Zero the Slaver Part 11

That night all slept an uneasy, troubled sleep, for the common hall was packed to suffocation with men, women, and children; and as almost all the late combatants were more or less wounded--many very severely so-- the building was more like a hospital than anything else, and no one was particularly sorry when the great doors were opened in the morning, and an announcement was made by the officer on guard that all must leave the place to obtain food, and that the Holy Three would sit in judgment upon the prisoners at high noon that very day.

This judgment was a very impressive affair, and was held in the public hall. In two long lines sat the combatants of the previous day, facing one another on opposite sides of a square, and all closely guarded by the Mormon host. At the head of the room sat the Ancient Prophet, supported by two other very venerable-looking men--these three being the accredited representatives in Africa of the Mormon Holy Three--whilst at the lower end of the square, huddled together like frightened sheep, were the women and children of Equatoria, who knew not what to expect from the stern judges, whose iron code of laws was, they were well aware, as unchanging as the laws of the Medes and Persians.

Kenyon, who was, of course, by profession, a physiognomist, completely forgot all his own personal danger in the absorbing interest which he took in the varied and changing expressions of the anxious faces which surrounded him on every hand.

The fallen and discomfited slavers looked what they were--partly sullen, partly indifferent, and wholly despairing, for well they knew that no mercy could be expected at the hands of the tribunal into whose clutches they had fallen; Zero, utterly mad with rage, and sulky as a bear; whilst it almost made the beholder laugh to notice the striking faces of Amaxosa the Zulu, and Barad, the Chieftain of the Stick. The eyes of these men were positively like coals of fire, and were absolutely riveted on the hated countenance of the slaver-chief, who seemed almost uneasy under the burning intensity of their threatening gaze.

Grenville, chivalrous as ever, was busily endeavouring to infuse hope and comfort into the heart of poor Lady Drelincourt, who was the only person in the a.s.sembly allowed to sit in the presence of the judges.

When perfect silence had been obtained, the old Prophet rose to his feet and commenced a direct and startling indictment of Zero and his band of ruffians, who had, he said, robbed and pillaged the fraternity of the Elect in the most impudent and bare-faced manner, and had, moreover, murdered out of hand a number of messengers, who had been sent to them with positive instructions from head-quarters, to return at once to Salt Lake City, report themselves without delay to the Holy Mormon Trinity, and render a full account of their stewards.h.i.+p; and in consequence of Zero's disregarding these definite and repeated commands, the Prophet had, he explained, been sent out with a very great array of the Saints by the Three Unsleeping Ones, who watched over the welfare of the one true faith, and whose written instructions he carried with him, to demolish the stronghold of these audacious rebels, and to execute fully retributive justice upon these men of sin, whose evil and wicked doings had come up, with very evil savour, into the nostrils of the Holy Ones who dwelt across the seas, whilst in Africa he had himself found that, owing to the outrageous conduct of these reprobates, the very name of Mormonism had become a by-word for all that was wholly and irredeemably bad.

The Prophet then brought forward a number of witnesses to prove unauthorised deeds of violence and of blood against Zero and his band, all being without exception cla.s.sed in the one dreadful category, and the testimony of one of these not only proved the slaver-chief to have been guilty of countless murders in Africa, but deposed that, in the speaker's own un-regenerate days, he had himself been an eye-witness of the shooting of Mr Harmsworth in New York--this diabolical and cold-blooded murder having, as Kenyon had opined, been committed by the hand of Zero, in revenge for what he considered to be a personal slight.

The aged Prophet then consulted briefly with the two elders who were his co-representatives in Africa of the Mormon Trinity, and, once again rising to his feet, briefly and clearly p.r.o.nounced _sentence of death_.

The whole of the renegade band would die by the rifle at sundown that very night, and their carcases would be thrown to the wild beasts of prey, whilst Zero himself would be _crucified at noon on the following day_, and his body would be left to the vultures and the crows.

The sentence was evidently what all had foreseen; for, with the exception of a very few despairing shrieks from the women, there was neither voice nor sound.

The old Mormon concluded his harangue by saying that the women and children would be conveyed by his men to the nearest seaport town, and their pa.s.sage paid to any civilised country they desired to reach, after which the Brotherhood of the Saints entirely washed their hands of them.

For a brief instant one could have heard a pin drop, then from the poor creatures at the bottom of that living square there went up one mighty gasp of intense relief, followed by a babel of blessings upon their ancient judge, from which it was quite clear that the poor wretches, who were, most of them, more sinned against than sinning, had fully expected to find themselves and their little ones devoted to the same red grave as their wicked lords and masters.

As the old Prophet ceased speaking, Kenyon suddenly started to his feet, holding up his hand to attract the attention of the judges, and when silence again reigned supreme, and when every eye in that vast a.s.semblage was curiously fixed upon him, quietly but clearly, he spoke out.

"Sir," he said, "I know, and fully admit, your powers of judgment here, by the right of might; but you also are an American, as I am, and I, therefore, ask that, in courtesy to the Stars and Stripes, you will even yield to my prior claim upon the body of this scoundrel, Zero, and allow the executioner of the States, to end his sinful life."

"Who art thou, and whence knowest thou me?" queried the astonished Mormon.

"I, sir," was the cool reply, "am Stanforth Kenyon, of the New York Detective Force, and I have followed this fellow hither from the New World, just as you have done, and, having been the first to find him, I, therefore, think my claim the best, and my case, the Harmsworth murder, on American ground, being now indubitably proved by your own witness, this Zero can no longer now escape the law."

"By repute, I know you well, Detective Kenyon," came the answer, "but Uncle Sam, for once, goes empty-handed. The Elect, as you very well know, recognise no law outside themselves, and allow no interference with their affairs, on the part of the unbelieving and accursed Gentiles. Nay," as Kenyon attempted to speak again, "I cannot hear you further. I sit here, with my colleagues, as the representatives of the heaven-taught Holy Three, and what I _have_ said I _have_ said."

Then, after another short conference with his fellows, the old Mormon announced that the business of the meeting was now concluded, and that his decision with regard to the disposal of the remaining prisoners would be announced at noon next day.

All were at once returned to their prison in the common hall, with the exception of the wretched slavers, who, to the number of nearly three hundred, were immediately led out to execution, and were shot, like mad dogs, in accordance with the unchanging decree of the Mormon Holy Three, whilst Zero, heavily ironed, was forthwith consigned to the condemned cell in the public building, knowing that he must, in a few hours, suffer the extreme agonies of the awful death by torture, which he had himself often and often inflicted upon his helpless and unresisting fellow-creatures.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

"A FRIEND IN NEED."

That very night, when our friends were conversing together in the house of their prison, a guard appeared with a small note, which he handed to Kenyon, and signified that he was to await his answer.

At once tearing open the cover, the wonder-stricken detective read the simple message:--

"Follow the bearer.

"Weston Abbott ('Noughts and Crosses')."

Springing to his feet in joyful haste, he quietly whispered to Grenville, "A friend at court! by Jove, old man! The note is from Uncle Sam's own trusted correspondent in Salt Lake City. We're in luck again," and, indicating to the officer his willingness to comply with the instructions contained in the note, Kenyon quickly followed the man out of the hall.

To the astonishment of our friend, the fellow led him directly to the ancient Prophet's room, where he found the old man very comfortably domiciled, and prepared to receive him most kindly, though still in a strictly business-like manner.

"Well, Mr Kenyon," he said, "so in this out-of-the-way part of the world we meet at last, and I a.s.sure you that it gives me pleasure to know you personally. I am the man who wrote this note, and am also your regular and constant correspondent in Salt Lake City.

"Now, I want you just to tell me the whole history of this affair, and why I find you here at the ends of the earth, when I thought you in New York. Tell me all; for, I a.s.sure you, we are at our wits' end to know how to deal with these English people, whom, particularly the woman and child, I rather shrink from slaying."

Kenyon then gave him a full, true, and particular account of the whole expedition, adding that the presence of Lady Drelincourt in Equatoria was still an enigma to him, as he believed her dead in England, slain by Zero's hand; but that the poor woman was still so weak and hysterical that they had not liked to question her, especially whilst her recovered husband hung between life and death. The detective also touched warily upon the destruction of East Utah by Grenville and his friends some years before, palliating their conduct there, by pointing out how very necessary it had seemed to them to rescue Miss Winfield and her father from their captors. To Kenyon's surprise, however, the old Mormon frankly told him that Grenville had in this case, also, only antic.i.p.ated the intentions of the Holy Three in Utah itself, where they had absolutely enrolled an army of the Saints to eat up the whole of this rebellious African community as soon as they could find out the precise whereabouts of East Utah--a task which had, however, proved too difficult for them; and Zero's idea had been to found a colony of his own, supported by the abominable traffic in slaves, and, by drawing into it (under the name of Mormonism) all the cut-throats and scoundrels he could lay hands on, to make the community much too strong for even the Saints to overcome him or prevail against him, and eventually no doubt, by exercising the power of the enormous wealth which he had wrung from suffering flesh and blood, to usurp the supreme authority in Salt Lake City itself.

Far into the night this curious pair sat talking of matters vitally interesting to both, and though the old Prophet would not absolutely commit himself to any promise regarding Kenyon's friends, he willingly undertook to do his best for them, adding that, so far as he was concerned, he rather liked them all, and should be glad to do the detective a good turn by setting them all free, but that there were many matters of policy to be considered by himself and his colleagues ere they could see their way to any definite decision upon this head.

In the morning, when Grenville and Kenyon were released from the room which they had been allotted, next to that occupied by the still unconscious Leigh and his anxious wife and child, they were surprised to notice the unusual quiet which overhung the place, but soon found that one of the old Mormon's earliest measures of policy had consisted in starting off to the southward the whole of the female population of Equatoria at dawn, accompanied by their children, and convoyed by five hundred of his own well-armed band.

Immediately breakfast was over, every soul remaining in the town was summoned to another grand a.s.sembly, at which it was formally announced, to the astonishment and annoyance of everyone, that Zero had succeeded in filing through his fetters, and had decamped in the night, together with the Zulu Amaxosa and the Chieftain of the Stick, and, therefore, said the stern judges, when these men were recaptured, all three would be crucified without mercy, and Zero, for this additional offence, would be _nailed head-downwards to the awful cross_.

The prophet then proceeded to say that, after due and careful consideration of the whole peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case, the Holy Three had decided to give life and unconditional freedom to all the rest of the prisoners, both white and black, and to present them in addition with large and handsome rewards for the way in which they had acted, as there could be no doubt that the fearful slaughter inflicted by the English party upon the rebel crew, had alone saved the Mormon community from having to fight several severe battles, from losing very many lives of valued men, and perhaps, owing to their lack of knowledge of the district, failing, after all, to accomplish their desired object. For the gentle English lady, and for the injured "People of the Stick," the Holy Three had nothing but sympathy, and had, therefore, decided to apportion the immense spoil taken from Zero--amounting to nearly a million of money--into three equal parts: one for the Mormon community, one for the Atagbondo--to enable them to rebuild their kraals, to buy new wives and weapons, and stock their enclosures with oxen and with goats--and the third share for the English-Zulu party, who had behaved so well and fought so grandly, and amongst whom was cla.s.sed Detective Kenyon of Uncle Sam's police.

It was a bold course to take, and the old Mormon had unquestionably done a wise thing when he weeded out, and started on the home journey in charge of the women and children of Equatoria, all the possible malcontents of his own band. Still, the Mormons had already seen such a lot of bloodshed that they probably thought the course adopted by their leaders to be the wisest; at all events, they raised no voice against it.

The aged Prophet had, as he afterwards confided to Kenyon, positively no other course open to him under his instructions: either he must declare the party guilty, and cut them off, one and all, absolutely without exception; or he must liberate them unconditionally, congratulate them upon the success of their actions, and give them large rewards for the valuable services they had rendered to the community in destroying the slavers; and this latter course the old gentleman had, fortunately, seen his way to take.

The old fellow would, however, listen to no word of pleading or of explanation for either Amaxosa or Barad, and frankly said that he dared not leave the country until Zero was known to be actually dead, as otherwise he would himself get into very serious trouble at head-quarters, and experience an unpleasantly warm time of it on his return; and he accepted with grateful alacrity Kenyon's offer to a.s.sist with his own party in the search for the missing man--an offer which Grenville gladly concurred in, saying that none of them could know a moment's perfect rest until this slippery villain was finally disposed of.

To our friends, the unexplained absence of Amaxosa and of the Chieftain of the Stick was, of course, a complete enigma. Only of this one thing were they sure: that, though both might have either followed or have preceded the slaver-chief--probably the former--they certainly had not escaped along with him, but would, on the contrary, never rest until the rascal's life-blood had washed their spears and clubs.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

A FORCED MARCH.

After arranging with the old Mormon to start out with Grenville and a scouting party of Zulus at dawn of day, Kenyon turned into the room jointly occupied by himself and Grenville; but, both being overwrought by the events of the day, entirely failed to find the sleep they sought, and finally rose and strolled outside for a moonlight smoke, carefully taking with them their restored and treasured rifles. Both felt relatively happy, for the fear of death--and, however brave a man may be, a violent death is still a fearsome thing--the fear of death, I say, no longer weighed upon them; and the fact that Leigh had that night taken a favourable turn, which placed him out of danger, had also lifted a load of sorrow from the heart of each; and as they strolled quietly along, the pair talked pleasantly of home and friends, and of an early start for England.

Just as the twain reached the limits of their stroll, and were about to turn back and have another try to sleep, Grenville's keen eye detected a movement in the long gra.s.s at his right hand. Throwing forward his rifle, he was about to fire, when a shrill, peculiar whistle broke upon the night air, and, dropping the b.u.t.t of his rifle upon the ground, he stood expectant, whilst Amaxosa coolly stalked forth from his lair, and, advancing to where they stood, gravely saluted them.

"Greeting, Inkoosis, greeting," said the great Zulu; "it does my heart good to see ye free again, and gun in hand. And now, my brothers, lead me, I pray ye, to the ancient man of this people of many women and three kings, for I have news to tell him--news which will not wait; and ye must be my mouth to him, O chiefs!"

"My brother," answered Grenville, laying a hand kindly on the shoulder of his stalwart friend, "knowest thou that, because of thy departure, he has sentenced thee to death; ay, thee, and Barad the Hailstorm with thee."

"Nay, my father," replied the Zulu, "I knew it not, nor do I care whether I live or die; yet do I think the ancient one will gladly hear my words."

Quickly returning to the public hall, Kenyon sent in word to the old Prophet that the Zulu chief had returned of his own accord, and had news of much importance for his private ear.

A few minutes elapsed, and then all were ushered into the united presence of the Holy Three, where, utterly disregarding the frowning looks cast upon him, the great Zulu thus commenced his stirring tale:--

"Hear my words, O ye ancient ones, and let the message of the child of the Zulu sink down into your ears; for his words are heavy words to hear, yet come they from a straight and friendly tongue."

Then addressing himself to Grenville, "Yesternight, my father," he began, speaking rapidly and forcibly in Zulu--"yesternight I had it in my mind that Zero, the Black One, would escape and break his bonds, and in the same mind was also the Chieftain of the Stick; he knew no speech of mine, nor knew I aught of his, my father, yet eye looked into eye, and each knew well the secret thought of each.