第 19 页

A dozen negroes swarmed up the euphorbia tree, and with a delicacy and skill that was remarkable, they detached the balloon from the branches on which it was caught, and let it drop lightly to the ground.

Then, under Tombo's personal supervision, it was rolled up in a tight bundle, and tied with its own ropes.

Meanwhile, the other negroes had been preparing litters and placing their wounded friends upon them. These numbered half a dozen, and did not include four who had been killed.

The village was now fired in score of places, and as the flames leaped ravenously from hut to hut, the vic tors marched out with exultant shouts, taking with them the balloon and the three rescued prisoners.

On reaching the canoes, they embarked without de lay, and the jutting headland quickly hid from view the rocky plateau where the cannibals had so nearly banqueted on human flesh.

The journey that followed was a severe trial to the patience of the boys. They wavered between certainty and doubt, convinced one moment that the mysterious white king would turn out [to] be their father, and disbelieving it the next.

They had no opportunity of questioning Tombo, since he was in the canoe ahead of them.

Under other circumstances they would have keenly enjoyed the ride. For hour after hour the strong-limbed negroes drove the long, narrow canoes through the blue waters of the lake. They kept constantly within a short distance of the shore, following all its curves and indentations.

The scenery was grand beyond description. For the most part the dense and lofty forest came to the water's edge, while hills and rugged mountains loomed up beyond.

But here and there great towering cliffs fell sheerly into the lake, and from clefts between them poured madly-roaring torrents.

Half a dozen times a village was seen nestled in a fertile arm of the lake, and groups of dusky figures looked silently out at the voyagers.

On each occasion the boys thought that a stop was intended, and their hearts beat with anxiety and hope. Each successive village was to them the royal kraal.

But the canoes passed by all — passed swiftly by, and went on until an hour after midday.

Then, a mile ahead, a rocky arm of mountain jutted far into the lake, and towered thousands of feet toward the blue sky.

The negroes began to paddle more rapidly, and as the canoes glided by the face of the mighty stone rampart, they were swung sharply to the right, and driven into a black, semicircular archway, about twenty feet high.

On and on they went, through darkness that was intense and cold, rushing airs. There was no sound but the splash of the paddles, and the weird murmur of the pent-in waters.

Arthur shivered, and held fast to Roden. They looked back, and saw that the entrance was already concealed by a curve.

"I'd rather face the cannibals than this," muttered Bunbury. "We're going into the very bowels of the earth."

In truth, he seemed to be right. The canoes glided on and on amid the ghastly shades. Long practice must have given the negroes power to see in the dark, for they paddled swiftly and with unerring skill.

Not once did the canoes bump one another, or strike the rocky walls, which could not be very wide apart. The cruise on this subterranean channel lasted for an hour at least, and then a streak of gray light suddenly appeared ahead.

It expanded rapidly, and it was a glad moment to Bunbury and the boys when the canoes passed through an archway rather smaller than the one by which they had entered the underground stream.

At first the glare of sunlight was blinding and stupefying, but after a few seconds they were able to see clearly.

The boys burst into cries of wonder, which were echoed by Bunbury.

The canoes were about to swing alongside a strip of sandy beach, and beyond it was a wide spreading cluster of huts, nestled amid green trees and bushes.

From the center of the kraal, a square-shaped erection, built apparently of stone, and bearing a strong resemblance to a fort. It was nearly a hundred feet .high, and twice that long. ""

But the most marvelous of all was this: The village occupied no circle about half a mile in diameter, and that circle was completely barred in from the outer world by a continuous wall of sheer rock, that rose several thousand feet in the air. It was like the scooped out crater of a mighty volcano.

The only possible exit was through the subterranean stream, which was simply a volume of back water from the lake.

The canoes were now aground on the beach, and all their occupants disembarked. Tombo headed the way forward, and the prisoners — for such they virtually were —came close behind him.

* * *

Chapter XXIX

As yet the arrival of the party had not been discovered, but as soon as they passed through a belt of tim ber and bushes they were spied by hordes of villagers, who swarmed around them to the number of several hundred.

It was a slow and triumphant progress though the royal kraal.

The huts, strange to say, were not of the customary thatch and wattle-work; they were made of rudely cut blocks of stone, plastered together.

Bunbury noted, with secret uneasiness, that the natives were of the same type as those in the other village, and that they regarded the prisoners with pretty much the same hungry look.

The boys had other things to think about. With hearts alternating between hope and fear, they trudged impatiently after Tombo.

In vain they glanced keenly in all directions. Only, a sea of hideous faces met their view. Were they doomed to disappointment? or were their trials about to be crowned by a glorious reward?

Now they were nearly in the center of the crater- like valley, and just ahead was what they had taken for a fort.

On closer inspection the resemblance was stronger than ever. It surely was a fortification of some kind, and just as surely, it was not the work of uncouth African negroes.

It was built of irregular blocks and slabs of stone, and was pierced here and there by loop-holes. Down the face of it, from top to bottom, ran a straight, narrow slit, or cleft, very dark and gloomy.

Bunbury and his companions noted these things during the brief time in which they were passing through the maze of huts that clustered thickly around the fort.

At the entrance of the cleft, Tombo waved his knob-kerry, and the procession halted. Here there was a brief delay. People and soldiers mingled together, and the wounded negroes were borne into the neighboring huts.

Then Tombo led the prisoners into the cleft, and at their heel scame [sic] six of the royal bodyguard, bearing between them the heavy balloon.

It was a long and wearisome climb that followed. The passage was barely three feet wide, and the path led steeply upward over what had once been a flight of massive steps.

Now many of them had disappeared, and others were out of place. Great caution was necessary to avoid falling back.

The towering walls on each side were green with age, and showed traces of decay. The wonder and mystification of the boys increased as they mounted higher.

"This place must be hundreds of years old," said Roden. "Who could have built it, and for what purpose was it intended?"

"There's no telling," replied Bunbury. "It belongs to a remote age, though. It is certainly older than the tower of London — perhaps older than the ruins of ancient Rome."

A moment later the cleft made an abrupt turn, and the party mounted the last half-dozen steps amid a welcome flood of sunlight.

This brought them to the level top of the fort, where they encountered four tall negroes, standing guard, with spears and clubs.

Tombo and the prisoners advanced unchallenged. The six balloon bearers threw down their burden, and slowly vanished into the cleft again.

With trembling limbs and fast beating hearts the boys followed Bunbury and Tombo.

Even in this moment of thrilling expectation, they observed what was around them — the tall battlements, eight or ten feet high, to right and left, and behind; the blue sky and the fierce African sun overhead; un der foot the pavement of broad flagstones, worn smooth and shiny by the tread of centuries.

A short distance ahead was a square tower, probably twenty feet high, with a flat, battlemented top. It was of wonderfully massive construction, and its huge stone blocks, though scarred by age, showed no trace of [sic]

A lion skin hung before what was probably the entrance. Tombo lifted this, and then stood one side, while he made signs to the prisoners to enter.

Bun bury went first, and Roden and Arthur followed, breathing sharp and fast.

When they were fairly within the tower they stood still. Their eyes were yet dazzled by the outer sun light, and for a moment they could see only deep gloom.

Then, gradually, they made out a square apartment lighted by two narrow windows slits. On one side was a dark, circular hole in the floor, down which a flight of crumbling steps could be seen to disappear.

At the far end of the room was a stone couch, partly covered with a lion's skin. From this suddenly rose the figure of a tall, broad-shouldered man. He came slowly forward, shading his eyes with his hands.

He wore rude garments of untanned skins, and his hair and beard were almost snow-white. His eyes were keen and black.

A low, angry whine was heard, and a tawny, yel lowish beast leaped lightly from behind the couch. At sight of the strangers it squatted, and roared loudly. It was a huge, living lion.

"Back, Nero, back!" cried the man, in a clear, commanding voice.

The lion obediently turned and crept out of sight behind the couch.

The man advanced a little more, and as the light shone full upon his bronzed face, Arthur and Roden staggered forward, weak and almost speechless with frantic joy.

"Father! father!" they shouted hoarsely.

The man reeled with the shock, and his cheeks paled under the ruddy skin. For an instant it seemed that he would fall.

Then he understood; and with a cry that was wrung from the depths of his heart, he clasped the boys to his arms.

Bunbury's face shone with delight, and Tombo, who had followed the party into the tower, stood like a carved statue of black marble.

The White King of the Karibegs was Lucius Fan shawe, and the perilous quest of his brave sons had succeeded. The one sad shadow that marred this joyful meeting was the absence of Godfrey Congdon — the hero who had died to save his friends.

It was long before father or sons could realize or fully grasp the almost incredible truth; still longer before they could sit calmly down to talk.

It was happiness enough for the boys to look at the still familiar and remembered features of their parent; happiness enough for the father to know that these sturdy lads were the same little chaps from whom he had tearfully parted so many long years ago.

As the sun was drooping behind the circle of mountain walls, they all sat out before the tower, enjoying the cool evening air — Lucius Fanshawe and his sons, Bunbury and Tombo.

Close by lay. Nero, and over by the head of the cleft the dusky guards reclined in picturesque attitudes.

From the kraal far below came the faint voices of the Karibegs.

The boys and Bunbury had told their thrilling tale from beginning to end, and Lucius Fanshawe had listen[e]d with rapt attention, dropping a tear at the part which described poor Godfrey's death.

Then, in turn, he narrated the history of his own past — of the long years since 1879. It was a chain of wonderful and harrowing events, but they need not be told here, except in so far as they relate to the story.

The sum and substance of it all was that after the massacre of his companions by natives, he and his faithful Zanzibari porter, Tombo, had been carried off as prisoners.

After three years of slavery amid various tribes they fell into the hands of the Karibegs, and in course of time, Fanshawe was made king, owing to his having twice taken advantage of his scientific knowledge to predict an eclipse of the sun.

"Since then," he concluded, "my life has been more monotonous and dreary than words can tell. Knowing that escape was impossible, I sought to benefit these ignorant and bloodthirsty people. I found them all cannibals, but now the terrible habit has been almost abolished.

"This has always been the royal kraal, and, as you probably know, it can be entered only by the water passage. But within a radius of twenty miles there are as many villages under my rule.

"I have a bodyguard of one hundred picked men, who are commanded by my faithful Tombo. And Nero has helped me to pass many a weary hour. I got him when he was only a cub, and he is perfectly harmless."

"I am anxious to hear the story of our rescue," said Bunbury. "How was it accomplished so speedily.["]

"It was an interposition of Providence that saved you," remarked Mr. Fanshawe. "The cannibals among whom you fell have always resisted my authority, but there happened to be one loyal fellow among them. He came here post-haste in a canoe to tell me that three white men had arrived at his village in an airship, and that they were to be eaten in the morning.

"I suspected that the airship might be a balloon, and without delay I sent off my bodyguard to rescue the prisoners and punish the cannibals. Little did I think that my own sons were in peril. God has been very merciful."

There were tears in Lucius Fanshawe's eyes as he glanced at Roden and Arthur.

There was silence for a time, while the shadows of night swiftly deepened. Then food and drink were brought up the cleft by female servants, and after the meal was eaten, Lucius Fanshawe and his companions entered the tower.

* * *

Chapter XXX

A rude lamp was lighted, and the burning palm- oil threw a dull, smoky light on the scene.

"This is a queer place," said Bunbury. "Do you know the history of, it?"

Mr. Fanshawe shook his head.

"No," he replied; "it is a mystery that will never be unraveled. Hundreds of years ago a superior race of people must have penetrated to this hidden place They opened mines over by the base of the rocks, though what they dug out of them I do not know.

"They no doubt built the fort for protection, The cleft is the only way in and out, but this hole you see in the floor leads to the level of the ground, through numerous chambers, connected by stone steps.

"Have you explored them all?" asked Roden.

"I believe I have," answered his father; "but I never found anything more valuable than rude arms and dishware. I used to amuse myself in that way. You may imagine how heavily the time has hung, for I have rarely stirred from the fort. For years I have lived in this tower, ruling and directing my subjects by means of Tombo."