Across the Cameroons Part 9

The spy was still so terrified and so weakened from exhaustion that it was all he could do to walk. With faltering steps he stumbled towards the dangling rope, and Harry feared that he would fall and wake the sleeping Germans.

Peter Klein took hold of the swinging creeper and did his best to climb.

Presently he looked round at Harry with an expression of despair upon his face.

"I can't do it!" he groaned in broken English.

"You must," said the boy. "Your life depends upon it. Once you get to the top you are safe. They cannot follow you. They have no rope, and will be obliged to go a long way round."

These words had the desired effect upon the spy. Fear, on occasion, is a great stimulant; it sometimes leads a man to perform prodigies of strength that he could never accomplish in calmer moments. Hand over hand the man scrambled to the top of the ravine, and there lay down, panting and exhausted.

Harry followed quickly. At the top he hauled up the creeper, and then looked down again.

The soldiers were still asleep. The commanding officer himself was snoring like a pig.

Shaking in all his limbs, Peter Klein rose to his feet and seized Harry by the hand.

"Heaven reward you!" he exclaimed. "You have saved my life, for I verily believe those villains would have shot me."

CHAPTER XI--A Shot from the Clouds

It is a remarkable fact that all this time Jim Braid had been sound asleep. Once inside the trunk of the hollow, shattered tree, he had found himself unable to overcome a feeling of drowsiness which by degrees completely got the better of him. Klein, on the other hand, had apparently received such a shock to his nervous system chat in spite of his extreme exhaustion he found it impossible to sleep. Also he had a dread of being left alone. He implored Harry, who had led him some way back into the forest, to remain at his side till dawn.

For the time being, they had nothing to fear from the German soldiers, who were at the bottom of the ravine and unable to reach them. Still, they could not continue their march, since without the guides they were lost and would not know which way to go. But so long as they remained where they were, there was always a chance that one, or both, of the brothers would return.

"Tell me," asked Urquhart, "how is it that I find you a prisoner in the hands of those who should be your friends?"

"It is a very simple story," said Peter Klein. "We left Dualla a few weeks ago. The party consisted of Captain von Hardenberg, our guide--an Arab sheikh--two native carriers, and myself. The Governor of Dualla wished von Hardenberg to join the force which is to oppose the British.

Hardenberg was given an important command. But, since he had other business to attend to--which he himself considered of greater importance--in plain words, he deserted; and we endeavoured to penetrate the bush.

"For some days we journeyed without event. Then we discovered that we were tracked, and were obliged to fly for our lives.

"One night a shot was fired into our camp. And after that, day by day, we were hara.s.sed and tormented, until two nights ago a raid was made upon our bivouac. They came upon us from all sides at once. We were outnumbered by twenty to one. No course lay open to us but flight. The two natives went one way. They rushed into a large party of soldiers, and there is every reason to believe they laid down their lives. Von Hardenberg and the sheikh took to the hills, climbing the bare slope, and I think they managed to escape. As for myself, I fled downhill with a score of native soldiers at my heels.

"All yesterday I was pursued. I fled for my life across interminable valleys, across the hills, striving to reach the bush, where I knew I would be safe. Sometimes I found myself buried in the gloom of forests; at others I stood upon the edge of precipices so deep that the clouds were at my feet.

"Late last evening I was overtaken. They bound my hands behind my back and scourged me with a whip. They gave me to understand they would eventually put me to a traitor's death; but they thought more of von Hardenberg and Sheikh Bayram than they did of me. They were for ever asking me which way he had gone--just as if I could tell them what I did not know myself! When they brought me to the ravine, yonder, I was too fatigued and too disturbed in mind to sleep. And then you saved me at the eleventh hour. That is all my story."

Harry was silent for some moments.

"You have not told me," he said, "why you have come to this forsaken part of the world, or why von Hardenberg--who is my cousin--deserted from the Germans?"

Klein lowered his eyes. It seemed he was not incapable of feeling ashamed.

"The Sunstone," said he, quite quietly.

"My cousin has the Sunstone in his possession?"

"I have seen it," answered Klein. "He carries it upon his person. He never lets it out of his possession. He would not even let me touch it.

He has had a special pocket made for it in the inside of his coat, on the left-hand side."

"You must be frank with me," said Harry.

"You saved my life," said the other.

"Then listen to the true story of the Sunstone. You doubtless know that my cousin stole it from my uncle, but you are perhaps ignorant of the fact that, to cover his own guilt, he wrongfully accused one who was innocent. I presume my cousin went to you and explained that, once he got to Maziriland with the Sunstone in his possession, he had acquired riches beyond all dreams. I suppose you agreed to go with him, to share and share alike? I suppose, also, that, in spite of the fact that our nations are at war, you consider the Sunstone of far greater importance than your Fatherland?"

"To my shame," said Peter Klein, "that is--or was--the truth. I sold my honour for gold long ago. I would not say that in Europe, in London or Berlin, but here we are in the very midst of death, and all things are different--or perhaps, we see all things with very different eyes."

"At least," said Harry, "you are honest now."

"I am a coward," the man confessed.

"You must see," Urquhart went on, "that you have no moral right to this money, even should the treasure be discovered. However, I have not come here to recover the treasure, so much as to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemies of my country. I am determined to capture the Sunstone, be the risk and danger what it may be."

Klein shook his head.

"He will not part with it," said he. "He is a desperate man."

"I will make him part with it," cried Harry, "once I run the rascal to earth."

"He is a desperate man," repeated the other. "He dare not return to Germany. He would be court-martialled, and probably shot. He will not part with the Sunstone at a lesser price than his life."

"I am sorry for him," said Harry, "because he is doubly a traitor. When the guest of the British nation he was to all intents and purposes a spy; he swindled you; and now, in the midst of war, he proves himself a traitor once again."

Peter Klein was silent, his thin fingers playing nervously. The strain of the past few days had seriously affected his health; he was suffering from a kind of St. Vitus's dance. He was never still for a moment.

"It is strange," said he, "that you think so much of the Sunstone. Long since I had forgotten all about it. I have now but one idea--to get back to Europe, if I can. I dare not return to my home, which is in Frankfort. I intend to end my days in Denmark."

It was then that somewhere in the forest, near at hand, a twig broke.

Both sprang instantly to their feet.

A dark figure came suddenly out of the thickets, and Urquhart, with his finger upon the trigger of his revolver, was about to fire, when he was arrested by a voice.

"Is that you, Mr. Harry?"

It was the voice of Jim Braid.

"What is it, Jim?"

Braid came forward in the darkness. The moon was now low in the heavens. In the east, through the tree-tops, there was a steel-blue arc of light, heralding the approach of day. It was as if even the abundant vegetation of the jungle was itself awakening after sleep. When he was quite close to Harry, Braid took him by the arm.

"I have news for you," said he. "There's an uproar in the ravine. The Germans have discovered their prisoner has escaped."

"Here he is," said Harry, making a motion of the hand towards Peter Klein.