The ground, as I have said, was not difficult to climb, since the surface was not quite perpendicular, and besides being rough and broken, was thickly covered with vegetation; so that without any great exertion I soon reached the top of the cliff, and landed on to a nearly level space, which I took to be the summit of a hill. From this point the view was very extensive in the one direction, although it was cut off in the other by the forest which clothed the summit. Looking back—that is, in the direction in which the cliff faced—my eye ranged over the ocean-like expanse of forest, out of which, at a distance of about three miles, rose a solitary, conical hill, while nearer—in fact, quite near—could be seen a river of some size, which I took—erroneously as it turned out—to be the Tano.
Following the edge of the summit, I walked on, each few hundred yards bringing into view a new vista, until I had gone half a mile; when I could tell, from the direction of the shadows, that I had reached the opposite side of the hill. Here I could see below me a village of some pretensions immediately at the foot of the hill, and this I guessed to be the abode of the fetish-men, while at a distance of less than a mile another village was visible, which, by the large silk-cotton tree in the middle of an open space, I identified as the one to which I had been first taken—indeed, on looking carefully, I thought I could make out the very hut in which I had been confined.
Having thus made clear the position of our hiding place, I struck off across the middle of the summit, guiding myself towards my starting point by watching my shadow. I had travelled about half way when I came to a rather deep hollow occupying, as I judged, nearly the centre of the summit; and, as it lay directly in my path, I commenced to descend, and had nearly reached the bottom when I was brought up with a start by the sound of voices.
Instantly I crouched down among the thick herbage and listened. There seemed to be several persons talking, but although the voices sounded near, I could not for a time make out the direction from which they came; and a peculiar hollow but muffled quality in the sounds puzzled me not a little. Presently one of the speakers laughed—a strange, hollow laugh that reverberated as if it came from the bottom of a well—and then I perceived that the noise proceeded from underground.
On this I crept forward cautiously, and after crawling a few yards, saw before me a large hole in the earth. I lay down flat on my face and drew myself softly to the edge of the chasm, and putting my head into a mass of fern, peered down between the stems. As I had expected, I looked down into the chamber that I had recently left—and left none too soon; for it was now occupied by a party of six fetish-men, all armed with long knives and guns, and provided with a stinking palm oil lamp.
They were mightily excited, for they chattered and gesticulated like a pack of monkeys, and I would have given a good deal to know what they were saying. That they had missed Bukári and me I had no doubt, but whether or not they had traced our progress thus far I had no means of judging. On one point, however, and that the most important, I soon became satisfied; they clearly had no knowledge of the existence of the tunnel by which we had finally escaped.
After a good deal of talk and searching the corners of the chamber and the entrance to the filled up tunnel, they commenced to examine the chests, and I was now most thankful that I had not allowed Bukári to satisfy his curiosity; for I could see an old fetish man, who had been poring over the lid of the larger chest (which was immediately beneath me) pointing out to his fellows the undisturbed coating of dust on it.
In spite of this demonstration, however, they were not quite convinced apparently, for to my intense satisfaction they proceeded to remove the skulls one by one and place them at a little distance on the floor. When the top was clear, they knocked a wooden pin out of a rude hasp—the only fastening that the chest had—and raised the lid, resting it against the wall.
From my position immediately overhead I could look down straight into the chest, and the sight that met my gaze when the lid was flung back, filled me with amazement.
For that great coffer was filled almost to the top with gold. Gold masks of strange design, gold armlets, gold anklets, great dumbbell-like sword-hilts, head-plates and trinkets of which I could not distinguish the forms, were there by the score; but the great bulk of the metal was in the form of manillas—the African equivalent of ingots—of which there must have been hundreds, all tied up in bunches of a dozen or so.
Here, indeed, was "wealth beyond the dreams of avarice"!
As I looked down into the great chest I felt myself unconsciously gloating over its shining contents; and when the fetish-men, apparently satisfied of the safety of the treasure, closed the lid and drove in the pin, I was conscious of quite a chill of regret, until I suddenly remembered my condition; when I almost laughed aloud at the absurdity of a naked, starving wretch like myself barely snatched from the jaws of death, and yet hankering after wealth.
When the priests had made the chest secure they replaced the skulls, and forthwith retired through the tunnel, having accomplished what was probably the principal object of their visit. The smaller chest they had not examined at all, and from this I judged that it contained nothing of intrinsic value—perhaps merely some mouldering relics of the old adventurers. When the last of the men had disappeared I drew myself carefully back on to the more solid ground, and resumed my journey across the little plateau.
In a few minutes I came out on to the edge a little to the right of the tunnel, as I could tell by comparing the positions of a large tree and the distant hill, and was about to turn when I noticed some objects moving, about a third of the way down the steep slope. I stopped to observe them, and was able to make out that they were vole-like animals about the size of rabbits, with blunt muzzles and short tails, and evidently lived in a large community in burrows in the hillside.
Zoophilists tell us that by nature man is a fruit-eating animal, which is possibly true—when there happens to be fruit to eat. At present, however, there was none, and the sight of those rodents frisking in and out of their burrows aroused in me a very pronounced carnivorous impulse. I had noticed on the plateau a great number of nodular lumps of iron-stone lying on the surface, and I now returned and gathered an armful of moderate-sized pieces, which I carried to the edge of the slope. Then I concealed myself behind a bush and waited.
Soon a little party of the rodents assembled on a small knoll immediately underneath, browsing on the herbage in leisurely security, all unconscious of the prowling carnivore above, until a lump of iron-stone about two pounds in weight dropped plump on to the back of one of them, rolling him over dead; when the parliament instantly dissolved, and I climbed down to gather up my spoil.
I had not been back in my hiding place many minutes when the foolish-looking brutes reappeared and began nibbling away at the grass as if nothing had happened, so that in quite a short time I was able to secure four of them, with which I started off for the tunnel very cheerfully.
Bukári was awaiting my return with the keenest anxiety, and reproached me for being so long absent.
"I thought thou hadst gone away altogether," he grumbled. "Where hast thou been, and what hast thou found?"
"I have seen many strange things," said I, "and I have found us a dinner," and I put his hand upon the dead animals, which he felt with a grin of delight.
"Grass-cutters!" he exclaimed. "I have not tasted flesh since I came to the mine. Let us cook them at once, for I am famished."
"How shall we cook them since we have no fire?" I asked.
He seemed greatly surprised at the question. "Why, then, we must make a fire, of course," he replied.
This was a little embarrassing, for I had but the haziest notion of how to go about making a fire. I had, indeed, read in books of the fire-drill used by the Australian natives; but I had never tried to make one, and this was hardly a suitable occasion for amateur experiments. In our camp, the light had always been kindled by Musa, who had a flint and steel and kept a supply of tinder; without these appliances I was quite helpless, and had to admit the fact.
Bukári laughed grimly. "Get me a lump of quartz," said he, "and a bit of dry bark from some dead wood, and gather some sticks. If thou canst get some clay, so much the better."
I climbed up to the plateau, and soon found a dead branch, which I carried back bodily and handed it over to Bukári to strip of its bark, while I prised out a lump of quartz from the wall of the tunnel, and I then stood by to receive a lesson in the art of fire-making.
"Give me thy knife," said Bukári, and on my handing it to him he struck its back skilfully a few times on the quartz, receiving the sparks on the prepared mass of bark, and blowing gently; and in a few minutes the bark was smouldering and smoking quite briskly.
There was no time to look for clay with which to coat the animals, so when the fire was fairly alight we fixed them over it, on long, pointed sticks, and sat by patiently while they frizzled in the smoke. To while away the interval—which was really a very trying one, for, when the hair had burnt off, the animals began to emit a most savoury aroma—I recounted to Bukári what I had seen when I looked down the opening into the chamber. He was violently excited, rather to my surprise, when I described the contents of the chest, and announced his intention of helping himself to some of the gold before finally leaving the mine.
The smoke-blackened carcases were not very agreeable to look at, but they furnished exceedingly good eating, and Bukári and I lingered over our cannibal-like repast until the bones were picked as clean as if they had been destined for some anatomical museum.
By this time the sun was getting low, so I made another journey to the plateau to gather wood for the night, and with what I had collected we made up a cheerful fire some distance down the tunnel, spreading a quantity of grass upon the floor that we might sleep in comfort.
Naturally, we were very tired after all our labours and excitements, and the food had made us rather drowsy, but we sat on our beds talking over our plans for a long time before we lay down to sleep.
We agreed on the necessity for getting away from the neighbourhood of the mine without delay—indeed, we were running no small risk by staying so long in the tunnel—but on one point Bukári was resolved; he would not leave the place until he had possessed himself of some of the gold.
I could not help admiring his bold adventurous spirit, unbroken by the long years of suffering and servitude, but at the same time his obstinacy was highly inconvenient, for any attempt to remove the treasure would enormously increase the danger of our situation, which was already sufficiently perilous.
"Why not leave the gold where it is?" I urged. "We know where to find it whenever we choose to come back."
"We know where it is now," he replied, "but the wizards may take it elsewhere. Thou didst see thyself that they were uneasy and fearful about it. They may put it in some safer place."
I could not deny the truth of this; it was in fact highly probable that the priests would now look out for some more secure hiding-place for their treasure.
"How much dost thou wish to take?" I asked.
"I would take it all," he replied.
"What!" I exclaimed. "Take it all! Thou art mad, Bukári. Why, there is more than thirty men could carry, and we are but two."
"I know it," he answered calmly. "We could not carry it all away, but what I would do is this. I would take out the gold and bury it in a safe place, where I would make a mark to find it again by. Then I would go to my country and tell my brothers of what I had done, and they should come to this country as if to buy guru, and when they had bought the guru at Juabin, they should come back this way, dig up the gold, and take it to my country."
"Why bury the gold?" I asked. "Why not leave it in the tunnel. Nobody seems to know of the existence of this passage."
"Who knows?" he answered. "Perhaps some hunters may know of this place and come here to sleep in the rains; besides, thinkest thou that the wizards, when they miss their treasure, will not search every place? They have only to bring a ladder to the treasure chamber to find this tunnel, and then all our labour would be in vain."
I could not deny that Bukári's reasoning was sound, that is, if one admitted the desirability of meddling with the treasure at all; and as I have already admitted, the sight of the gold had aroused my own cupidity to no small extent. Moreover the treasure had really been the object of my quest from the first, although I had never dreamed of laying my hands upon the actual hoard, so, in the end I fell in with the Moshi's plan, and agreed to commence lifting the treasure at daybreak on the morrow.
There were, indeed, other matters to settle, such as the proportions of our respective shares and the security to be offered to me against treachery on the part of his brother Moshis, but as the marks must necessarily be made by me, and my assistance would be indispensable in identifying the locality, I left the details for settlement at a later date.
On the following morning we were awake and on the move before daybreak, and Bukári was full of childish eagerness to commence removing the gold. But there were one or two things to be done before we could begin. First it would be wise to settle on the place where the gold was to be buried, so that there should be no delay when once the removal was begun. Then it would never do to risk carrying the uncovered gold even a short distance, for if we were observed even by a chance stranger, disaster would be sure to follow. Lastly, we must have food of some kind.
As to the first question, we agreed that the gold would best be buried near to the river that I had seen from the plateau, as we should thus have a landmark that would help in the subsequent finding of the hoard; so, as soon as the sun had risen, I set off down the precipitous hillside to examine the river, leaving Bukári to plait a couple of wicker bags out of the grass on which we had slept.
A few minutes' very easy climbing brought me to the foot of the hill by the great odúm tree, and I plunged at once into the forest, which was here rather dense, keeping a careful eye upon my shadow, that I might not lose my way. From the summit of the hill I had noted the position of the river, and I now struck out confidently in its direction.
It was very unpleasant pushing through the dense vegetation, for my unclothed condition exposed me completely to the thorns with which every bush and tree seemed to be covered, and my progress was not rapid; but at length, after walking for about half a mile, I crossed a small track, and soon after came out on to the bank of the river, which was here a rather shallow stream about thirty yards broad, whose clear water ran quietly over a bed of pale grey sand. My first action on reaching the river was to lie down and indulge in a deep draught of the limpid water, for the tiny spring that we had found on the hillside below the tunnel had given barely enough water to quench our thirst, even when carefully collected in the hollows of our hands; then I arose, and having cut a bunch of twigs and laid them on the bank for a landmark, walked slowly up stream, wading nearly knee-deep.
The river was a typical forest stream, meandering through a kind of tunnel of foliage, between high banks of crumbling yellow sandstone, clothed with moss and fern; but it was so enclosed by the forest and one part was so like another, that I could for some time find no spot that I could hope to identify on a second visit.
I had been sauntering thus for some time when my foot came in contact with some hard object in the sand, and stooping to examine it, I picked up one of the large fresh-water mussels that the Adangme people call affaní. This was indeed a lucky find, for although these shell-fish are tough and greasy, they are perfectly wholesome to eat; so I fell to searching with my feet for more, and before long had collected as many as I could carry in my hands.
The river, at the place that I had now reached, spread out into a wide expanse that in the rainy season was evidently a swamp, and as the foliage seemed here a little thinner, I waded across to the further bank in the hopes that from thence a more extended view might be obtainable. Nor was I disappointed, for when I had crossed the river, which nowhere came above my waist, I could plainly see, through an opening in the foliage, the summit of the hill and the red patch of our cliff below it.
But more than this. The large window-like opening was bi-sected by the silvery-grey trunk of a lofty silk-cotton tree, and somewhat nearer to the river a tall oil palm held aloft its plumy head like a bunch of green ostrich feathers. I climbed the bank, and taking my stand upon a smooth knoll covered with thick moss, looked steadily through the opening at the hill; and now I perceived that the end of the red patch of cliff formed a nearly vertical line which appeared just half way between the stem of the palm and the trunk of the tree. This formed a leading mark which would enable me to find the spot again with certainty, and if the soil was not too rocky, this was an ideal place in which to bury the treasure. To test the hardness of the ground I stuck my knife into the moss, which it penetrated easily up to the hilt, showing that the soil underneath was soft and deep.
Before returning, I had the curiosity to explore a little further this bank of the river, and, walking away from the water, I presently made a curious discovery; for I had not gone above twenty paces when I came to the water again. I at first thought I had merely reached a sharp bend in the river, but further examination showed that the land on which I stood was a small island, about a hundred yards long by twenty wide, and that it was separated from the mainland on either side by a stretch of water fully fifty yards in width. This was another piece of good fortune, for, being cut off on all sides by water, the place was peculiarly safe from accidental intrusion and, as I gathered up my knife and the shell-fish preparatory to returning, I felt that my mission had been highly successful.
I had no difficulty in finding my way back. Starting from the knoll I marked the position of the oil palm and the tree, and waded across the river towards the former, going straight through the bushes until I reached it. Then I took a new direction to where I judged the tree to be, and soon its column-like trunk loomed above me out of the undergrowth.
I sliced off two patches of bark to enable me to identify it for the present, and then taking a fresh bearing, I pushed on through the thick wood, watching my shadow attentively whenever the sunlight pierced the foliage. It was some time before I reached the track, and I began to fear that I had lost my way; but at length I crossed it, and in a few minutes more reached the foot of the hill. Evidently the track skirted the hill and diverged from the river.
I found the patch of cliff with very little trouble, and when I thought I had reached the vicinity of the tunnel I gave a shrill whistle—the signal I had arranged with Bukári—which was immediately answered by a hail from above. Looking up I could see my comrade leaning out of the tunnel, and in a couple of minutes I had joined him.
While the shell-fish were roasting on the embers, I detailed to Bukári the results of my explorations, with which he was highly satisfied; and when we had devoured the affaní and taken a pair of empty shells down to the spring, to scrape up a scanty and muddy draught, we set about completing the preparations for our great enterprise.
On my way back from the river I had cut two long lengths of thin monkey-rope—not thicker than my thumb but as strong as steel hawser—and I now proceeded to hack down a stout sapling and cut it off to a length of six feet. With this, the monkey-rope, the coil of grass rope, and the two bags that Bukári had plaited, we took our way down the tunnel towards the treasure chamber.
We stepped silently and cautiously along the dark passage, Bukári leading, until we reached the inner opening, and I must confess that, as I lay down and, putting my head over the brink, looked down into the chamber, I felt an intense repugnance to the idea of returning to it. However, the thing had to be done, so the sooner the better.
"Shall I go down or shall I hold the rope for thee?" asked Bukári.
"Neither," said I. "We will fix the rope, and I will go down, and thou shalt pull up the gold with the small cord."
I had cut the sapling a little longer than the width of the tunnel, and I now set it across the passage a little obliquely and jammed the ends hard against the walls, so that it formed what sailors call a Sampson-post, the peculiarity of which is that the more it is hauled upon, the more firmly it jams—provided one does not haul at the wrong end. To the fixed end of the post I made fast the two monkey-ropes and the grass rope, each with a "fisherman's bend" so that they could not slip, and flung the ends of all three down to the floor below.
Having explained to Bukári what I wished him to do, I grasped the three ropes, gave a trial jerk to test the post, and then swung myself over the edge and easily let myself down to the floor.
It was highly disturbing and uncomfortable to be again confronted by the yawning mouth of that black tunnel that led into the terrible cavern, and I found myself continually watching it and listening at it with a nervousness that I struggled in vain to ignore. What made it more unpleasant was that strange, indefinite sounds came echoing down it from time to time, making it clear that people were stirring in the cavern at the other end; and this again suggested the necessity for silence on our part, for any noise made by us would be carried down the tunnel to the cavern as if through a speaking tube.
I therefore warned Bukári, in a loud whisper, to be silent, and set to work with all possible expedition. Quickly but carefully I laid the skulls one by one on the floor at a little distance, and with the handle of my knife pushed the pin out of the hasp and raised the heavy lid, which swung open with a dismal, protesting creak.
At the sight of the immense wealth that lay piled up within the chest I felt a thrill of greedy pleasure, and looked from one to another of the shining baubles, undecided as to which I should first lay hands upon. I passed reluctantly over a great mask of fine and curious workmanship, a parcel of delicate repoussé plates, such as the King's ambassadors wear, and a multitude of small, quaintly wrought pendant ornaments, and fixed upon the manillas, as at once the most portable and the most solid, for the first consignment. They were tied up, as I have mentioned, in bundles of about a dozen, all ready for transport, so I hoisted out a couple of bundles and carried them across to where the rope was hanging down. The weight of these insignificant-looking bundles of rings considerably astonished me, and I saw that it would take us a good many journeys to transport the whole treasure to the island.
When I had made fast the two bunches to the grass rope, I gave the word to Bukári to haul, and the first instalment of our booty went jingling up the rough wall. By the time they were unfastened and the rope dropped again, I had two more bunches ready, and when these were hoisted, two more, and so the work went on briskly for about twenty minutes, until a very perceptible diminution appeared in the contents of the chest, and I judged that a considerable pile had accumulated above.
Now it occurred to me that it would be wise to dispose of what we had lifted before taking out any more, and I suggested this course to Bukári.
"No, no," he objected. "Since we are here let us get it all up, and then we shall only have to bury it."
"But," said I, "we might be interrupted, and then we should lose it all, whereas if we bury what we have, we shall, at least, make sure of that."
"Perhaps thou art right," said he; "come up then and let us hide what we have without delay."
I closed the chest, pinned the hasp, and hastily replaced the skulls, in case the place should be visited in our absence, and hauling myself up by the ropes, pulled them up after me.
I was surprised at the quantity we had raised.
The floor of the tunnel was covered with the bunches of manillas, and I saw at once that we had a heavy day's work before us in transporting them to the island. Bukári was full of eagerness and childish glee, and was already gathering up the bunches and feverishly cramming them into the bags, but, of course, when he had filled one to the brim and essayed to lift it on to his head, he was no more able to move it than if it had been the Great Pyramid; so he regretfully emptied out two-thirds, and with the remainder he was just able to stagger.
When we reached the mouth of the tunnel with our small but ponderous burdens, we first took the precaution to fill the bags up with leaves, so that if we met anyone we might seem to be carrying loads of kola. Then we let ourselves very carefully down the steep hillside until, after a world of labour, we reached the level. I had kept the direction well in my mind, and was able to lead my companion pretty nearly by the route that I had followed on my return from the island; in fact, I managed so well that in not more than half an hour after leaving the tunnel we broke out of the undergrowth on the river bank within sight of the island. I worked my way through the shallows until the opening in the trees came in sight, and then taking my bearings by the oil-palm and the tree, I crossed the river, with Bukári in my wake, and found the moss-covered knoll at once. Here we emptied out our bags, stowing the shining spoil in a heap under a clump of bushes, and immediately set out on our return, picking up a few shell-fish as we crossed the river. On our way back I cut a few sticks which, when we arrived, I laid on the mass of embers to which our fire had sunk, and set the affaní to roast, while we loaded our sacks afresh; for it was now within two hours of noon, and we were getting hungry again.
We made in all five journeys before we had cleared off all that we had raised, and as we each carried about a hundred pounds—the utmost that we could stagger under—the quantity of gold that was ultimately piled under the bushes on the island would be roughly a thousand pounds weight, or near upon half a ton.
When we had delivered the last load on to the island we set to work without delay to bury what we had brought, and this, seeing that my knife was our sole implement, proved to be no small labour. I commenced by cutting out a square of the thick moss about two feet across, which I rolled up like a turf; then I stirred the black mould with my knife while Bukári rooted with his fingers, burrowing like a mole until we had excavated a space large enough to hold the treasure. Into this we cast the manillas, packing them in as neatly as we could, and when the last of them had been crammed in, we replaced as much of the earth as there was room for, stamping it down hard with our feet, and threw the remainder amongst the bushes. Lastly, I laid the slab of moss back in its place, and when I had squeezed and coaxed it a little, it joined so neatly at the edges that the surface looked as if it had never been disturbed.
As we returned, I stopped at the tree to make a more permanent and distinctive mark, so that I might feel that the first stage of our labour was completed, and with the point of my knife I cut my initials in large conspicuous letters on the smooth grey bark. This done we resumed our journey in quite high spirits, picking out of our bags the affaní that we had collected in the river, and eating them raw as we went.
"The sun is getting low, Bukári," said I. "We shall not be able to raise much more of the gold to-day, for the daylight will soon be gone."
"Daylight and darkness are all the same to me," replied the Moshi grimly, "and it would seem that the night is the best time for our work, for then we know that the wizards are asleep."
I was not so sure of this, but I did not contradict Bukári, who continued—
"We will change places when the daylight goes. I will take the gold from the chest and thou shalt pull it up to the tunnel."
"Very well," I replied, "it shall be so; but, of course, we shall have to sleep some time."
"There will be time for sleep," he rejoined, "when the chest is empty and the gold is buried."
We had now reached the foot of the cliff, and being by this time well used to the ground, we soon climbed up and entered the tunnel. I cast on the fire a faggot that I had picked up, and we took our way, without pausing, towards the treasure chamber.
We had nearly reached the farther end, and the dim daylight was already visible, when Bukári stopped abruptly and grasped me by the arm; and at the same moment I became aware of a faint sound from the direction of the treasure chamber.
Suddenly there arose a loud and confused shouting as of several men calling out at once, and instantly Bukári turned and ran back, exclaiming—
"Come away! It is the wizards! They are calling for a ladder."
I turned and fled after my companion as fast as I could in the darkness, and when I reached the mouth of the tunnel I saw him already half-way down the cliff. The sound of those voices had in an instant dissipated his reckless courage, and when I overtook him he was in a state of complete panic.
"What are we to do?" he gasped. "They will be out directly, and we shall be taken back to the mine. Curse the gold! Why did we ever meddle with it?" And he flung his arms about with such furious gesticulations that he struck the trunk of a tree and burst open his half-healed wound, from which the blood began to trickle down on to the ground.
I could have killed him, at that moment, without remorse, so angry was I at this childish outburst of passion, for now, as we walked, a trail of blood on the ground plainly marked the line of our flight.
"Idiot!" I exclaimed. "Is our peril not enough by reason of thy infirmity without adding to it by thy folly? Let me bind thy wound, and if thou behavest again like a child I will leave thee."
He submitted meekly to my rather rough surgery, for I meant to stop the bleeding at whatever cost to his feelings, and when I had replaced the rag as tightly as I thought safe, I took him by the hand and plunged into the forest. For a quarter of an hour we pushed and scrambled through the undergrowth, bearing towards the river; then at length we emerged on to the narrow track, and here I cut a long thin stick, and giving him one end I grasped the other, and set off at a run.
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