town, and so burnt itself out harmlessly in a very short s.p.a.ce of time.

In due course the Zulu arrived, and gave them in detail the events of the night, cheering the heavy hearts of Grenville's friends by a full account of his every word and action, and delighting poor little Rose, who had joined the party, by his recital of the scene in the Trinitarian room, where the man she secretly adored, had so courageously insisted upon her own hereditary rights, and then, though heavily ironed, had slain her pet abomination in the shape of Ishmael Warden.

A greater surprise was, however, in store for the young girl when Amaxosa coolly handed over to her the bundle of papers, telling how he had disposed of "the ancient and cunning man of the witch-finders," and brought away the property which he knew belonged to his "little sister, the Flower of East Utah."

The papers in question, which Rose perfectly recollected as having been her father's, consisted of a memorandum of contents, in which was folded what proved to be an immense bundle of paper money of almost all nations, the bulk, however, being Bank of England notes; and if the statement of account which enveloped these was correct, the entire value amounted to something like 150,000 pounds sterling.

The young girl received the congratulations of her friends very indifferently, being of course wholly ignorant of the value of money, only saying that if she thought the Mormons would give Grenville up in exchange for the papers, she would send them back at once, but that she knew that with the exception of the Holy Three, no one in East Utah ever appeared to attach the slightest importance to the valuable doc.u.ments.

After Leigh had consigned Rose's fortune to a safe place all retired to rest, with the exception of Myzukulwa, who kept guard until daybreak.

When breakfast had been disposed of, a council was called, into which the girls were, for once, admitted, and Amaxosa submitted a plan which he had formed, and which had for its object the release of Grenville that very night.

Dangerous it certainly was, and superbly audacious, but, nevertheless, extremely simple. All the Zulu proposed to do was to obtain access to the town in the usual way--by the river-bed, that is--and leaving Myzukulwa to watch outside the walls, he himself would steal in and kill the guard, unlock his friend's prison, and spirit him away, and so by a forced march to the plateau. With regard to arms, he declined to take any except his own and his brother's; the risk of their falling into Mormon hands was too great; but it was agreed that the pair should carry half a dozen of the Mormons' guns ready loaded, and hide these in the bush on their way down, so as to be handy at about half distance if required. It was, of course, very desirable that Grenville should be provided with his own weapons; but still, should these fall into the hands of the enemy, the destruction of the little band on the rock would become a mere question of time, and Leigh well knew that his cousin would be the very last to counsel him to run such a fearful risk on his account.

The plan, which seemed feasible enough, was discussed in every detail, and all, with apparently one exception, felt sanguine of its success.

That exception was the Zulu Myzukulwa. Not that he had anything to urge against the scheme, but he seemed dull, distrait, and cautious, and would only express his _hope_ that it might succeed, and that "the sight of the great chief, his father, might make his heart glad before he died."