FullReads

So far he had taken no part in the discussion. Mme. Constantin, who knew his every mood, had seen his face grow grave, his lips straighten, and a certain subdued impatience express itself in the opening and shutting of his hands, but no word of comment had followed.

“Come, we are waiting, Bayard,” she said at last, with a smile. “What do you think of Greenough’s theory?”

The traveller pushed his cup from him, shook the ashes from his cigar, and answered slowly:–

“That there is something stronger than vengeance, Louise–something higher.”

“You mean mercy?”

“Something infinitely more powerful–the Primeval.”

The Baron twisted his short neck and faced the speaker. Greenough rose to his feet, relighted his cigar at the silver lamp, and said with some impatience:–

“I don’t understand your meaning, Bayard; make it clear, will you?”

“You don’t understand, Greenough, because you have not suffered–not as some men I know, not as one man I have in mind.”

Mme. Constantin slipped from her cushions, crossed to where Bayard sat, and nestled on a low ottoman beside him.

“Is it something you haven’t told me, Bayard?” she asked, looking up into his face. These two had been friends for years. Sometimes in his wanderings the letters came in bunches; at other times the silence continued for months.

“Yes, something I haven’t told you, Louise–not all of it. I remember writing you about his arrival at Babohunga, and what a delightful fellow he was, but I couldn’t tell you the rest of it. I will now, and I want Greenough to listen.

“He was, I think, the handsomest young fellow that I ever saw–tall, broad shouldered, well built, curly hair cut close to his head, light, upturned mustache, white teeth, clear, fair skin–really you’d hardly meet another such young fellow anywhere. He had come up from Zanzibar and had pushed on to my camp, hoping, he said, to join some caravan going into the interior. He explained that he was an officer in the Belgian army, that he had friends further up, near Lake Mantumba, and that he came for sport alone. I, of course, was glad to take him in–glad that year to take anybody in who was white, especially this young fellow, who was such a contrast to the customary straggler–escaped convict, broken-down gambler, disgraced officer, Arab trader, and other riffraff that occasionally passed my way.

“And then, again, his manners, his smile, the easy grace of his movements–even his linen, bearing his initials and a crown–something he never referred to–all showed him to be a man accustomed to the refinements of society. Another reason was his evident inexperience with the life about him. His ten days’ march from the landing below to my camp had been a singularly lucky one. They generally plunge into the forest in perfect health, only to crawl back to the river–those who live to crawl–their bones picked clean by its merciless fingers. To push on now, with the rainy season setting in, meant certain death.

“The second day he paid the price and fell ill. He complained of his feet–the tramp had knocked him out, he said. I examined his toes, cut out some poisonous wood ticks that had buried themselves under the skin, and put him to bed. Fever then set in, and for two days and nights I thought he would go under. During the delirium he kept repeating a woman’s name, begging her to give him a drink, to lift his head so he could look into her eyes. Once I had to hold him by main force to keep him from following this fancy of his brain into the forest. When he began to hobble about once more he again wanted to push on, but I determined to hold onto him. I was alone at the time–that is, without a white companion, Judson having gone down to Zanzibar with some despatches for the company–and his companionship was a godsend.

“What seemed to worry him most after he got well was his enforced use of my wardrobe and outfit. He had brought little of his own except his clothes and some blankets, and no arms of any kind but the revolver he carried around his waist in a holster. All his heavier luggage, he explained, was at a landing below. This objection I met by promising to send for it by the first band of carriers after the rainy season was over. In the meantime he must, I insisted, use my own guns and ammunition, or anything else that my kit afforded.