TEN days from that eventful morning found us once more in our old quarters at Loo;and,strange to say,but little the worse for our terrible experience,except that my stubbly hair came out of that cave about three shades grayer than it went in,and that Good never was quite the same after Foulata's death,which seemed to move him very greatly.I am bound to say that,looking at the thing from the point of view of an oldish man of the world,I consider her removal was a fortunate occurrence,since,otherwise,complications would have been sure to ensue.The poor creature was no ordinary native girl,but a person of great,I had almost said stately,beauty,and of considerable refinement of mind.But no amount of beauty or refinement could have made an entanglement between Good and herself a desirable occurrence;for,as she herself put it,"Can the sun mate with the darkness,or the white with the black?"I need hardly state that.we never again penetrated into Solomon's treasure-chamber.After we had recovered from our fatigues,a process which took us forty-eight hours,we descended into the great pit in the hope of finding the hole by which we had crept out of the mountain,but with no success.To begin with,rain had fallen,and obliterated our spoor;and what is more,the sides of the vast pit were full of ant-bear and other holes.It was impossible to say t which of these we owed our salvation.
We also,on the day before we started.back to Loo,made a further examination of the wonders of the stalactite cave,and,drawn by a kind of restless feeling,even penetrated once more into the Chamber of the Dead;and,passing beneath the spear of the white Death gazed,with sensations which it would be quite impossible for me to describe at the mass of rock which had shut us!off from escape,thinking,the while,of the priceless treasures beyond,of the mysterious old hag whose flattened fragments lay crushed beneath it,and of the fair girl of whose tomb it was the portal.I say gazed at the "rock,"for examine as we would we could find no traces of the join of the sliding door;nor,indeed,could we hit upon the secret,now utterly lost,that worked it,though we tried for an hour or more.It was certainly a marvellous bit of mechanism,characteristic,in its massive and yet inscrutable simplicity,of the age which produced it;and I doubt if the world has such another to show.
At last we gave it up in disgust;though,if the mass had suddenly risen before our eyes,I doubt if we should have screwed up courage to step over Gagool's mangled remains and once more enter the treasure-chamber,even in the sure and certain hope of unlimited diamonds.And yet I could have cried at the idea of leaving all that treasure,the biggest treasure probably that has ever in the world's history been accumulated in one spot.
But there was no help for it.Only dynamite could force its way through five feet of solid rock.And so we left it.Perhaps,in some remote unborn century,a more fortunate explorer may hit upon the "Open Sesame,"and flood the world with gems.But,myself,I doubt it.Somehow,I seem to feel that the millions of pounds'worth of gems that lie in the three stone coffers will never shine round the neck of an earthly beauty.They and Foulata's bones will keep cold company till the end of all things.
With a sigh of disappointment we made our way back,and next day started for Loo.And yet it was really very ungrateful of us to be disappointed;for,as the reader will remember,I had,by a lucky thought,taken the precaution to fill the pockets of my old shooting-coat with gems before we left our prison-house.A good many of these fell out in the course of our roll down the side of the pit,including most of the big ones,which I had crammed in on the top.But,comparatively speaking,an enormous quantity still remained,including eighteen large stones ranging from about one hundred to thirty carats in weight.My old shooting-coat still held enough treasure to make us all,if not millionaires,at least exceedingly wealthy men,and yet to keep enough stones'each to make the three finest sets of gems in Europe.So we had not done so badly.
On arriving at Loo we were most cordially received by Ignosi,whom we found well,and busily engaged in consolidating his power and reorganizing the regiments which had suffered most in the great struggle with Twala.
He listened with breathless interest to our wonderful story;but when we told him of old Gagool's frightful end,he grew thoughtful.
"Come hither,"he called,to a very old Induna (councillor),who was sitting with others in a circle round the king,but out of ear-shot.
The old man rose,approached,saluted,and seated himself.
"Thou art old,"said Ignosi.
"Ay,my lord the king!"
"Tell me?when thou was little,didst thou know Gagaoola,the witch doctress?""Ay,my lord the king!"
"How was she then -young,like thee?"
"Not so,my lord the king!She was even as now;old and dried,very ugly,and full of wickedness.""She is no more;she is dead."
"So,O king!then is a curse taken from the land.""Go!"
"Koom!I go,black puppy,who tore out the old dog's throat.Koom!""Ye see,my brothers,"said Ignosi,"this was a strange woman,and I rejoice that she is dead.She would have let ye die in the dark place,and mayhap afterwards she had found a way to slay me,as she found a way to slay my father and set up Twala,whom her heart loved,in his place.
Now go on with the tale;surely there never was the like?
After I had narrated all the story of our escape,I,as we had agreed between ourselves that I should,took the opportunity to address Ignosi as to our departure from Kukuanaland.
"And now,Ignosi,the time has come for us to bid thee farewell,and start to seek once more our own land.Behold,Ignosi,with us thou camest a servant,and now we leave thee a mighty king.If thou art grateful to us,remember to do even as thou didst promise;to rule justly,to respect the law,and to put none to death without a cause.So shalt thou prosper.
