Queen Sheba's Ring: Chapter 15

Chapter 15

SERGEANT QUICK HAS A PRESENTIMENT

From this time forward all of us, and especially Oliver, were guarded
night and day by picked men who it was believed could not be corrupted.
As a consequence, the Tsar of Russia scarcely leads a life more irksome
than ours became at Mur. Of privacy there was none left to us, since
sentries and detectives lurked at every corner, while tasters were
obliged to eat of each dish and drink from each cup before it touched
our lips, lest our fate should be that of Pharaoh, whose loss we mourned
as much as though the poor dog had been some beloved human being.

Most of all was it irksome, I think, to Oliver and Maqueda, whose
opportunities of meeting were much curtailed by the exigencies of this
rigid espionage. Who can murmur sweet nothings to his adored when two
soldiers armed to the teeth have been instructed never to let him out
of their sight? Particularly is this so if the adored happens to be the
ruler of those soldiers to whom the person guarded has no right to
be making himself agreeable. For when off duty even the most faithful
guardians are apt to talk. Of course, the result was that the pair took
risks which did not escape observation. Indeed, their intimate relations
became a matter of gossip throughout the land.

Still, annoying as they might be, these precautions succeeded, for none
of us were poisoned or got our throats cut, although we were constantly
the victims of mysterious accidents. Thus, a heavy rock rolled down upon
us when we sat together one evening upon the hill-side, and a flight
of arrows passed between us while we were riding along the edge of
a thicket, by one of which Higgs's horse was killed. Only when the
mountain and the thicket were searched no one could be found. Moreover,
a great plot against us was discovered in which some of the lords
and priests were implicated, but such was the state of feeling in the
country that, beyond warning them privately that their machinations were
known, Maqueda did not dare to take proceedings against these men.

A little later on things mended so far as we were concerned, for the
following reason: One day two shepherds arrived at the palace with some
of their companions, saying that they had news to communicate. On being
questioned, these peasants averred that while they were herding their
goats upon the western cliffs many miles away, suddenly on the top of
the hills appeared a body of fifteen Fung, who bound and blindfolded
them, telling them in mocking language to take a message to the Council
and to the white men.

This was the message: That they had better make haste to destroy the
god Harmac, since otherwise his head would move to Mur according to the
prophecy, and that when it did so, the Fung would follow as they knew
how to do. Then they set the two men on a rock where they could be
seen, and on the following morning were in fact found by some of their
fellows, those who accompanied them to the Court and corroborated this
story.

Of course the matter was duly investigated, but as I know, for I went
with the search party, when we got to the place no trace of the Fung
could be found, except one of their spears, of which the handle had been
driven into the earth and the blade pointed toward Mur, evidently
in threat or defiance. No other token of them remained, for, as it
happened, a heavy rain had fallen and obliterated their footprints,
which in any case must have been faint on this rocky ground.

Notwithstanding the most diligent search by skilled men, their mode of
approach and retreat remained a mystery, as, indeed, it does to this
day. The only places where it was supposed to be possible to scale
the precipice of Mur were watched continually, so that they could have
climbed up by none of these. The inference was, therefore, that the Fung
had discovered some unknown path, and, if fifteen men could climb that
path, why not fifteen thousand!

Only, where was this path? In vain were great rewards in land and
honours offered to him who should discover it, for although such
discoveries were continually reported, on investigation these were
found to be inventions or mares' nests. Nothing but a bird could have
travelled by such roads.

Then at last we saw the Abati thoroughly frightened, for, with
additions, the story soon passed from mouth to mouth till the whole
people talked of nothing else. It was as though we English learned that
a huge foreign army had suddenly landed on our shores and, having cut
the wires and seized the railways, was marching upon London. The effect
of such tidings upon a nation that always believed invasion to be
impossible may easily be imagined, only I hope that we should take them
better than did the Abati.

Their swagger, their self-confidence, their talk about the "rocky walls
of Mur," evaporated in an hour. Now it was only of the disciplined and
terrible regiments of the Fung, among whom every man was trained to war,
and of what would happen to them, the civilized and domesticated Abati,
a peace-loving people who rightly enough, as they declared, had refused
all martial burdens, should these regiments suddenly appear in their
midst. They cried out that they were betrayed--they clamoured for the
blood of certain of the Councillors. That carpet knight, Joshua, lost
popularity for a while, while Maqueda, who was known always to have been
in favour of conscription and perfect readiness to repel attack, gained
what he had lost.

Leaving their farms, they crowded together into the towns and villages,
where they made what in South Africa are called laagers. Religion, which
practically had been dead among them, for they retained but few traces
of the Jewish faith if, indeed, they had ever really practised it,
became the craze of the hour. Priests were at a premium; sheep and
cattle were sacrificed; it was even said that, after the fashion of
their foes the Fung, some human beings shared the same fate. At any
rate the Almighty was importuned hourly to destroy the hated Fung and
to protect His people--the Abati--from the results of their own base
selfishness and cowardly neglect.

Well, the world has seen such exhibitions before to-day, and will
doubtless see more of them in the instance of greater peoples who allow
luxury and pleasure-seeking to sap their strength and manhood.

The upshot of it all was that the Abati became obsessed with the
saying of the Fung scouts to the shepherds, which, after all, was but
a repetition of that of their envoys delivered to the Council a little
while before: that they should hasten to destroy the idol Harmac, lest
he should move himself to Mur. How an idol of such proportions, or even
its head, could move at all they did not stop to inquire. It was obvious
to them, however, that if he was destroyed there would be nothing to
move and, further, that we Gentiles were the only persons who could
possibly effect such destruction. So we also became popular for a little
while. Everybody was pleasant and flattered us--everybody, even Joshua,
bowed when we approached, and took a most lively interest in the
progress of our work, which many deputations and prominent individuals
urged us to expedite.

Better still, the untoward accidents such as those I have mentioned,
ceased. Our dogs, for we had obtained some others, were no longer
poisoned; rocks that appeared fixed did not fall; no arrows whistled
among us when we went out riding. We even found it safe occasionally to
dispense with our guards, since it was every one's interest to keep us
alive--for the present. Still, I for one was not deceived for a single
moment, and in season and out of season warned the others that the wind
would soon blow again from a less favourable quarter.

We worked, we worked, we worked! Heaven alone knows how we did work.
Think of the task, which, after all, was only one of several. A tunnel
must be bored, for I forget how far, through virgin rock, with the
help of inadequate tools and unskilled labour, and this tunnel must be
finished by a certain date. A hundred unexpected difficulties arose, and
one by one were conquered. Great dangers must be run, and were avoided,
while the responsibility of this tremendous engineering feat lay upon
the shoulders of a single individual, Oliver Orme, who, although he had
been educated as an engineer, had no great practical experience of such
enterprises.

Truly the occasion makes the man, for Orme rose to it in a way that
I can only call heroic. When he was not actually in the tunnel he was
labouring at his calculations, of which many must be made, or taking
levels with such instruments as he had. For if there proved to be the
slightest error all this toil would be in vain, and result only in the
blowing of a useless hole through a mass of rock. Then there was a
great question as to the effect which would be produced by the amount of
explosive at his disposal, since terrible as might be the force of the
stuff, unless it were scientifically placed and distributed it would
assuredly fail to accomplish the desired end.

At last, after superhuman efforts, the mine was finished. Our stock of
concentrated explosive, about four full camel loads of it, was set in
as many separate chambers, each of them just large enough to receive the
charge, hollowed in the prim�val rock from which the idol had been hewn.

These chambers were about twenty feet from each other, although if there
had been time to prolong the tunnel, the distance should have been
at least forty in order to give the stuff a wider range of action.
According to Oliver's mathematical reckoning, they were cut in the exact
centre of the base of the idol, and about thirty feet below the actual
body of the crouching sphinx. As a matter of fact this reckoning was
wrong in several particulars, the charges having been set farther
toward the east or head of the sphinx and higher up in the base than
he supposed. When it is remembered that he had found no opportunity
of measuring the monument which practically we had only seen once from
behind under conditions not favourable to accuracy in such respects, or
of knowing its actual length and depth, these trifling errors were not
remarkable.

What was remarkable is that his general plan of operations, founded upon
a mere hypothetical estimate, should have proved as accurate as it did.

At length all was prepared, and the deadly cast-iron flasks had been
packed in sand, together with dynamite cartridges, the necessary
detonators, electric wires, and so forth, an anxious and indeed awful
task executed entirely in that stifling atmosphere by the hands of Orme
and Quick. Then began another labour, that of the filling in of the
tunnels. This, it seems, was necessary, or so I understood, lest the
expanding gases, following the line of least resistance, should blow
back, as it were, through the vent-hole. What made that task the more
difficult was the need of cutting a little channel in the rock to
contain the wires, and thereby lessen the risk of the fracture of these
wires in the course of the building-up process. Of course, if by any
accident this should happen, the circuit would be severed, and no
explosion would follow when the electric battery was set to work.

The arrangement was that the mine should be fired on the night of
that full moon on which we had been told, and spies confirmed the
information, the feast of the marriage of Barung's daughter to my son
would be celebrated in the city of Harmac. This date was fixed because
the Sultan had announced that so soon as that festivity, which coincided
with the conclusion of the harvest, was ended, he meant to deliver his
attack on Mur.

Also, we were anxious that it should be adhered to for another reason,
since we knew that on this day but a small number of priests and guards
would be left in charge of the idol, and my son could not be among them.
Now, whatever may have been the views of the Abati, we as Christians who
bore them no malice did not at all desire to destroy an enormous number
of innocent Fung, as might have happened if we had fired our mine when
the people were gathered to sacrifice to their god.

The fatal day arrived at last. All was completed, save for the blocking
of the passage, which still went on, or, rather, was being reinforced by
the piling up of loose rocks against its mouth, at which a hundred or so
men laboured incessantly. The firing wires had been led into that little
chamber in the old temple where the dog Pharaoh tore out the throat of
Shadrach, and no inch of them was left unguarded for fear of accident or
treachery.

The electric batteries--two of them, in case one should fail--had been
tested but not connected with the wires. There they stood upon the
floor, looking innocent enough, and we four sat round them like wizards
round their magic pot, who await the working of some spell. We were not
cheerful; who could be under so intense a strain? Orme, indeed, who
had grown pale and thin with continuous labour of mind and body, seemed
quite worn out. He could not eat nor smoke, and with difficulty I
persuaded him to drink some of the native wine. He would not even go to
look at the completion of the work or to test the wires.

"You can see to it," he said; "I have done all I can. Now things must
take their chance."

After our midday meal he lay down and slept quite soundly for several
hours. About four o'clock those who were labouring at the piling up of
d�bris over the mouth of the tunnel completed their task, and, in charge
of Quick, were marched out of the underground city.

Then Higgs and I took lamps and went along the length of the wires,
which lay in a little trench covered over with dust, removing the dust
and inspecting them at intervals. Discovering nothing amiss, we returned
to the old temple, and at its doorway met the mountaineer, Japhet, who
throughout all these proceedings had been our prop and stay. Indeed,
without his help and that of his authority over the Abati the mine could
never have been completed, at any rate within the time.

The light of the lamp showed that his face was very anxious.

"What is the matter?" I asked.

"O Physician," he answered, "I have words for the ear of the Captain
Orme. Be pleased to lead me to him."

We explained that he slept and could not be disturbed, but Japhet only
answered as before, adding:

"Come you with me, my words are for your ears as well as his."

So we went into the little room and awoke Oliver, who sprang up in a
great fright, thinking that something untoward had happened at the mine.

"What's wrong?" he asked of Japhet. "Have the Fung cut the wires?"

"Nay, O Orme, a worse thing; I have discovered that the Prince Joshua
has laid a plot to steal away 'Her-whose-name-is-high.'"

"What do you mean? Set out all the story, Japhet," said Oliver.

"It is short, lord. I have some friends, one of whom--he is of my own
blood, but ask me not his name--is in the service of the Prince. We
drank a cup of wine together, which I needed, and I suppose it loosed
his tongue. At any rate, he told me, and I believed him. This is the
story. For his own sake and that of the people the Prince desires that
you should destroy the idol of Fung, and therefore he has kept his
hands off you of late. Yet should you succeed, he does not know what may
happen. He fears lest the Abati in their gratitude should set you up as
great men."

"Then he is an ass!" interrupted Quick; "for the Abati have no
gratitude."

"He fears," went on Japhet, "other things also. For instance, that the
Child of Kings may express that gratitude by a mark of her signal favour
toward one of you," and he stared at Orme, who turned his head aside.
"Now, the Prince is affianced to this great lady, whom he desires to wed
for two reasons: First, because this marriage will make him the chief
man amongst the Abati, and, secondly, because of late he has come to
think that he loves her whom he is afraid that he may lose. So he has
set a snare."

"What snare?" asked one of us, for Japhet paused.

"I don't know," answered Japhet, "and I do not think that my friend knew
either, or, if he did, he would not tell me. But I understand the plot
is that the Child of Kings is to be carried off to the Prince Joshua's
castle at the other end of the lake, six hours' ride away, and there be
forced to marry him at once."

"Indeed," said Orme, "and when is all this to happen?"

"I don't know, lord. I know nothing except what my friend told me, which
I thought it right to communicate to you instantly. I asked him the
time, however, and he said that he believed the date was fixed for one
night after next Sabbath."

"Next Sabbath is five days hence, so that this matter does not seem to
be very pressing," remarked Oliver with a sigh of relief. "Are you sure
that you can trust your friend, Japhet?"

"No, lord, I am not sure, especially as I have always known him to be a
liar. Still, I thought that I ought to tell you."

"Very kind of you, Japhet, but I wish that you had let me have my sleep
out first. Now go down the line and see that all is right, then return
and report."

Japhet saluted in his native fashion and went.

"What do you think of this story?" asked Oliver, as soon as he was out
of hearing.

"All bosh," answered Higgs; "the place is full of talk and rumours, and
this is one of them."

He paused and looked at me.

"Oh!" I said, "I agree with Higgs. If Japhet's friend had really
anything to tell he would have told it in more detail. I daresay there
are a good many things Joshua would like to do, but I expect he will
stop there, at any rate, for the present. If you take my advice you will
say nothing of the matter, especially to Maqueda."

"Then we are all agreed. But what are you thinking of, Sergeant?"
asked Oliver, addressing Quick, who stood in a corner of the room, lost
apparently in contemplation of the floor.

"I, Captain," he replied, coming to attention. "Well, begging their
pardon, I was thinking that I don't hold with these gentlemen, except in
so far that I should say nothing of this job to our Lady, who has plenty
to bother her just now, and won't need to be frightened as well. Still,
there may be something in it, for though that Japhet is stupid, he's
honest, and honest men sometimes get hold of the right end of the stick.
At least, he believes there is something, and that's what weighs with
me."

"Well, if that's your opinion, what's best to be done Sergeant? I agree
that the Child of Kings should not be told, and I shan't leave this
place till after ten o'clock to-night at the earliest, if we stick to
our plans, as we had better do, for all that stuff in the tunnel wants
a little time to settle, and for other reasons. What are you drawing
there?" and he pointed to the floor, in the dust of which Quick was
tracing something with his finger.

"A plan of our Lady's private rooms, Captain. She told you she was going
to rest at sundown, didn't she, or earlier, for she was up most of last
night, and wanted to get a few hours' sleep before--something happens.
Well, her bed-chamber is there, isn't it? and another before it, in
which her maids sleep, and nothing behind except a high wall and a ditch
which cannot be climbed."

"That's quite true," interrupted Higgs. "I got leave to make a plan
of the palace, only there is a passage six feet wide and twenty long
leading from the guard chamber to the ladies' anteroom."

"Just so, Professor, and that passage has a turn in it, if I remember
right, so that two well-armed men could hold it against quite a lot.
Supposing now that you and I, Professor, should go and take a nap in
that guard-room, which will be empty, for the watch is set at the palace
gate. We shan't be wanted here, since if the Captain can't touch off
that mine, no one can, with the Doctor to help him just in case anything
goes wrong, and Japhet guarding the line. I daresay there's nothing
in this yarn, but who knows? There might be, and then we should blame
ourselves. What do you say, Professor?"

"I? Oh, I'll do anything you wish, though I should rather have liked to
climb the cliff and watch what happens."

"You'd see nothing, Higgs," interrupted Oliver, "except perhaps the
reflection of a flash in the sky; so, if you don't mind, I wish you
would go with the Sergeant. Somehow, although I am quite certain that
we ought not to alarm Maqueda, I am not easy about her, and if you two
fellows were there, I should know she was all right, and it would be a
weight off my mind."

"That settles it," said Higgs; "we'll be off presently. Look here, give
us that portable telephone, which is of no use anywhere else now. The
wire will reach to the palace, and if the machine works all right we can
talk to you and tell each other how things are going on."

Ten minutes later they had made their preparations. Quick stepped up to
Oliver and stood at attention, saying:

"Ready to march. Any more orders, Captain?"

"I think not, Sergeant," he answered, lifting his eyes from the little
batteries that he was watching as though they were live things. "You
know the arrangements. At ten o'clock--that is about two hours hence--I
touch this switch. Whatever happens it must not be done before, for fear
lest the Doctor's son should not have left the idol, to say nothing of
all the other poor beggars. The spies say that the marriage feast will
not be celebrated until at least three hours after moonrise."

"And that's what I heard when I was a prisoner," interrupted Higgs.

"I daresay," answered Orme; "but it is always well to allow a margin
in case the procession should be delayed, or something. So until ten
o'clock I've got to stop where I am, and you may be sure, Doctor, that
under no circumstances shall I fire the mine before that hour, as indeed
you will be here to see. After that I can't say what will happen, but
if we don't appear, you two had better come to look for us--in case
of accidents, you know. Do your best at your end according to
circumstances; the Doctor and I will do our best at ours. I think that
is all, Sergeant. Report yourselves by the telephone if the wire is long
enough and it will work, which I daresay it won't, and, anyway, look out
for us about half-past ten. Good-bye!"

"Good-bye, Captain," answered Quick, then stretched out his hand,
shook that of Orme, and without another word took his lamp and left the
chamber.

An impulse prompted me to follow him, leaving Orme and Higgs discussing
something before they parted. When he had walked about fifty yards in
the awful silence of that vast underground town, of which the ruined
tenements yawned on either side of us, the Sergeant stopped and said
suddenly:

"You don't believe in presentiments, do you, Doctor?"

"Not a bit," I answered.

"Glad of it, Doctor. Still, I have got a bad one now, and it is that I
shan't see the Captain or you any more."

"Then that's a poor look-out for us, Quick."

"No, Doctor, for me. I think you are both all right, and the Professor,
too. It's my name they are calling up aloft, or so it seems to me. Well,
I don't care much, for, though no saint, I have tried to do my duty,
and if it is done, it's done. If it's written, it's got to come to pass,
hasn't it? For everything is written down for us long before we begin,
or so I've always thought. Still, I'll grieve to part from the Captain,
seeing that I nursed him as a child, and I'd have liked to know him well
out of this hole, and safely married to that sweet lady first, though I
don't doubt that it will be so."

"Nonsense, Sergeant," I said sharply; "you are not yourself; all this
work and anxiety has got on your nerves."

"As it well might, Doctor, not but I daresay that's true. Anyhow, if the
other is the true thing, and you should all see old England again with
some of the stuff in that dead-house, I've got three nieces living down
at home whom you might remember. Don't say nothing of what I told you to
the Captain till this night's game is played, seeing that it might upset
him, and he'll need to keep cool up to ten o'clock, and afterwards too,
perhaps. Only if we shouldn't meet again, say that Samuel Quick sent him
his duty and God's blessing. And the same on yourself, Doctor, and your
son, too. And now here comes the Professor, so good-bye."

A minute later they had left me, and I stood watching them until the two
stars of light from their lanterns vanished into the blackness.

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