United States or Netherlands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They made a portentous splashing, but not a sound came from their throats. I shall never know how Laputa imposed silence on the most noisy race on earth. Several thousand footmen must have followed the riders, and disappeared into the far bush. But not a shot came from the bluffs in front. I watched with a sinking heart. Arcoll had failed, and there was to be no check at the drift.
They never dreamed of danger from the natives, and in any case it was difficult to police the Portuguese side. Laputa knew our weakness, and he staked everything on it. 'My first scheme was to lay Laputa by the heels; but no Government would act on my information. The man was strongly buttressed by public support at home, and South Africa has burned her fingers before this with arbitrary arrests.
Laputa looked at me with an odd, meditative look. 'You misunderstand again, Mr Storekeeper. The Portuguese is what you call a "mean white." His only safety is among us. I am campaigner enough to know that an enemy, who has a burning grievance against my other enemies, is a good ally. You are too hard on Henriques.
'He is safe enough, Laputa said, after what seemed to me an eternity. 'The noise was only the rats among the barrels. I thanked my Maker that they had not noticed the other trap-door. 'All the same I think I'll make him safer, said Henriques. Laputa seemed to have caught him by the arm. 'Come back and get to business, he said. 'I've told you I'll have no more murder.
"Educate," say the English. The black man obeys and puts away his gods, but he worships them all the time in his soul. We must get his gods on our side, and then he will move mountains. We must do as John Laputa did with Sheba's necklace. 'That's all in the air, said Stumm, but he did not laugh. 'It is sober common sense, I said. 'But you must begin at the right end.
I had seen Laputa as the Christian minister, as the priest and king in the cave, as the leader of an army at Dupree's Drift, and at the kraal we had left as the savage with all self-control flung to the winds. I was to see this amazing man in a further part. For he now became a friendly and rational companion.
Arcoll's men are all over it, and you cannot have a collection of search parties rummaging about in the glen for long. Last and most important, if you send any one for the jewels, you confess their loss. No, Mr Laputa, if you want them back, you must go yourself and take me with you. He stood silent for a little, with his brows knit in thought. Then he opened the door and went out.
Then he told tales of white infamy, lands snatched from their rightful possessors, unjust laws which forced the Ethiopian to the bondage of a despised caste, the finger of scorn everywhere, and the mocking word. If it be the part of an orator to rouse the passion of his hearers, Laputa was the greatest on earth. 'What have ye gained from the white man? he cried.
In my haste I left my coat behind me with my pistol in the pocket. Now came a check. My horse was stabled in the shed, and that was close to the outhouse. The sound of leading him out would most certainly bring Laputa and Henriques to the door. In that moment I all but changed my plans. I thought of slipping back to the outhouse and trying to shoot the two men as they came forth.
'But back to the Berg I go the first thing in the morning. I hate these stinking plains. 'It were wise to go to-night, he said, with a touch of menace in his tone. 'I can't, I said, and began to sing the chorus of a ridiculous music-hall song 'There's no place like home but I'm afraid to go home in the dark. Laputa shrugged his shoulders, stepped over the bristling Colin, and went out.
Word Of The Day