第42章

Come, let us lift them into the litters and start, for it is very bad to stand still in this morning fog.We can eat our meal as we go."This we accordingly did, and with a heavy heart I once more set out upon our strange journey.For the first three hours all went as well as could be expected, and then an accident happened that nearly lost us the pleasure of the company of our venerable friend Billali, whose litter was leading the cavalcade.We were going through a particularly dangerous stretch of quagmire, in which the bearers sometimes sank up to their knees.Indeed, it was a mystery to me how they contrived to carry the heavy litters at all over such ground as that which we were traversing, though the two spare hands, as well as the four regular ones, had of course to put their shoulders to the pole.

Presently, as we blundered and floundered along, there was a sharp cry, then a storm of exclamations, and, last of all, a most tremendous splash, and the whole caravan halted.

I jumped out of my litter and ran forward.About twenty yards ahead was the edge of one of those sullen peaty pools of which I have spoken, the path we were following running along the top of its bank, that, as it happened, was a steep one.Looking towards this pool, to my horror I saw that Billali's litter was floating on it, and as for Billali himself, he was nowhere to be seen.To make matters clear I may as well explain at once what had happened.One of.

Billali's bearers had unfortunately trodden on a basking snake, which had bitten him in the leg, whereon he had, not unnaturally, let go of the pole, and then, finding that he was tumbling down the bank, grasped at the litter to save himself.The result of this was what might have been expected.The litter was pulled over the edge of the bank, the bearers let go, and the whole thing, including Billali and the man who had been bitten, rolled into the slimy pool.When Igot to the edge of the water neither of them were to be seen, and, indeed, the unfortunate bearer never was seen again.Either he struck his head against something, or got wedged in the mud, or possibly the snake-bite paralyzed him.At any rate, he vanished.

But though Billali was not to be seen, his whereabouts was clear enough from the agitation of the floating litter, in the bearing cloth and curtains of which he was entangled.

"He is there! Our father is there!" said one of the men, but he did not stir a finger to help him, nor did any of the others.They simply stood and stared at the water.

"Out of the way, you brutes," I shouted in English, and throwing off my hat I took a run and sprang well out into the horrid, slimy-looking pool.A couple of strokes took me to where Billali was struggling beneath the cloth.

Somehow, I do not quite know how, I managed to push this free of him, and his venerable head, all covered with green slime, like that of a yellowish Bacchus with ivy leaves, emerged upon the surface of the water.The rest was easy, for Billali was an eminently practical individual, and had the commonsense not to grasp hold of me as drowning people often do, so I got him by the arm, and towed him to the bank, through the mud of which we were with difficulty dragged.Such a filthy spectacle as we presented I have never seen before or since, and it will perhaps give some idea of the almost superhuman dignity of Billali's appearance when I say that, coughing, half-drowned, and covered with mud and green slime as he was, with his beautiful beard coming to a dripping point, like a Chinaman's freshly oiled pigtail, he still looked venerable and imposing.

"Ye dogs," he said, addressing the bearers, as soon as he had sufficiently recovered to speak, "ye left me, your father, to drown.Had it not been for this stranger, my son the Baboon, assuredly I should have drowned.Well, I will remember it," and he fixed them with his gleaming though slightly watery eye, in a way I saw they did not like, though they tried to appear sulkily indifferent.

'As for thee, my son," the old man went on, turning towards me and grasping my hand, "rest assured that Iam thy friend through good and evil.Thou hast saved my life: perchance a day may come when I shall save thine."After that we cleaned ourselves as best we could, fished out the litter, and went on, minus the man who had been drowned.I do not know if it was owing to his being an unpopular character, or from native indifference and selfishness of temperament, but I am bound to say that nobody seemed to grieve much over his sudden and final disappearance, unless, perhaps, it was the men who had to do his share of the work.