Chapter Sixteen.

Chapter Sixteen.Dick and Phil prosper.Determined to afford Her Majesty neither time nor opportunity to repent of her sudden decision, Malachi hastened out of the palace as speedily as his poor old limbs would carry him, and, making the best of his way back to the enormous building in which the strangers were lodged, presented himself in their apartment, which he found them in the act of returning to by way of the window after a stroll round the roof garden outside. Almost incoherent from want of breath and his eagerness to impress upon the pair the necessity to seize the present favourable opportunity, the Elder hastily explained that his mission to the Queen had been successful, and entreated Dick and Grosvenor to accompany him to the palace forthwith; with which request they were of course perfectly ready to comply. The palace was but a bare hundred yards from the larger building, both in fact being built on the same plot of ground, and a few minutes sufficed the trio to pass from the one building to the other, to traverse the noble entrance hall of the palace, and to make their way to the Queen’s private suite of apartments, outside the door of which two soldiers armed with spear and target stood on guard. The next moment they were in the presence of the Queen, who, surrounded by some half a dozen ladies, reclined listlessly upon a couch of solid gold gorgeously upholstered in richly embroidered silk.As the trio entered and bowed low before her, the young Queen glanced listlessly at her visitors for a moment, and then a look of interest crept into her eyes, such as Malachi had not seen there for months, causing his heart to leap within him as he wondered whether this young doctor had indeed the power to perform a miracle and effect the cure of the lovely young creature upon whom the hopes of the whole nation depended.For lovely the Queen most certainly was, indeed it is the only word which adequately expresses the perfection of her charms. The Izreelite women were, as the young Englishmen had already had opportunity to observe, mostly of more than prepossessing appearance, tall, stately, statuesque creatures of Juno-like proportions, with melting dark eyes, and luxuriant tresses of dark, curly hair. But Queen Myra’s beauty was of a totally different type, for she waspetiteyet exquisitely formed, fair as the dawn of a summer’s day, with golden-brown locks, and eyes as blue as the sapphire sky overhead. So lovely indeed was she that Grosvenor, surprised out of his manners, whistled softly, and remarked to Dick, in quite audible tones:“Phew! Dick, my boy, did you ever see such a beauty in all your born days? No wonder that these old jossers the Elders are anxious to keep the darling alive—eh, what?”As he spoke the faintest suspicion of a smile seemed to flicker for a moment in the eyes of the Queen, but Dick, who noticed it, thought it must have been provoked by Malachi’s genuflexions as he performed the ceremony of introduction, pointing to Dick first as the physician, and then to Grosvenor as the friend who had journeyed with him across the Great Water, and who, happening in some mysterious way—which he, Malachi, did not pretend to understand—to possess some slight knowledge of the Izreelite tongue, would act as interpreter between Her Majesty and the physician.By the time that Malachi had finished his speech the terrible listlessness and indifference of the Queen’s manner, which had for so many months been a source of anxiety to the nation in general and the Elders and nobles in particular, had completely vanished, and she electrified the chief Elder by raising herself upon her couch and bidding him imperiously to be gone and to leave her alone with her ladies and the two strangers. The poor old gentleman, his head dizzy with many conflicting emotions, hastily bowed himself out, and was halfway back to his own quarters in the Legislature before he well knew whether he was on his head or his heels.The door had no sooner closed upon Malachi than an extraordinary change took place in the appearance and demeanour of the Queen; the languor of her attitude and the absolute listlessness and indifference with which she had regarded her chief Elder vanished as if by magic. Her eyes lit up eagerly, a wave of colour suffused her hitherto marble-white cheeks and brow, and, turning to her two visitors, she astounded them by exclaiming in excellent English, with only a trace of accent, as she stretched out her hands toward them:“Gentlemen—gentlemen, are you indeed English, or has my poor brain at last given way under the strain of my terrible trouble?”For a moment the friends were literally smitten speechless by astonishment; then Grosvenor, who was the first to recover full possession of his faculties, sprang forward and, sinking upon one knee, raised one of the little outstretched hands respectfully to his lips.“Madam,” he said, absent-mindedly retaining the Queen’s hand in his own as he still knelt before her, “we are indeed Englishmen, and entirely at your service. There are but two of us, as you see; but you have only to command us, and whatever two Englishmen in the midst of thousands of enemies can do, that will we do for you. Isn’t that so, Dick?”“It is, indeed,” answered Dick, smiling at the passionate fervour of his friend’s speech. “Your Majesty has but to explain to us the nature of your trouble, and it shall go hard indeed with us if we do not devise some means to help you, especially as, unless I am entirely mistaken, you are a countrywoman of our own. Get up, Phil, and let Her Majesty tell us her story. And mind your ‘P’s’ and ‘Q’s’, old man,” he added in a low tone; “don’t let your sympathy and enthusiasm run away with you, or you will be apt to excite possibly awkward comment on the part of Her Majesty’s ladies. You have made some of them open their eyes pretty wide already, I can assure you.”With a muttered ejaculation Grosvenor hastily scrambled to his feet, while the Queen, beckoning to two of her ladies, directed them to place a couple of settees for her visitors close to her couch. Upon these the two Englishmen seated themselves, in obedience to a sign from Her Majesty, who thereupon addressed them:“I fear,” said she, “that I shall find it quite impossible to make you understand how astonished and how glad I am to see you both. I am astonished, because it is a law of this land that no aliens are ever permitted to enter it—and live; and I am glad because you, like myself, are English, and my dear mother taught me to believe that Englishmen are always ready to help their countrywomen in distress under all circumstances. And I am in distress, the greatest distress that I suppose it is possible for a woman to be in. But let me tell you my story—it will not take long—and then perhaps you will understand.“I am twenty-three years of age, and of English parentage. My father was an officer in the Indian army, and for nearly four years my mother resided with him at a little frontier post called Bipur. Then trouble arose; the hill tribes in the neighbourhood of Bipur committed certain excesses, and an expedition was dispatched under my father’s command. Fighting ensued, and my father was killed in one of the earliest engagements that took place. There was now nothing to keep my mother in India, therefore, as the climate did not suit her, she made immediate arrangements to return to England, taking passage in a sailing ship that was proceeding home by way of the Cape, a long sea voyage having been prescribed for the benefit of her health.“I do not know how it happened, nor did my mother, but the ship was wrecked on the African coast, and many lives were lost. My mother, however, happened to be one of the saved; and she, with the rest of the survivors, fell into the hands of certain natives who surprised their camp on the beach in the dead of night. The men of the party were all slain; and what became of the few women who survived I do not know, for my mother never told me; but she was brought by her captors to this country and presented to King Geshuri, who made her his queen. Two months later I was born; and my mother never had any other children.“Five years ago King Geshuri died; and my mother became the reigning monarch of the country, in accordance with the Izreelite law. But she was never strong; and three years ago she, too, died, leaving me absolutely alone to govern this fierce, headstrong people as best I could.”Here the Queen’s emotion overcame her for a moment, and she hid her face in her hands, while the tears welled over and trickled through her fingers. Her distress moved the young Englishmen powerfully, and they began to murmur expressions of sympathy and assurances of help. But, quickly recovering her composure, the Queen resumed her narrative.“That, however, is not what is troubling me, for my mother, realising that I must one day become a queen, devoted herself entirely to educating me in such a manner as to prepare me, as well as she could, for the discharge of my difficult duties. Unfortunately, we had no books, so my mother was compelled to rely entirely upon her own knowledge and experience in the matter of my education and training; but she not only taught me the English language, but also how to read and write it, spending many hours in printing with her own hand long passages containing maxims for my guidance, simply that I might have the means of learning to read English books, should ever any such fall into my hands.“And now I come to the matter that is troubling me. The Elders tell me that the time has arrived when I must take to myself a husband; and they have suggested—oh, I cannot tell you how many men!—Izreelite nobles, of course—from whom I may make my choice. But I do not like any of them; there is not one among them all whom I do not thoroughly detest, for they are all fierce, arrogant, overbearing men who do not even pretend that they have any desire to make me happy. All they want is to be king, so that they may enjoy the absolute power and authority of a monarch; for, if I marry, my husband will at once become the ruler of the country, according to the Izreelite law, and I shall merely be his wife. Fortunately, I cannot be compelled to marry, and I won’t—I won’t,” with a passionate little stamp of the foot, “until I meet with a man whom I can—can—love. But I know I shall have no peace until I consent to marry somebody; the Elders are wild with anxiety that I should choose a husband; they worry me every day, ay, and almost every hour of the day, about it, until I am driven very nearly out of my senses by the thought that, sooner or later, I shall be constrained to become the wife of some man whom I detest. That is my trouble, gentlemen; I wonder if you are clever enough to devise a means of helping me.”“Yes, Your Majesty, we are,” answered Dick confidently. “I don’t say that we already have a plan; for that would be asserting far too much. But you have told us the nature of your trouble, which of course is the first thing that it is necessary for us to know; and now we will lose no time in thinking out a remedy. Trust to us, madam; we will not fail you. We have practically pledged ourselves to spend the remainder of our lives in your country—your Elders compelled us to do that—and the removal of your trouble and the securing of your happiness shall have precedence of every other consideration with us.”The Queen’s gratitude was so great that she seemed scarcely able to find words in which to express herself adequately; it was almost painful to witness, so eloquently did it testify to the desperation with which she had been compelled to combat the suggestions of unwelcome alliances with which she had been perpetually harassed; but she contrived to make it quite clear that the arrival of the two Englishmen filled her with renewed hope and a revived zest in life. “I know,” she said, “that it must sound unkind of me to say so, but I cannot help being glad that you are here; for now at last I feel that I have two friends who will stand by me and help me to the utmost of their ability. Besides,” she added delightedly, as the thought came to her, “you will be companions for me. I have been utterly lonely and friendless since my mother died; but you will come to see me often—every day—won’t you? And we can walk and talk together, and I can again be happy.”“Of course,” answered Grosvenor eagerly. “You may absolutely depend upon us both to do anything and everything that you may ask of us. I believe we are each to be assigned certain duties, which I suppose we shall be expected to perform; but our first duty is to you, our first care must be for your happiness, and, so far as we can prevent it, you shall never again be worried by those old jossers the Elders, or anybody else. We have a few books among our baggage, and as soon as it is delivered to us I will turn them out and bring them over to you; and as to coming to see you, why of course we shall be delighted to do so; we will come over every evening after our day’s work is over. Eh, Dick?”“Certainly,” answered Dick; “or at least as often as it may be prudent to do so. And now, madam,” he continued, addressing the Queen, “I think it will be well that we should retire, for above all things else we must carefully avoid anything and everything that may excite suspicion or jealousy, and I imagine that both might easily be aroused by a too-sudden appearance of friendship between ourselves and Your Majesty. Besides, Malachi the Elder will be anxiously awaiting our report. But, as my friend has said, you may absolutely rely upon our loyal friendship and our best help at all times and seasons. Possibly we may be able to arrange another call before the day is over; meanwhile I crave Your Majesty’s permission for us to retire.”As Dick anticipated, they found the chief Elder anxiously awaiting their return, eager to learn the young doctor’s opinion relative to the mental and physical condition of the Queen; and Dick, with Phil for his interpreter, was not slow to give it. Of course, to his practised eye it had at once been evident that Queen Myra was simply being worried and badgered and terrified out of her senses by these old men who, with that idiotic prophecy dominating their minds, desired one thing and one only, namely to see the Queen married as speedily as possible to somebody; but to whom it seemed that they cared very little. Dick intended to put a stop to that at once; he therefore directed Grosvenor to inform the Elder, Malachi, that the Queen was in a most critical condition, but that he could cure her, provided that his instructions were all implicitly obeyed, but not otherwise. This last statement set the poor old Elder absolutely quivering with apprehension; but Dick was not worrying overmuch about him or anybody else save the Queen, and he contrived to frighten the unhappy Elder so thoroughly that at length he unreservedly promised, both for himself and everybody else, that the word “marriage” should never again be spoken in Her Majesty’s presence until Dick gave permission; and he also agreed that Dick should have an absolutely free hand with regard to the Queen’s treatment, the visitors she should receive, the exercise she should take, and so on; thus providing for Dick’s and Grosvenor’s free admission to the palace and the Queen’s presence as often as they chose.This important matter settled, the friends retired to their own quarters to talk matters over. They found that all their various belongings had been brought from the cell in which they had passed the previous night, and were now carefully arranged in their own private apartment. Grosvenor at once went to his trunk, opened it, bundled its contents upon the floor, and feverishly proceeded to sort out the half-dozen books—novels, and two volumes of poems—which it contained, exhorting Dick to do the same, in order that “that poor girl” might be provided with a new form of amusement with the least possible delay. It was easy for Dick to perceive, from his companion’s talk, that the latter had been profoundly impressed by the charms and the lonely state of the young Queen; and Maitland quietly chuckled, as he reflected that Grosvenor would never have seen her had he not fled to South Africa for distraction from the smart of a heart severely lacerated by some fickle fair one, who, by the way, seemed now to be completely forgotten. But he shook his head with sudden gravity, as his thoughts travelled on into the future and he foresaw the possibility of a mutual attachment springing up between Phil and the Queen. That would be a complication with a vengeance, and he determined quietly to do everything in his power to prevent it.The ensuing six months passed with the rapidity of a dream; for no sooner had the two Englishmen arranged matters relating to the Queen upon a satisfactory basis than they discovered that there was another cause for anxiety of the gravest character in the behaviour of the savage nations that hemmed in Izreel on every side. Hitherto these had been too busily engaged in fighting each other to do more than make desultory war upon the Izreelites; but now news of an apparently reliable character came to Bethalia, the island city, to the effect that a certain king, named Mokatto—a very shrewd fellow by all accounts—had entered into friendly communication with the rulers of the other nations whose countries bordered on Izreel, and had pointed out the folly of fighting each other for no particular reason, when, by uniting their forces, they could attack the Izreelites, overwhelm them, and divide their country equally among the victors. This counsel, there was every reason to believe, had been accepted; for reports were almost daily coming to hand of preparations which pointed to nothing less than an impending attack upon Izreel by the confederated kingdoms.This was precisely what the Izreelites had always feared more than any other earthly thing; and when authentic intelligence began to arrive, pointing to the conclusion that the long-feared attack was about to be made, the Izreelites grew almost crazy with panic, some of them contending that their gods were angry at the admission of two aliens into the country, and that the only way by which their anger could be appeased was by offering the strangers as a sacrifice upon the great altar of the temple which formed the top story of the Legislative building. This theory took a very strong hold upon certain of the most influential of the nobles, who quickly developed extreme jealousy of the two strangers, whom they vaguely suspected of being in some unexplained way inimical to them and their interests; and for a time Dick and Grosvenor undoubtedly went in danger of their lives.At length, however, this peril became so imminent that the pair agreed to take the bull by the horns and deal with it forthwith. They accordingly convened a meeting of the Seven Elders and all the nobility, at which Dick delivered an address, graphically describing the danger in which the nation stood, and boldly asserting that only he and Grosvenor could possibly avert it.This, of course, was rather a staggering statement, and one which the Izreelites were not at all disposed to accept unquestioningly, or without proof. But Dick was equal to the occasion. He and Grosvenor had discussed the matter together, had decided upon their plan of campaign, and the Opposition were silenced by his first question.“What do you suppose would happen to your Queen,” he demanded, “if you were unwise enough to put us to death? I will tell you. She is now on the highroad to recovery; but, deprived of our ministrations, she would suffer an immediate relapse, and die! Do you need to be reminded of what would follow upon that? If there is any truth in your ancient prophecy the very thing that you most dread would immediately happen. In other words, our destruction would immediately be followed by that of the entire nation.“But, apart from that, our destruction would be the gravest mistake that you could possibly make; for we, who are natives of the greatest fighting nation that the world has ever known, can teach you much in the art of war, your knowledge of which is of the slightest. Your weapons are poor and inefficient, and you know nothing of strategy and generalship; but we can instruct you in those important matters, and also teach you how to make new and powerful weapons, by means of which you will be able effectually to subjugate the nations which now threaten you. Say, then, will you destroy us, and so involve yourselves in irretrievable ruin? Or shall we teach you how to emerge victoriously from the coming struggle with your enemies?”There could be but one answer to such a question; the jealousy of the nobles gave way to fear. They no longer clamoured for the death of the Englishmen, but, on the contrary, were as willing as the rest that the strangers should be afforded every opportunity to make good their boast, and from that moment Dick and Grosvenor became virtually the Dictators of the nation.Their victory was perhaps the easier from the fact that during the six months of their sojourn they had already accomplished much. The Queen, for example, enlivened and encouraged by the intimate companionship of her two fellow countrymen, had gradually thrown off the incubus of her terror, and was now almost her former self again; while Grosvenor had found congenial occupation in fitting the few craft upon the lake with sails, and designing and building other craft of greatly improved model, including half a dozen cutters of the racing-yacht type, which he conceived would be exceedingly useful should the savages ever again attempt, as they had done on several previous occasions, to attack the island city. As for Dick, the densely populated city alone provided him with more patients than he could conveniently deal with; and he had effected many remarkable cures.One of the first things that particularly attracted the attention of the two friends immediately upon their arrival in Izreel was the inadequacy of the weapons—a spear, or sheaf of spears, and a small round shield or target—with which the people were armed; and this they now proceeded to rectify by the general introduction of bows and arrows as an auxiliary to the spear and shield. There was an abundance of suitable wood for bows to be found in a forest on the inner slope of the mountains on the mainland, while reeds suitable for the shafts of arrows grew in inexhaustible quantities along the margin of the lake; and when once a pattern bow and arrow had been made, and a sufficiency of wood and reeds provided, the furnishing of every man with a good bow and quiverful of arrows was speedily accomplished. There had at first been a difficulty in the matter of arrowheads, but this had been overcome by the discovery of an enormous deposit of flints—in searching for which a rich mine of diamonds had come to light.The construction of his fleet and the training of their crews having been accomplished, Grosvenor next took the army in hand and proceeded to train it in the use of the bow, succeeding at length, by dint of indefatigable perseverance, in converting the soldiers into an army of really brilliant marksmen.This achievement brought the time on to nearly nine months from the date of the adventurers’ arrival in Izreel, during the first eight months of which information had come in from time to time which left no room to doubt that the savages of the adjoining nations had combined together and were making the most elaborate preparations for a simultaneous attack upon Izreel from all sides. Then the sources of information seemed to suddenly dry up, and no news of any description relative to the movements of the savages could be obtained.The Izreelites were disposed to regard this as a favourable omen, many even asserting their conviction that the savages had quarrelled among themselves, and that attack from them was no longer to be feared; but Dick and Grosvenor took quite another view of the matter. They regarded the cessation of news as ominous in the extreme, and dispatched imperative orders to the frontier for the maintenance of the utmost vigilance, night and day. They also organised strong relays of swift runners, radiating from various points along the shore of the lake to those points where attack might first be expected, in order that intelligence of an invasion might be brought to the capital with the utmost promptitude. The strength of the garrisons in the outlying blockhouses was also doubled, which were put under the command of the most resolute and intelligent captains that could be found, with instructions that each post was to be stubbornly defended until the enemy should threaten to surround it, when it was to be abandoned, and the garrison—or what might remain of it—was to retire inward to the next post, and so on; the various garrisons contesting every inch of ground, cutting up the enemy as severely as possible, and gradually retiring inward toward the lake and Bethalia if they could not maintain their ground. These preparations did not take long to make, since it was merely a matter of marching supplementary troops to the frontier, and the provisioning of the various blockhouses, fortified farms, castles, and strongholds generally; and as the preparations had all been made beforehand, a week sufficed to place the entire nation on the defensive.Still the task was accomplished none too soon, for on the very day succeeding that upon which the preparations for defence were completed, news arrived in Bethalia that large bodies of savages had been seen massing upon various parts of the border, while the next day brought intelligence of attacks upon almost every one of the outlying blockhouses, and of the retirement of their respective garrisons after severe fighting in which heavy loss had been sustained by both sides. The invasion of Izreel had begun, and was being prosecuted with relentless determination and energy.

Determined to afford Her Majesty neither time nor opportunity to repent of her sudden decision, Malachi hastened out of the palace as speedily as his poor old limbs would carry him, and, making the best of his way back to the enormous building in which the strangers were lodged, presented himself in their apartment, which he found them in the act of returning to by way of the window after a stroll round the roof garden outside. Almost incoherent from want of breath and his eagerness to impress upon the pair the necessity to seize the present favourable opportunity, the Elder hastily explained that his mission to the Queen had been successful, and entreated Dick and Grosvenor to accompany him to the palace forthwith; with which request they were of course perfectly ready to comply. The palace was but a bare hundred yards from the larger building, both in fact being built on the same plot of ground, and a few minutes sufficed the trio to pass from the one building to the other, to traverse the noble entrance hall of the palace, and to make their way to the Queen’s private suite of apartments, outside the door of which two soldiers armed with spear and target stood on guard. The next moment they were in the presence of the Queen, who, surrounded by some half a dozen ladies, reclined listlessly upon a couch of solid gold gorgeously upholstered in richly embroidered silk.

As the trio entered and bowed low before her, the young Queen glanced listlessly at her visitors for a moment, and then a look of interest crept into her eyes, such as Malachi had not seen there for months, causing his heart to leap within him as he wondered whether this young doctor had indeed the power to perform a miracle and effect the cure of the lovely young creature upon whom the hopes of the whole nation depended.

For lovely the Queen most certainly was, indeed it is the only word which adequately expresses the perfection of her charms. The Izreelite women were, as the young Englishmen had already had opportunity to observe, mostly of more than prepossessing appearance, tall, stately, statuesque creatures of Juno-like proportions, with melting dark eyes, and luxuriant tresses of dark, curly hair. But Queen Myra’s beauty was of a totally different type, for she waspetiteyet exquisitely formed, fair as the dawn of a summer’s day, with golden-brown locks, and eyes as blue as the sapphire sky overhead. So lovely indeed was she that Grosvenor, surprised out of his manners, whistled softly, and remarked to Dick, in quite audible tones:

“Phew! Dick, my boy, did you ever see such a beauty in all your born days? No wonder that these old jossers the Elders are anxious to keep the darling alive—eh, what?”

As he spoke the faintest suspicion of a smile seemed to flicker for a moment in the eyes of the Queen, but Dick, who noticed it, thought it must have been provoked by Malachi’s genuflexions as he performed the ceremony of introduction, pointing to Dick first as the physician, and then to Grosvenor as the friend who had journeyed with him across the Great Water, and who, happening in some mysterious way—which he, Malachi, did not pretend to understand—to possess some slight knowledge of the Izreelite tongue, would act as interpreter between Her Majesty and the physician.

By the time that Malachi had finished his speech the terrible listlessness and indifference of the Queen’s manner, which had for so many months been a source of anxiety to the nation in general and the Elders and nobles in particular, had completely vanished, and she electrified the chief Elder by raising herself upon her couch and bidding him imperiously to be gone and to leave her alone with her ladies and the two strangers. The poor old gentleman, his head dizzy with many conflicting emotions, hastily bowed himself out, and was halfway back to his own quarters in the Legislature before he well knew whether he was on his head or his heels.

The door had no sooner closed upon Malachi than an extraordinary change took place in the appearance and demeanour of the Queen; the languor of her attitude and the absolute listlessness and indifference with which she had regarded her chief Elder vanished as if by magic. Her eyes lit up eagerly, a wave of colour suffused her hitherto marble-white cheeks and brow, and, turning to her two visitors, she astounded them by exclaiming in excellent English, with only a trace of accent, as she stretched out her hands toward them:

“Gentlemen—gentlemen, are you indeed English, or has my poor brain at last given way under the strain of my terrible trouble?”

For a moment the friends were literally smitten speechless by astonishment; then Grosvenor, who was the first to recover full possession of his faculties, sprang forward and, sinking upon one knee, raised one of the little outstretched hands respectfully to his lips.

“Madam,” he said, absent-mindedly retaining the Queen’s hand in his own as he still knelt before her, “we are indeed Englishmen, and entirely at your service. There are but two of us, as you see; but you have only to command us, and whatever two Englishmen in the midst of thousands of enemies can do, that will we do for you. Isn’t that so, Dick?”

“It is, indeed,” answered Dick, smiling at the passionate fervour of his friend’s speech. “Your Majesty has but to explain to us the nature of your trouble, and it shall go hard indeed with us if we do not devise some means to help you, especially as, unless I am entirely mistaken, you are a countrywoman of our own. Get up, Phil, and let Her Majesty tell us her story. And mind your ‘P’s’ and ‘Q’s’, old man,” he added in a low tone; “don’t let your sympathy and enthusiasm run away with you, or you will be apt to excite possibly awkward comment on the part of Her Majesty’s ladies. You have made some of them open their eyes pretty wide already, I can assure you.”

With a muttered ejaculation Grosvenor hastily scrambled to his feet, while the Queen, beckoning to two of her ladies, directed them to place a couple of settees for her visitors close to her couch. Upon these the two Englishmen seated themselves, in obedience to a sign from Her Majesty, who thereupon addressed them:

“I fear,” said she, “that I shall find it quite impossible to make you understand how astonished and how glad I am to see you both. I am astonished, because it is a law of this land that no aliens are ever permitted to enter it—and live; and I am glad because you, like myself, are English, and my dear mother taught me to believe that Englishmen are always ready to help their countrywomen in distress under all circumstances. And I am in distress, the greatest distress that I suppose it is possible for a woman to be in. But let me tell you my story—it will not take long—and then perhaps you will understand.

“I am twenty-three years of age, and of English parentage. My father was an officer in the Indian army, and for nearly four years my mother resided with him at a little frontier post called Bipur. Then trouble arose; the hill tribes in the neighbourhood of Bipur committed certain excesses, and an expedition was dispatched under my father’s command. Fighting ensued, and my father was killed in one of the earliest engagements that took place. There was now nothing to keep my mother in India, therefore, as the climate did not suit her, she made immediate arrangements to return to England, taking passage in a sailing ship that was proceeding home by way of the Cape, a long sea voyage having been prescribed for the benefit of her health.

“I do not know how it happened, nor did my mother, but the ship was wrecked on the African coast, and many lives were lost. My mother, however, happened to be one of the saved; and she, with the rest of the survivors, fell into the hands of certain natives who surprised their camp on the beach in the dead of night. The men of the party were all slain; and what became of the few women who survived I do not know, for my mother never told me; but she was brought by her captors to this country and presented to King Geshuri, who made her his queen. Two months later I was born; and my mother never had any other children.

“Five years ago King Geshuri died; and my mother became the reigning monarch of the country, in accordance with the Izreelite law. But she was never strong; and three years ago she, too, died, leaving me absolutely alone to govern this fierce, headstrong people as best I could.”

Here the Queen’s emotion overcame her for a moment, and she hid her face in her hands, while the tears welled over and trickled through her fingers. Her distress moved the young Englishmen powerfully, and they began to murmur expressions of sympathy and assurances of help. But, quickly recovering her composure, the Queen resumed her narrative.

“That, however, is not what is troubling me, for my mother, realising that I must one day become a queen, devoted herself entirely to educating me in such a manner as to prepare me, as well as she could, for the discharge of my difficult duties. Unfortunately, we had no books, so my mother was compelled to rely entirely upon her own knowledge and experience in the matter of my education and training; but she not only taught me the English language, but also how to read and write it, spending many hours in printing with her own hand long passages containing maxims for my guidance, simply that I might have the means of learning to read English books, should ever any such fall into my hands.

“And now I come to the matter that is troubling me. The Elders tell me that the time has arrived when I must take to myself a husband; and they have suggested—oh, I cannot tell you how many men!—Izreelite nobles, of course—from whom I may make my choice. But I do not like any of them; there is not one among them all whom I do not thoroughly detest, for they are all fierce, arrogant, overbearing men who do not even pretend that they have any desire to make me happy. All they want is to be king, so that they may enjoy the absolute power and authority of a monarch; for, if I marry, my husband will at once become the ruler of the country, according to the Izreelite law, and I shall merely be his wife. Fortunately, I cannot be compelled to marry, and I won’t—I won’t,” with a passionate little stamp of the foot, “until I meet with a man whom I can—can—love. But I know I shall have no peace until I consent to marry somebody; the Elders are wild with anxiety that I should choose a husband; they worry me every day, ay, and almost every hour of the day, about it, until I am driven very nearly out of my senses by the thought that, sooner or later, I shall be constrained to become the wife of some man whom I detest. That is my trouble, gentlemen; I wonder if you are clever enough to devise a means of helping me.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, we are,” answered Dick confidently. “I don’t say that we already have a plan; for that would be asserting far too much. But you have told us the nature of your trouble, which of course is the first thing that it is necessary for us to know; and now we will lose no time in thinking out a remedy. Trust to us, madam; we will not fail you. We have practically pledged ourselves to spend the remainder of our lives in your country—your Elders compelled us to do that—and the removal of your trouble and the securing of your happiness shall have precedence of every other consideration with us.”

The Queen’s gratitude was so great that she seemed scarcely able to find words in which to express herself adequately; it was almost painful to witness, so eloquently did it testify to the desperation with which she had been compelled to combat the suggestions of unwelcome alliances with which she had been perpetually harassed; but she contrived to make it quite clear that the arrival of the two Englishmen filled her with renewed hope and a revived zest in life. “I know,” she said, “that it must sound unkind of me to say so, but I cannot help being glad that you are here; for now at last I feel that I have two friends who will stand by me and help me to the utmost of their ability. Besides,” she added delightedly, as the thought came to her, “you will be companions for me. I have been utterly lonely and friendless since my mother died; but you will come to see me often—every day—won’t you? And we can walk and talk together, and I can again be happy.”

“Of course,” answered Grosvenor eagerly. “You may absolutely depend upon us both to do anything and everything that you may ask of us. I believe we are each to be assigned certain duties, which I suppose we shall be expected to perform; but our first duty is to you, our first care must be for your happiness, and, so far as we can prevent it, you shall never again be worried by those old jossers the Elders, or anybody else. We have a few books among our baggage, and as soon as it is delivered to us I will turn them out and bring them over to you; and as to coming to see you, why of course we shall be delighted to do so; we will come over every evening after our day’s work is over. Eh, Dick?”

“Certainly,” answered Dick; “or at least as often as it may be prudent to do so. And now, madam,” he continued, addressing the Queen, “I think it will be well that we should retire, for above all things else we must carefully avoid anything and everything that may excite suspicion or jealousy, and I imagine that both might easily be aroused by a too-sudden appearance of friendship between ourselves and Your Majesty. Besides, Malachi the Elder will be anxiously awaiting our report. But, as my friend has said, you may absolutely rely upon our loyal friendship and our best help at all times and seasons. Possibly we may be able to arrange another call before the day is over; meanwhile I crave Your Majesty’s permission for us to retire.”

As Dick anticipated, they found the chief Elder anxiously awaiting their return, eager to learn the young doctor’s opinion relative to the mental and physical condition of the Queen; and Dick, with Phil for his interpreter, was not slow to give it. Of course, to his practised eye it had at once been evident that Queen Myra was simply being worried and badgered and terrified out of her senses by these old men who, with that idiotic prophecy dominating their minds, desired one thing and one only, namely to see the Queen married as speedily as possible to somebody; but to whom it seemed that they cared very little. Dick intended to put a stop to that at once; he therefore directed Grosvenor to inform the Elder, Malachi, that the Queen was in a most critical condition, but that he could cure her, provided that his instructions were all implicitly obeyed, but not otherwise. This last statement set the poor old Elder absolutely quivering with apprehension; but Dick was not worrying overmuch about him or anybody else save the Queen, and he contrived to frighten the unhappy Elder so thoroughly that at length he unreservedly promised, both for himself and everybody else, that the word “marriage” should never again be spoken in Her Majesty’s presence until Dick gave permission; and he also agreed that Dick should have an absolutely free hand with regard to the Queen’s treatment, the visitors she should receive, the exercise she should take, and so on; thus providing for Dick’s and Grosvenor’s free admission to the palace and the Queen’s presence as often as they chose.

This important matter settled, the friends retired to their own quarters to talk matters over. They found that all their various belongings had been brought from the cell in which they had passed the previous night, and were now carefully arranged in their own private apartment. Grosvenor at once went to his trunk, opened it, bundled its contents upon the floor, and feverishly proceeded to sort out the half-dozen books—novels, and two volumes of poems—which it contained, exhorting Dick to do the same, in order that “that poor girl” might be provided with a new form of amusement with the least possible delay. It was easy for Dick to perceive, from his companion’s talk, that the latter had been profoundly impressed by the charms and the lonely state of the young Queen; and Maitland quietly chuckled, as he reflected that Grosvenor would never have seen her had he not fled to South Africa for distraction from the smart of a heart severely lacerated by some fickle fair one, who, by the way, seemed now to be completely forgotten. But he shook his head with sudden gravity, as his thoughts travelled on into the future and he foresaw the possibility of a mutual attachment springing up between Phil and the Queen. That would be a complication with a vengeance, and he determined quietly to do everything in his power to prevent it.

The ensuing six months passed with the rapidity of a dream; for no sooner had the two Englishmen arranged matters relating to the Queen upon a satisfactory basis than they discovered that there was another cause for anxiety of the gravest character in the behaviour of the savage nations that hemmed in Izreel on every side. Hitherto these had been too busily engaged in fighting each other to do more than make desultory war upon the Izreelites; but now news of an apparently reliable character came to Bethalia, the island city, to the effect that a certain king, named Mokatto—a very shrewd fellow by all accounts—had entered into friendly communication with the rulers of the other nations whose countries bordered on Izreel, and had pointed out the folly of fighting each other for no particular reason, when, by uniting their forces, they could attack the Izreelites, overwhelm them, and divide their country equally among the victors. This counsel, there was every reason to believe, had been accepted; for reports were almost daily coming to hand of preparations which pointed to nothing less than an impending attack upon Izreel by the confederated kingdoms.

This was precisely what the Izreelites had always feared more than any other earthly thing; and when authentic intelligence began to arrive, pointing to the conclusion that the long-feared attack was about to be made, the Izreelites grew almost crazy with panic, some of them contending that their gods were angry at the admission of two aliens into the country, and that the only way by which their anger could be appeased was by offering the strangers as a sacrifice upon the great altar of the temple which formed the top story of the Legislative building. This theory took a very strong hold upon certain of the most influential of the nobles, who quickly developed extreme jealousy of the two strangers, whom they vaguely suspected of being in some unexplained way inimical to them and their interests; and for a time Dick and Grosvenor undoubtedly went in danger of their lives.

At length, however, this peril became so imminent that the pair agreed to take the bull by the horns and deal with it forthwith. They accordingly convened a meeting of the Seven Elders and all the nobility, at which Dick delivered an address, graphically describing the danger in which the nation stood, and boldly asserting that only he and Grosvenor could possibly avert it.

This, of course, was rather a staggering statement, and one which the Izreelites were not at all disposed to accept unquestioningly, or without proof. But Dick was equal to the occasion. He and Grosvenor had discussed the matter together, had decided upon their plan of campaign, and the Opposition were silenced by his first question.

“What do you suppose would happen to your Queen,” he demanded, “if you were unwise enough to put us to death? I will tell you. She is now on the highroad to recovery; but, deprived of our ministrations, she would suffer an immediate relapse, and die! Do you need to be reminded of what would follow upon that? If there is any truth in your ancient prophecy the very thing that you most dread would immediately happen. In other words, our destruction would immediately be followed by that of the entire nation.

“But, apart from that, our destruction would be the gravest mistake that you could possibly make; for we, who are natives of the greatest fighting nation that the world has ever known, can teach you much in the art of war, your knowledge of which is of the slightest. Your weapons are poor and inefficient, and you know nothing of strategy and generalship; but we can instruct you in those important matters, and also teach you how to make new and powerful weapons, by means of which you will be able effectually to subjugate the nations which now threaten you. Say, then, will you destroy us, and so involve yourselves in irretrievable ruin? Or shall we teach you how to emerge victoriously from the coming struggle with your enemies?”

There could be but one answer to such a question; the jealousy of the nobles gave way to fear. They no longer clamoured for the death of the Englishmen, but, on the contrary, were as willing as the rest that the strangers should be afforded every opportunity to make good their boast, and from that moment Dick and Grosvenor became virtually the Dictators of the nation.

Their victory was perhaps the easier from the fact that during the six months of their sojourn they had already accomplished much. The Queen, for example, enlivened and encouraged by the intimate companionship of her two fellow countrymen, had gradually thrown off the incubus of her terror, and was now almost her former self again; while Grosvenor had found congenial occupation in fitting the few craft upon the lake with sails, and designing and building other craft of greatly improved model, including half a dozen cutters of the racing-yacht type, which he conceived would be exceedingly useful should the savages ever again attempt, as they had done on several previous occasions, to attack the island city. As for Dick, the densely populated city alone provided him with more patients than he could conveniently deal with; and he had effected many remarkable cures.

One of the first things that particularly attracted the attention of the two friends immediately upon their arrival in Izreel was the inadequacy of the weapons—a spear, or sheaf of spears, and a small round shield or target—with which the people were armed; and this they now proceeded to rectify by the general introduction of bows and arrows as an auxiliary to the spear and shield. There was an abundance of suitable wood for bows to be found in a forest on the inner slope of the mountains on the mainland, while reeds suitable for the shafts of arrows grew in inexhaustible quantities along the margin of the lake; and when once a pattern bow and arrow had been made, and a sufficiency of wood and reeds provided, the furnishing of every man with a good bow and quiverful of arrows was speedily accomplished. There had at first been a difficulty in the matter of arrowheads, but this had been overcome by the discovery of an enormous deposit of flints—in searching for which a rich mine of diamonds had come to light.

The construction of his fleet and the training of their crews having been accomplished, Grosvenor next took the army in hand and proceeded to train it in the use of the bow, succeeding at length, by dint of indefatigable perseverance, in converting the soldiers into an army of really brilliant marksmen.

This achievement brought the time on to nearly nine months from the date of the adventurers’ arrival in Izreel, during the first eight months of which information had come in from time to time which left no room to doubt that the savages of the adjoining nations had combined together and were making the most elaborate preparations for a simultaneous attack upon Izreel from all sides. Then the sources of information seemed to suddenly dry up, and no news of any description relative to the movements of the savages could be obtained.

The Izreelites were disposed to regard this as a favourable omen, many even asserting their conviction that the savages had quarrelled among themselves, and that attack from them was no longer to be feared; but Dick and Grosvenor took quite another view of the matter. They regarded the cessation of news as ominous in the extreme, and dispatched imperative orders to the frontier for the maintenance of the utmost vigilance, night and day. They also organised strong relays of swift runners, radiating from various points along the shore of the lake to those points where attack might first be expected, in order that intelligence of an invasion might be brought to the capital with the utmost promptitude. The strength of the garrisons in the outlying blockhouses was also doubled, which were put under the command of the most resolute and intelligent captains that could be found, with instructions that each post was to be stubbornly defended until the enemy should threaten to surround it, when it was to be abandoned, and the garrison—or what might remain of it—was to retire inward to the next post, and so on; the various garrisons contesting every inch of ground, cutting up the enemy as severely as possible, and gradually retiring inward toward the lake and Bethalia if they could not maintain their ground. These preparations did not take long to make, since it was merely a matter of marching supplementary troops to the frontier, and the provisioning of the various blockhouses, fortified farms, castles, and strongholds generally; and as the preparations had all been made beforehand, a week sufficed to place the entire nation on the defensive.

Still the task was accomplished none too soon, for on the very day succeeding that upon which the preparations for defence were completed, news arrived in Bethalia that large bodies of savages had been seen massing upon various parts of the border, while the next day brought intelligence of attacks upon almost every one of the outlying blockhouses, and of the retirement of their respective garrisons after severe fighting in which heavy loss had been sustained by both sides. The invasion of Izreel had begun, and was being prosecuted with relentless determination and energy.

Chapter Seventeen.Victory, Triumph, and—the End.This grave news created the utmost consternation and dismay among the Elders and nobles of Bethalia; for they had, almost with one accord, persisted in believing that at the last moment the savages had shrunk from the contest. There was, however, one solitary crumb of comfort in the news that now came almost hourly from the front, which was that, severely as the Izreelites had suffered, the enemy had suffered ten times more severely, having been kept completely at arm’s length, so long as the defenders’ stock of arrows had lasted, and that it was only when these had become exhausted that the savages had succeeded in storming the blockhouses and driving out the defenders. This contained a lesson that Grosvenor and Dick were quick to profit by, and no sooner did the news come to hand than every available person was set to work manufacturing arrows, thousands of which were daily dispatched to the front.Thus far the two Englishmen had remained at Bethalia, receiving news and directing operations from there, at the urgent request of the Elders; but as intelligence continued to arrive from the front reporting the presence of the enemy in overwhelming numbers, and the retirement of garrison after garrison, with details of terrific fighting in every direction, it was not to be supposed that Dick and Grosvenor would consent to remain tamely pent up in the city, while the chance of their lives was beckoning them from a distance that could now be covered on horseback in a couple of days’ smart riding. They consequently induced the armourers of the town to knock them out a couple of makeshift sabres, which they intended to take with them in addition to their revolvers and magazine rifles, and announced their intention of proceeding forthwith to the front.But had a bombshell exploded and blown to pieces the temple that formed the top story of the House of Legislature, or unroofed the palace, it could scarcely have produced a more tremendous effect, or created greater consternation, than did this simple announcement. The Elders were convinced that if the guiding spirits of the campaign were ever permitted to take the field they would inevitably be slain and the end of all things would come. The nobles were animated by pretty much the same uncomfortable conviction; and as for the Queen, when, despite the remonstrances and entreaties of the Elders and nobles, Dick and Grosvenor presented themselves at the palace to bid Her Majesty farewell, she promptly ordered the arrest of the pair, and gave them their choice of being confined close prisoners, or pledging their word of honour to abandon their intention! It was in vain that the culprits pleaded, argued, and drew the most harrowing pictures of what must inevitably happen if they were not allowed to proceed to the front and personally supervise operations. The Queen turned a deaf ear to all that they said; positively refused to give her consent; entreated and upbraided in her turn; and, finally, bursting into a passion of tears, declared that if anything were to happen to Phil she would die! At which statement Grosvenor incontinently took the young lady in his arms, kissed her, soothed her back into self-possession again, and vowed with ardour that if that was how she felt about it he was more than content to remain behind and look after her, provided that she would allow Dick to go. To which compromise she at once smilingly assented. For such is the selfishness of lovers!The murder was out at last, and the precise thing had happened which Dick had foreseen, and had vowed to prevent, if possible, because of the terrible complications which, as he believed, must inevitably ensue. These two had fallen in love with each other, and the chances were that, as soon as the news reached the ears of the already jealous nobles, Grosvenor and Dick would be “removed”, either openly or privately, while the Queen would at once be ruthlessly forced into the kind of marriage that she had all along regarded with such utter dread and detestation.Here was a pretty kettle of fish! and occurring, too, at such a terribly inopportune moment. Yet, as Dick moodily reflected, while being ferried across to the mainland in one of Grosvenor’s new, fast-sailing cutters, perhaps the moment might not be so very inopportune after all. It was a fact that, under the able leadership of Mokatto, the savages were pressing Izreel as it had never before been pressed within its recorded history. Izreel was now literally fighting for its life, its very existence; and if, through the help of the two Englishmen, the country should by any chance win out and achieve a decisive victory over her combined enemies, it was just possible that gratitude, that rarest of human sentiments, might take the form of forgiveness, if nothing more; in which case there was perhaps a bare possibility that Grosvenor and Dick might be released from their oath and permitted to return to their own country. But it was doubtful, Dick decided, very doubtful; and his meditations assumed a distinctly gloomy tone as, having arrived on the mainland, he hunted up Mafuta and explained to that jubilant savage that they were about to proceed to the front and take part in the fighting.To attempt anything even remotely resembling a detailed account of Dick Maitland’s adventures during the ensuing three weeks would be impossible, for they were numerous and exciting enough to demand an entire volume to do justice to them. It must suffice to say that during that eventful period the youngster saw enough fighting to satisfy him for the remainder of his life—desperate, ferocious, hand-to-hand fighting, in which neither side ever dreamed of asking or giving quarter, in which a disabling wound was immediately followed by death upon the spear-points of the enemy, and the salient characteristics of which were continuous ear-splitting yells, the shrill whistling of the savages, the rumbling thunder of thousands of fiercely rushing feet, blinding clouds of dust through which there appeared a phantasmagoria of ferocious countenances, gnashing teeth, glaring eyeballs, the ruddy flash of ensanguined spear-points, hurtling knobkerries and whirling war-clubs, upthrown arms, clenched fists, reeling bodies, the shout of triumph and the short, quick gasp that followed the home-thrust of the stabbing spear. This was the kind of thing that marked the end of each day’s fight when, the stock of the Izreelites, arrows being exhausted, it became necessary at last to evacuate a stubbornly held position and to retire before the overwhelming hordes of savages that, despite the frightful losses sustained by them in the course of each day’s fighting, seemed daily to increase in numbers as the encircling cloud of them contracted with the daily retirement of the defenders towards the lake.As for Dick, he seemed to bear a charmed life; for although he fearlessly exposed himself, day after day, wherever the fighting happened to be fiercest and most stubborn, he had thus far received no hurt more serious than a mere scratch or two, and a rather severe contusion from the blow of a knobkerrie that had all but unhorsed him; but this immunity may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that Mafuta was always unobtrusively close at hand, ready to guard his beloved young master, ay, and even to lay down his life for him, if necessary.Those were strenuous days indeed for all concerned, and especially for the defenders; for the fighting usually began with the dawn, and continued all through the day as long as there was light enough to distinguish friend from foe; while, so far as the Izreelites were concerned, they were obliged to maintain a watch all through the hours of darkness, in order to be prepared for the surprise night attacks which the savages sprang upon them from time to time, with the obvious purpose of exhausting the defenders’ strength.But while Mokatto and the other savage kings who had thrown in their lot with him for the purpose of “eating up” the Izreelites, and partitioning their country, were solacing themselves with the assurance that, despite their frightful daily losses in men, they were winning all along the line, Dick was artfully drawing them after him into the heart of the chain of mountains that encircled the lake and the island city of Bethalia. These mountains, or hills rather—for they were scarcely lofty enough to be worthy of the more imposing appellation—were of an exceptionally rugged and precipitous character, to such an extent, indeed, that they were absolutely impassable except at four points, where the natural features had been so far improved upon that passes of a sort—narrow ledges for the most part, bounded on one side by a vertical, unclimbable face of rock and upon the other by an appalling chasm—had been painfully hewn out of the stubborn granite; and it was in the direction of these four passes that young Maitland was now retiring in excellent order, and enticing the enemy to follow him. For it was in these passes that he expected to win the victory which he intended to convert finally into a complete, disastrous, panic-stricken rout of the enemy. To this end he had already made certain preparations, for news of the completion of which he was anxiously waiting. And at length the news came; whereupon, having dispatched to the commanders at the other three points identical sets of instructions, of a sufficiently elastic character to leave plenty of scope for initiative on the part of the leaders, he summoned the commanders of his own division to his tent as soon as the day’s fighting was over, and, having carefully and fully explained his plans to them, gave them explicit instructions regarding their conduct upon the following day, and dismissed them. Then, mounting his tired horse, Dick rode off up the pass at a foot-pace, closely followed by the faithful Mafuta, who, dog-tired though he was after many long days of strenuous fighting, chuckled grimly as his young master unfolded his plan of campaign.The fighting which began with dawn upon the following morning was of a somewhat different character from that of the preceding days; for hitherto the Izreelites had always begun the day behind the shelter of stone walls of some sort, from which it had taken the best part of the day to dislodge them, and from which, when dislodged, they had been wont to retreat in more or less good order to the next stronghold in their rear. But now the last of these fortified positions had been abandoned and the Izreelite armies had retired—or been driven back, as the enemy firmly believed—into the mouths of the four passes which led across the hills to the lake and Bethalia. They had not only entered the mouths of the passes, but had retired into them, until they had reached certain spots where the natural configuration of the surrounding hills was of such a character as to constitute the position a natural fortress capable of being held and defended by a comparatively small body of men; and here they halted and lighted their watch fires. The enemy also halted, about half a mile lower down the pass, and, as soon as it was dark, sent out a number of scouts with instructions to search for a way by which the savages might slip past during the night, and get round to the rear of the Izreelites. Some of those scouts never returned to their camp; those who did reported that the task assigned to them had proved an impossible one, for that, after climbing laboriously and at the risk of their necks for varying distances, they had all, without exception, arrived at a point where farther progress was impossible and retreat scarcely less so. Meanwhile, the Izreelite watch fires, the foremost line of which happened to be at a turn of the pass, just where they were well within sight of the enemy, were kept brilliantly burning all through the night, evidencing an untiring vigilance on the part of the Izreelite outposts, who could be seen, by the light of the fires, moving about from time to time.But when at length the first rays of the morning sun smote the topmost ridges of the hills and came stealing down their sides, arousing the combatants to another day of sanguinary strife, behold! there were no Izreelites to be seen in the neighbourhood of the still briskly blazing fires, nor could the fresh scouts which were promptly sent out find any trace of them. Then Mokatto, suspecting an ambush, sent forward other scouts, in relays, with orders to advance up the pass—each relay keeping the one next before it in sight—until the leading band should regain touch with the enemy, when a single scout was to return with the intelligence. But, strange to say, the single scout did not return; and when at length the fiery chief, losing patience at the absence of all news, gave orders for a general advance up the pass, the impi who led the way soon discovered the reason, for they came upon the bodies of those scouts, one after the other, lying in the narrowing roadway, each with an arrow through his heart, evidently shot from some spot near at hand, but quite inaccessible from the roadway itself.Yet still no enemy was to be seen, no sign of his presence to be discovered, until Mokatto, leading his contingent and advancing with the utmost caution, reached the summit of the pass, when he found that the narrow roadway, at a point where it turned sharply round an elbow, had been broken down for a distance of some fifty feet, until only space enough was left for men to pass in single file. And as the first man essayed the passage of this perilous path and attempted to work his precarious way round the perpendicular buttress of rock that formed the elbow, a spear, wielded by an unseen hand, was observed to dart forward and bury itself deep in his naked breast, and the next moment he went hurtling downward off the narrow ledge into the ghastly abyss that yawned beside him. And as it was with the first man so was it with those who followed him in the desperate attempt to round that fatal elbow, until even Mokatto himself, fearless and resolute warrior as he was, was fain reluctantly to admit that farther progress, by that way at least, was impossible.There was nothing for it but to call a halt, and consider what was the next thing to be done. To advance was impossible; to retreat was equivalent to an acknowledgment of defeat, which, after the frightful losses already sustained by the savages, would probably result in them rising upon their leaders and slaying them in revenge for having fomented so disastrous a war; while a very brief inspection of their surroundings sufficed to convince them that nothing without wings could possibly surmount that vertical rock on the one hand, or descend that awful precipice on the other. Yet, as they looked, the savage warriors became aware that somewhere there must be a path to the top of the rock, for they caught sight first of one, then of another, and then of many Izreelites peering down upon them from above. Then, suddenly, there came hurtling down from the summit of the rock, some five hundred feet above the heads of the savages, a shower of stones, not very big, yet big enough, falling from that height, to dash a man’s brains out, smash an arm or a leg like a dried twig, or send him reeling off the narrow pathway to the depths below.The word was given to retire. There was no other course open to the invaders, for obviously it was worse than useless to stand huddled helplessly together upon that narrow pathway and suffer themselves to be destroyed without the ability to strike a blow in self-defence—and the retreat down the pass began. Then, with the first rearward movement, the air, pent in between the rocky walls of that savage gorge, began to vibrate with a most dreadful outcry of shrieks, shouts, and yells of dismay and panic; for, as though at some preconcerted signal, a devastating shower of great boulders came pouring over the crest of the cliff above the pass, crushing men into unrecognisable fragments or hurling them by hundreds over the edge of the narrow pathway. Moreover this state of affairs prevailed not at one isolated spot only, but all along the road, as far as it was occupied by the battalions of the savages. There was a moment of helpless confusion, during which those who were fortunate enough to have escaped the first effects of that terrible shower stood, stricken motionless and dumb, gazing as in a dream at the frightful, overwhelming destruction that had come upon them in that awful gorge. Then blind, raging panic seized upon the survivors, who turned and fled shrieking down the pass, intent only upon escaping from the ceaseless pounding of that merciless hail of boulders, madly fighting for precedence with their equally panic-stricken comrades, savagely grappling with those who happened to be in front of them impeding their passage, and either hurling them, or being themselves hurled, into the ravine that gaped to receive them.The scene was appalling beyond all possibility of description; it was not a defeat only, it was not even merely a disastrous rout, it was practically annihilation; for of the thousands of savages who entered that pass—that awful death-trap—on that fatal day, only hundreds emerged from it again; and they were so utterly demoralised and unnerved with terror that no thought of rallying or making a stand ever entered their minds; they simply ran blindly ahead until they fell exhausted, and there lay, absolutely heedless of what might befall them. And as it was with Mokatto and his legions in the one pass, so was it with the chiefs and those who followed them in the other three passes; many of the leaders—Mokatto himself among others—were numbered among the slain; and there seemed to be nobody to take the lead or to assume command. The invading armies had been practically wiped out, and the few survivors had degenerated into a flying, panic-stricken mob dominated only by the one idea of escape into the comparative safety of their own land.As for the Izreelites, infuriated at the wanton invasion of their country, and fully realising what would have been their own fate had the savages chanced to have been the victors, they relentlessly pursued the flying enemy during the whole of their retreat down the passes, and would doubtless have destroyed them to the very last man had not Dick personally, and by means of imperative messages persistently reiterated, stayed the slaughter, by pointing out that the victory was too decisive and complete for further aggression to ever again become a possibility; and that a too relentless pursuit of already desperate men could but result in a further loss of life among the Izreelites themselves. Even this representation, forcibly as it appealed to a people who regarded the lives of their men-kind as the most precious possession of the nation, scarcely sufficed to curb their lust for further slaughter, for they had become, for the moment, human tigers who, having tasted blood, abandoned their prey only with the utmost reluctance and with much savage snarling of discontent and disappointment. But at length the obvious soundness of Dick’s reasoning gained recognition and acceptance by the Izreelite chiefs, who finally persuaded their followers to content themselves with the mere ejectment of the insignificant remnants of the enemy beyond the frontier.Meanwhile Dick, having paid a flying visit to Bethalia, to satisfy himself that all was well in that quarter, made arrangements for the immediate reconstruction of those portions of the roads through the passes that had been broken down, in order to check the advance of the invaders. This was temporarily accomplished by the building of rough bridges across the gaps; but, fully recognising how important a part had been played by those gaps, he sketched out a scheme whereby they should be made permanent, spanned by substantial drawbridges, and defended at the inner extremity by strongly fortified gateways. This scheme he laid before the Elders, who immediately approved of it, and ultimately the work was carried out.But long before that many things had happened. In the first place the victorious Izreelites, having shepherded the last of the fugitives over the border, had returned in triumph, each to his own home, and had set to work to repair the devastation wrought by the fighting on the lands that lay outside the circle of the protecting hills. This was considerably less than had been anticipated; for, so certain had Mokatto and his colleagues been of victory that they had issued the most stringent orders against any wanton destruction of property, the result being that such damage as had accrued had only amounted to what was inevitable in the course of a stubbornly contested fight; and that did not amount to very much where neither of the combatants possessed guns or other battering paraphernalia of any description.The return of the triumphant army to Bethalia was a pageant exceeding in gorgeousness of display and general enthusiasm anything that had ever before occurred within the memory of any living inhabitant of the city. The regular troops were comparatively few in number, every male Izreelite being armed and liable to be called upon for active service, should occasion for such service arise; but the paucity of numbers was an altogether insignificant detail; the one thing that was of importance, and counted, was that they had fought and signally defeated a force of overwhelming numerical superiority, and inflicted upon their immemorial enemy a blow of such crushing severity that a lasting peace was now assured. Little wonder that the people so recently hag-ridden with a perpetual fear, that often approached perilously close to panic, scarcely knew how to give adequate expression to the feeling of joy and relief that now possessed them, and were just a little inclined to become extravagantly demonstrative.The troops, conveyed across from the mainland in boats, and landed at the one grand flight of steps which afforded the solitary means of access to the island, were marched through the city to the palace and the House of Legislature, where they received the thanks of the Queen and the Elders for their gallantry; and at the last moment it was made known to Dick—to his secret but profound annoyance and discomfiture—that nothing would satisfy the populace but that he, as the one hero,par excellence, of the brief but sanguinary war, must head the troops, mounted on the horse that had carried him so gallantly and well in the press of battle! He would willingly have avoided the distinction if it had been possible, and had indeed fully intended to absent himself from all active participation in the pageant; but a note from Grosvenor, informing him that the idea had really originated with Queen Myra, and that Her Majesty would be intensely disappointed if he refused, caused him good-naturedly to set his own feelings on one side for the nonce and consent to become a puppet for once in a way. Accordingly he was the first warrior to pass through the gateway which gave access to the interior of the town, and as he emerged from the shadow of the arch into the dazzling sunshine that flooded the streets he was met by a choir of some sixty young women arrayed in gala attire, crowned with roses, and wearing garlands of flowers round their necks, who, forming up at the head of the procession, led the way, some singing a hymn of triumph, rejoicing, and glorification of the victors, while others accompanied them on flutes, flageolets, and cymbals. But this was not all. As Dick, blushing furiously and feeling more uncomfortable than he ever before remembered, emerged from the gateway, two maidens stepped forward, one from each side of the way, and while one deftly twined a garland of roses round the horse’s neck, the other, catching the lad’s hand, gently drew him down and caused him to bend in the saddle sufficiently to permit her to cast a similar garland round his neck!It was a distinctly embarrassing situation for a modest young Englishman to find himself in, but as he heard the shouts of greeting and acclamation that rang out from the throats of the jubilant crowd who thronged the streets, and realised that all this was but the outward expression of a very real and deep feeling of gratitude for important services rendered, he put his embarrassment on one side, and bowed and smiled his acknowledgments, to the frantic delight of the spectators.In this fashion, then, the troops paraded the principal streets of the city, while young girls and tiny children strewed flowers before them in the roadway, and the populace cheered and applauded, until the spacious park in which stood the palace and the House of Legislature was reached, when a halt was called before the principal entrance of the palace, where the Queen, once more in radiant health, came forth and, in a few well-chosen words, expressed her fervent gratitude to all the brave men who had borne themselves so nobly and gallantly in the defence of their country, winding up with an expression of admiration and sorrow for the fallen, and of sympathy for those whom the relentless cruelty of war had bereaved of their nearest and dearest.Then Malachi and his fellow Elders appeared and pronounced a long oration of a very similar character, but going somewhat more into detail. He dwelt particularly upon the fierce, undying animosity with which the savages of the surrounding nations had regarded the presence of the Izreelites in the country from time immemorial, reminded his hearers of the state of almost perpetual warfare in which the nation had lived through the ages, and described the recent attack as the most virulent and determined that they had ever experienced, being nothing less than a carefully elaborated and well-ordered plan for their complete extermination. Then he touched upon the arrival of the two young Englishmen in the country, spoke of the law prohibiting the admission of strangers, and fully explained the reasons which had led to an exception being made in their case, and congratulated himself and everybody else upon the happy issue of that exception, going on to say that but for the warlike knowledge and skill of the visitors, and the superlative importance of the parts which they had played in planning and carrying out the scheme of defence, that day of triumph and glory for Izreel would never have dawned. And he wound up by saying that, in acknowledgment and recognition of the enormously important and valuable services which these young men had rendered to the nation, he and his fellow Elders had felt it to be their duty to recommend the Queen to confer upon both the honour and distinction accompanying the title of Princes.A roar of delighted approval greeted this peroration; and if perchance there happened to be here and there a noble or two who regarded with disapprobation the bestowal of this unique honour upon aliens, they were too prudent to permit that disapprobation to be suspected, in view of the apparently universal popularity of the act.The Queen, acutely conscious of the fact that she contemplated a step, the effect of the announcement of which it was utterly impossible to foresee, and quick to recognise that the popularity of Grosvenor and Dick would probably never be greater than it was at that moment, determined to make the utmost of the opportunity; and, upon the occasion of the public investiture of the newly created princes, electrified everybody present by calmly announcing—in a manner which seemed to suggest that she was doing something which she was certain would meet with the full and unanimous approval of her people—that it was her intention to espouse Prince Philip as soon as the necessary preparations for the ceremony could be made!The announcement was followed by silence so tense that, to make use of a much hackneyed expression, one might have heard a pin drop, and it lasted so long that the Queen grew white to the lips, and her eyes began to glitter ominously. Was it possible that the nobles—who but for the military genius of Phil and Dick would now in all probability have been, with herself, captives in the hands of the savages—were going to show themselves so selfishly ungrateful as to disapprove of her choice? An impatient stamp of her little foot on the daïs, and a defiant upward toss of her head seemed to threaten an outburst that would probably have caused the ears of those present to tingle, when somebody—whose identity was never established—began to applaud vociferously. The applause was almost instantly taken up by another, and another, and others, until within a moment or two the vast chamber was ringing and vibrant with the expressions of approval and rejoicing. The verdict, though delayed, perhaps, a second or two too long for Her Majesty’s entire liking, was decisive, unmistakable, and not to be gainsaid; and if there were any present who recognised that it meant the final collapse of certain cherished ambitions of their own, they were wise enough to say nothing about it.But although the Queen’s choice of a husband was thus ratified by the only section of her subjects who might possibly have raised objections to it, a great deal of exceedingly delicate negotiation and arrangement was found to be necessary, and a number of quite unexpected difficulties and hitches arose, before the path to the hymeneal altar was made perfectly smooth for the royal lovers; while, on the other hand, as the negotiations and arrangements progressed, it grew increasingly clear that a man possessed of Grosvenor’s outside knowledge and experience was infinitely preferable, from the point of view of the national advantage, as a ruler, to even the most powerful and influential of the Izreelite nobles. By the time, therefore, that everything was settled, approval had become intensified into delight, and there was every prospect that Phil’s reign would be a highly popular one. Then, in due time, came the marriage, which may be dismissed with the mere mention of the fact, since this makes no pretence to being a love story.But although even a royal wedding may possess little or no interest for those for whose entertainment this story is written, it had a most important effect upon the fortunes of those whose adventures are here set forth. For, by the Izreelite law, it not only made Philip Grosvenor the Consort of the Queen, but it also put into his hands the actual government of the nation; it made him, in fact, the King, an absolute monarch, with power to shape and control the destinies of the nation as seemed to him good; with nobody to say him nay, whatever the nature of the decrees he might promulgate, and to whom even the Queen herself became subject. Then, with regard to Dick Maitland, it will be remembered that he, as well as Grosvenor, had been compelled to take an oath that he would never seek to leave the country without the royal assent. But, now that Phil was King, that assent was, of course, to be obtained easily enough; and obtained it was, as soon as the wedding was over and Grosvenor was securely installed in his new position. For, whatever inducements there might be for Phil to pass the remainder of his life in the strange, scarcely-heard-of land of the Izreelites, no such inducements existed in the case of Dick Maitland, who was now all impatience to return to England and provide for the welfare of his mother—if, haply, she still survived.Accordingly, having in due form sought and obtained the royal assent to his departure from Izreel, Dick lost no time in completing his preparations for the long and perilous journey that lay before him. And, first of all, he presented Leo—now nearly full-grown and, thanks to careful and judicious training, a most amiable, docile, and affectionate beast—to Queen Myra, as the most cherished possession it was in his power to offer her. Of the horses which they had brought with them into the country he kept only the one which King Lobelalatutu had given him, leaving the rest with Phil—there being no horses in Izreel. Ramoo Samee, being given his choice, elected to remain in Izreel, in the capacity of stud groom; but Mafuta, Jantje, and ’Nkuku returned with Dick, as a matter of course. And, as a measure of precaution, Grosvenor arranged for an escort of five hundred Izreelite warriors to accompany the wagon through the country immediately on the other side of the border; for although the savage inhabitants had received such terrible chastisement that they were scarcely likely to interfere with anyone coming from Izreel, it was deemed wisest to run no risk of a possible hostile demonstration.At length the day and hour of parting came, and Dick, fully equipped for his journey, presented himself at the palace to say farewell. The moment was not without its emotions, for although it had already been planned that at no very distant date Maitland should revisit Izreel, bringing with him certain matters which Grosvenor felt it would be highly desirable for him to possess as monarch of a people of such great potential possibilities as the Izreelites, both remembered that the journey from Bethalia to the nearest confines of civilisation was a long and arduous one, bristling with perils of every imaginable kind, and who could say that it would be accomplished in safety, or, if accomplished, could be repeated? For life is too full of chances for a man to make plans for the future, with any certainty that he will be able to carry them out. Therefore, when these two adventurous sons of the most adventurous nation on earth finally clasped hands and said their last words of farewell, though those words were entirely cheery and optimistic, the voices which spoke them were a little husky with feeling, and the firm, strong hand-grip was lingering, and relaxed with much reluctance.Dick’s ride from the palace through the town to the point of embarkation for the mainland was one long, unbroken ovation; for there had now been time for the people to recognise, and also to appreciate, the many fine qualities of the young Englishman’s character; realisation of the enormous debt which they owed to him and to his friend, their new king, had come to them, and they were as unfeignedly sorry to witness his departure from among them as a naturally unemotional people could well be.As he stepped into the swift-sailing cutter which was to convey him across to the mainland, where the wagon, already inspanned, was awaiting him, a letter was handed to him by one of two men who had just carefully deposited in the boat a well-filled leather portmanteau bearing Grosvenor’s initials. The letter ran thus:“Dear old Chap,—“The portmanteau which accompanies this note contains Myra’s and my own parting gift to you, in the shape of the finest diamonds which a gang of twenty men have been able to extract from the newly discovered mine during the last month. They are quite valueless to us, it is true, but in the dear old country to which you are bound they ought, even apart from the rubies which you are taking back, to make you one of the most wealthy men in the world. May God grant you health and long life to enjoy that wealth, and to employ it—as we know you will—in ameliorating the lot of those who are worse off than yourself! We confidently look forward to your return to Izreel in the course of the next year or two; but should unkind fortune forbid that return, think of us occasionally, and remember that in the far interior of Africa there are two hearts in which your memory will be cherished so long as life shall last.“Yours, in undying friendship,—“Phil.”My story is told. It only remains to add that, some six months later, Dick Maitland arrived safely in England, with all his treasure intact, just in time to rescue his mother from the grip of destitution that was on the point of closing relentlessly upon her, and to place her in a position of such absolute safety and luxury that it was months before the dear old lady could persuade herself it was not all a tantalising dream, from which she would sooner or later awake to again find herself face to face with the ever-recurring, harassing, heart-breaking problem of ways and means, and the even more painful state of anxiety and uncertainty concerning the whereabouts of her son that had so worried and distressed her during the past year.As for Doctor Julian Humphreys, Dick nearly drove the good man crazy with delight by placing to his credit at the bank a sum so stupendous that he might have spent the rest of his days in riotous luxury, had he so chosen. But that was not Humphreys’ way at all; his heart was set upon the relief of those who suffered the keen pangs of poverty through no fault of their own; and he thenceforth enjoyed the pleasure of doing good to the top of his bent, retaining his modest establishment at 19 Paradise Street, but greatly enlarging his surgery, stocking it abundantly with every drug, instrument, and appliance that could possibly ameliorate pain or heal disease, and continuing enthusiastically to practise medicine and surgery among the poor, without fee or reward of any sort, save an occasional expression of gratitude from some more than usually appreciative patient.

This grave news created the utmost consternation and dismay among the Elders and nobles of Bethalia; for they had, almost with one accord, persisted in believing that at the last moment the savages had shrunk from the contest. There was, however, one solitary crumb of comfort in the news that now came almost hourly from the front, which was that, severely as the Izreelites had suffered, the enemy had suffered ten times more severely, having been kept completely at arm’s length, so long as the defenders’ stock of arrows had lasted, and that it was only when these had become exhausted that the savages had succeeded in storming the blockhouses and driving out the defenders. This contained a lesson that Grosvenor and Dick were quick to profit by, and no sooner did the news come to hand than every available person was set to work manufacturing arrows, thousands of which were daily dispatched to the front.

Thus far the two Englishmen had remained at Bethalia, receiving news and directing operations from there, at the urgent request of the Elders; but as intelligence continued to arrive from the front reporting the presence of the enemy in overwhelming numbers, and the retirement of garrison after garrison, with details of terrific fighting in every direction, it was not to be supposed that Dick and Grosvenor would consent to remain tamely pent up in the city, while the chance of their lives was beckoning them from a distance that could now be covered on horseback in a couple of days’ smart riding. They consequently induced the armourers of the town to knock them out a couple of makeshift sabres, which they intended to take with them in addition to their revolvers and magazine rifles, and announced their intention of proceeding forthwith to the front.

But had a bombshell exploded and blown to pieces the temple that formed the top story of the House of Legislature, or unroofed the palace, it could scarcely have produced a more tremendous effect, or created greater consternation, than did this simple announcement. The Elders were convinced that if the guiding spirits of the campaign were ever permitted to take the field they would inevitably be slain and the end of all things would come. The nobles were animated by pretty much the same uncomfortable conviction; and as for the Queen, when, despite the remonstrances and entreaties of the Elders and nobles, Dick and Grosvenor presented themselves at the palace to bid Her Majesty farewell, she promptly ordered the arrest of the pair, and gave them their choice of being confined close prisoners, or pledging their word of honour to abandon their intention! It was in vain that the culprits pleaded, argued, and drew the most harrowing pictures of what must inevitably happen if they were not allowed to proceed to the front and personally supervise operations. The Queen turned a deaf ear to all that they said; positively refused to give her consent; entreated and upbraided in her turn; and, finally, bursting into a passion of tears, declared that if anything were to happen to Phil she would die! At which statement Grosvenor incontinently took the young lady in his arms, kissed her, soothed her back into self-possession again, and vowed with ardour that if that was how she felt about it he was more than content to remain behind and look after her, provided that she would allow Dick to go. To which compromise she at once smilingly assented. For such is the selfishness of lovers!

The murder was out at last, and the precise thing had happened which Dick had foreseen, and had vowed to prevent, if possible, because of the terrible complications which, as he believed, must inevitably ensue. These two had fallen in love with each other, and the chances were that, as soon as the news reached the ears of the already jealous nobles, Grosvenor and Dick would be “removed”, either openly or privately, while the Queen would at once be ruthlessly forced into the kind of marriage that she had all along regarded with such utter dread and detestation.

Here was a pretty kettle of fish! and occurring, too, at such a terribly inopportune moment. Yet, as Dick moodily reflected, while being ferried across to the mainland in one of Grosvenor’s new, fast-sailing cutters, perhaps the moment might not be so very inopportune after all. It was a fact that, under the able leadership of Mokatto, the savages were pressing Izreel as it had never before been pressed within its recorded history. Izreel was now literally fighting for its life, its very existence; and if, through the help of the two Englishmen, the country should by any chance win out and achieve a decisive victory over her combined enemies, it was just possible that gratitude, that rarest of human sentiments, might take the form of forgiveness, if nothing more; in which case there was perhaps a bare possibility that Grosvenor and Dick might be released from their oath and permitted to return to their own country. But it was doubtful, Dick decided, very doubtful; and his meditations assumed a distinctly gloomy tone as, having arrived on the mainland, he hunted up Mafuta and explained to that jubilant savage that they were about to proceed to the front and take part in the fighting.

To attempt anything even remotely resembling a detailed account of Dick Maitland’s adventures during the ensuing three weeks would be impossible, for they were numerous and exciting enough to demand an entire volume to do justice to them. It must suffice to say that during that eventful period the youngster saw enough fighting to satisfy him for the remainder of his life—desperate, ferocious, hand-to-hand fighting, in which neither side ever dreamed of asking or giving quarter, in which a disabling wound was immediately followed by death upon the spear-points of the enemy, and the salient characteristics of which were continuous ear-splitting yells, the shrill whistling of the savages, the rumbling thunder of thousands of fiercely rushing feet, blinding clouds of dust through which there appeared a phantasmagoria of ferocious countenances, gnashing teeth, glaring eyeballs, the ruddy flash of ensanguined spear-points, hurtling knobkerries and whirling war-clubs, upthrown arms, clenched fists, reeling bodies, the shout of triumph and the short, quick gasp that followed the home-thrust of the stabbing spear. This was the kind of thing that marked the end of each day’s fight when, the stock of the Izreelites, arrows being exhausted, it became necessary at last to evacuate a stubbornly held position and to retire before the overwhelming hordes of savages that, despite the frightful losses sustained by them in the course of each day’s fighting, seemed daily to increase in numbers as the encircling cloud of them contracted with the daily retirement of the defenders towards the lake.

As for Dick, he seemed to bear a charmed life; for although he fearlessly exposed himself, day after day, wherever the fighting happened to be fiercest and most stubborn, he had thus far received no hurt more serious than a mere scratch or two, and a rather severe contusion from the blow of a knobkerrie that had all but unhorsed him; but this immunity may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that Mafuta was always unobtrusively close at hand, ready to guard his beloved young master, ay, and even to lay down his life for him, if necessary.

Those were strenuous days indeed for all concerned, and especially for the defenders; for the fighting usually began with the dawn, and continued all through the day as long as there was light enough to distinguish friend from foe; while, so far as the Izreelites were concerned, they were obliged to maintain a watch all through the hours of darkness, in order to be prepared for the surprise night attacks which the savages sprang upon them from time to time, with the obvious purpose of exhausting the defenders’ strength.

But while Mokatto and the other savage kings who had thrown in their lot with him for the purpose of “eating up” the Izreelites, and partitioning their country, were solacing themselves with the assurance that, despite their frightful daily losses in men, they were winning all along the line, Dick was artfully drawing them after him into the heart of the chain of mountains that encircled the lake and the island city of Bethalia. These mountains, or hills rather—for they were scarcely lofty enough to be worthy of the more imposing appellation—were of an exceptionally rugged and precipitous character, to such an extent, indeed, that they were absolutely impassable except at four points, where the natural features had been so far improved upon that passes of a sort—narrow ledges for the most part, bounded on one side by a vertical, unclimbable face of rock and upon the other by an appalling chasm—had been painfully hewn out of the stubborn granite; and it was in the direction of these four passes that young Maitland was now retiring in excellent order, and enticing the enemy to follow him. For it was in these passes that he expected to win the victory which he intended to convert finally into a complete, disastrous, panic-stricken rout of the enemy. To this end he had already made certain preparations, for news of the completion of which he was anxiously waiting. And at length the news came; whereupon, having dispatched to the commanders at the other three points identical sets of instructions, of a sufficiently elastic character to leave plenty of scope for initiative on the part of the leaders, he summoned the commanders of his own division to his tent as soon as the day’s fighting was over, and, having carefully and fully explained his plans to them, gave them explicit instructions regarding their conduct upon the following day, and dismissed them. Then, mounting his tired horse, Dick rode off up the pass at a foot-pace, closely followed by the faithful Mafuta, who, dog-tired though he was after many long days of strenuous fighting, chuckled grimly as his young master unfolded his plan of campaign.

The fighting which began with dawn upon the following morning was of a somewhat different character from that of the preceding days; for hitherto the Izreelites had always begun the day behind the shelter of stone walls of some sort, from which it had taken the best part of the day to dislodge them, and from which, when dislodged, they had been wont to retreat in more or less good order to the next stronghold in their rear. But now the last of these fortified positions had been abandoned and the Izreelite armies had retired—or been driven back, as the enemy firmly believed—into the mouths of the four passes which led across the hills to the lake and Bethalia. They had not only entered the mouths of the passes, but had retired into them, until they had reached certain spots where the natural configuration of the surrounding hills was of such a character as to constitute the position a natural fortress capable of being held and defended by a comparatively small body of men; and here they halted and lighted their watch fires. The enemy also halted, about half a mile lower down the pass, and, as soon as it was dark, sent out a number of scouts with instructions to search for a way by which the savages might slip past during the night, and get round to the rear of the Izreelites. Some of those scouts never returned to their camp; those who did reported that the task assigned to them had proved an impossible one, for that, after climbing laboriously and at the risk of their necks for varying distances, they had all, without exception, arrived at a point where farther progress was impossible and retreat scarcely less so. Meanwhile, the Izreelite watch fires, the foremost line of which happened to be at a turn of the pass, just where they were well within sight of the enemy, were kept brilliantly burning all through the night, evidencing an untiring vigilance on the part of the Izreelite outposts, who could be seen, by the light of the fires, moving about from time to time.

But when at length the first rays of the morning sun smote the topmost ridges of the hills and came stealing down their sides, arousing the combatants to another day of sanguinary strife, behold! there were no Izreelites to be seen in the neighbourhood of the still briskly blazing fires, nor could the fresh scouts which were promptly sent out find any trace of them. Then Mokatto, suspecting an ambush, sent forward other scouts, in relays, with orders to advance up the pass—each relay keeping the one next before it in sight—until the leading band should regain touch with the enemy, when a single scout was to return with the intelligence. But, strange to say, the single scout did not return; and when at length the fiery chief, losing patience at the absence of all news, gave orders for a general advance up the pass, the impi who led the way soon discovered the reason, for they came upon the bodies of those scouts, one after the other, lying in the narrowing roadway, each with an arrow through his heart, evidently shot from some spot near at hand, but quite inaccessible from the roadway itself.

Yet still no enemy was to be seen, no sign of his presence to be discovered, until Mokatto, leading his contingent and advancing with the utmost caution, reached the summit of the pass, when he found that the narrow roadway, at a point where it turned sharply round an elbow, had been broken down for a distance of some fifty feet, until only space enough was left for men to pass in single file. And as the first man essayed the passage of this perilous path and attempted to work his precarious way round the perpendicular buttress of rock that formed the elbow, a spear, wielded by an unseen hand, was observed to dart forward and bury itself deep in his naked breast, and the next moment he went hurtling downward off the narrow ledge into the ghastly abyss that yawned beside him. And as it was with the first man so was it with those who followed him in the desperate attempt to round that fatal elbow, until even Mokatto himself, fearless and resolute warrior as he was, was fain reluctantly to admit that farther progress, by that way at least, was impossible.

There was nothing for it but to call a halt, and consider what was the next thing to be done. To advance was impossible; to retreat was equivalent to an acknowledgment of defeat, which, after the frightful losses already sustained by the savages, would probably result in them rising upon their leaders and slaying them in revenge for having fomented so disastrous a war; while a very brief inspection of their surroundings sufficed to convince them that nothing without wings could possibly surmount that vertical rock on the one hand, or descend that awful precipice on the other. Yet, as they looked, the savage warriors became aware that somewhere there must be a path to the top of the rock, for they caught sight first of one, then of another, and then of many Izreelites peering down upon them from above. Then, suddenly, there came hurtling down from the summit of the rock, some five hundred feet above the heads of the savages, a shower of stones, not very big, yet big enough, falling from that height, to dash a man’s brains out, smash an arm or a leg like a dried twig, or send him reeling off the narrow pathway to the depths below.

The word was given to retire. There was no other course open to the invaders, for obviously it was worse than useless to stand huddled helplessly together upon that narrow pathway and suffer themselves to be destroyed without the ability to strike a blow in self-defence—and the retreat down the pass began. Then, with the first rearward movement, the air, pent in between the rocky walls of that savage gorge, began to vibrate with a most dreadful outcry of shrieks, shouts, and yells of dismay and panic; for, as though at some preconcerted signal, a devastating shower of great boulders came pouring over the crest of the cliff above the pass, crushing men into unrecognisable fragments or hurling them by hundreds over the edge of the narrow pathway. Moreover this state of affairs prevailed not at one isolated spot only, but all along the road, as far as it was occupied by the battalions of the savages. There was a moment of helpless confusion, during which those who were fortunate enough to have escaped the first effects of that terrible shower stood, stricken motionless and dumb, gazing as in a dream at the frightful, overwhelming destruction that had come upon them in that awful gorge. Then blind, raging panic seized upon the survivors, who turned and fled shrieking down the pass, intent only upon escaping from the ceaseless pounding of that merciless hail of boulders, madly fighting for precedence with their equally panic-stricken comrades, savagely grappling with those who happened to be in front of them impeding their passage, and either hurling them, or being themselves hurled, into the ravine that gaped to receive them.

The scene was appalling beyond all possibility of description; it was not a defeat only, it was not even merely a disastrous rout, it was practically annihilation; for of the thousands of savages who entered that pass—that awful death-trap—on that fatal day, only hundreds emerged from it again; and they were so utterly demoralised and unnerved with terror that no thought of rallying or making a stand ever entered their minds; they simply ran blindly ahead until they fell exhausted, and there lay, absolutely heedless of what might befall them. And as it was with Mokatto and his legions in the one pass, so was it with the chiefs and those who followed them in the other three passes; many of the leaders—Mokatto himself among others—were numbered among the slain; and there seemed to be nobody to take the lead or to assume command. The invading armies had been practically wiped out, and the few survivors had degenerated into a flying, panic-stricken mob dominated only by the one idea of escape into the comparative safety of their own land.

As for the Izreelites, infuriated at the wanton invasion of their country, and fully realising what would have been their own fate had the savages chanced to have been the victors, they relentlessly pursued the flying enemy during the whole of their retreat down the passes, and would doubtless have destroyed them to the very last man had not Dick personally, and by means of imperative messages persistently reiterated, stayed the slaughter, by pointing out that the victory was too decisive and complete for further aggression to ever again become a possibility; and that a too relentless pursuit of already desperate men could but result in a further loss of life among the Izreelites themselves. Even this representation, forcibly as it appealed to a people who regarded the lives of their men-kind as the most precious possession of the nation, scarcely sufficed to curb their lust for further slaughter, for they had become, for the moment, human tigers who, having tasted blood, abandoned their prey only with the utmost reluctance and with much savage snarling of discontent and disappointment. But at length the obvious soundness of Dick’s reasoning gained recognition and acceptance by the Izreelite chiefs, who finally persuaded their followers to content themselves with the mere ejectment of the insignificant remnants of the enemy beyond the frontier.

Meanwhile Dick, having paid a flying visit to Bethalia, to satisfy himself that all was well in that quarter, made arrangements for the immediate reconstruction of those portions of the roads through the passes that had been broken down, in order to check the advance of the invaders. This was temporarily accomplished by the building of rough bridges across the gaps; but, fully recognising how important a part had been played by those gaps, he sketched out a scheme whereby they should be made permanent, spanned by substantial drawbridges, and defended at the inner extremity by strongly fortified gateways. This scheme he laid before the Elders, who immediately approved of it, and ultimately the work was carried out.

But long before that many things had happened. In the first place the victorious Izreelites, having shepherded the last of the fugitives over the border, had returned in triumph, each to his own home, and had set to work to repair the devastation wrought by the fighting on the lands that lay outside the circle of the protecting hills. This was considerably less than had been anticipated; for, so certain had Mokatto and his colleagues been of victory that they had issued the most stringent orders against any wanton destruction of property, the result being that such damage as had accrued had only amounted to what was inevitable in the course of a stubbornly contested fight; and that did not amount to very much where neither of the combatants possessed guns or other battering paraphernalia of any description.

The return of the triumphant army to Bethalia was a pageant exceeding in gorgeousness of display and general enthusiasm anything that had ever before occurred within the memory of any living inhabitant of the city. The regular troops were comparatively few in number, every male Izreelite being armed and liable to be called upon for active service, should occasion for such service arise; but the paucity of numbers was an altogether insignificant detail; the one thing that was of importance, and counted, was that they had fought and signally defeated a force of overwhelming numerical superiority, and inflicted upon their immemorial enemy a blow of such crushing severity that a lasting peace was now assured. Little wonder that the people so recently hag-ridden with a perpetual fear, that often approached perilously close to panic, scarcely knew how to give adequate expression to the feeling of joy and relief that now possessed them, and were just a little inclined to become extravagantly demonstrative.

The troops, conveyed across from the mainland in boats, and landed at the one grand flight of steps which afforded the solitary means of access to the island, were marched through the city to the palace and the House of Legislature, where they received the thanks of the Queen and the Elders for their gallantry; and at the last moment it was made known to Dick—to his secret but profound annoyance and discomfiture—that nothing would satisfy the populace but that he, as the one hero,par excellence, of the brief but sanguinary war, must head the troops, mounted on the horse that had carried him so gallantly and well in the press of battle! He would willingly have avoided the distinction if it had been possible, and had indeed fully intended to absent himself from all active participation in the pageant; but a note from Grosvenor, informing him that the idea had really originated with Queen Myra, and that Her Majesty would be intensely disappointed if he refused, caused him good-naturedly to set his own feelings on one side for the nonce and consent to become a puppet for once in a way. Accordingly he was the first warrior to pass through the gateway which gave access to the interior of the town, and as he emerged from the shadow of the arch into the dazzling sunshine that flooded the streets he was met by a choir of some sixty young women arrayed in gala attire, crowned with roses, and wearing garlands of flowers round their necks, who, forming up at the head of the procession, led the way, some singing a hymn of triumph, rejoicing, and glorification of the victors, while others accompanied them on flutes, flageolets, and cymbals. But this was not all. As Dick, blushing furiously and feeling more uncomfortable than he ever before remembered, emerged from the gateway, two maidens stepped forward, one from each side of the way, and while one deftly twined a garland of roses round the horse’s neck, the other, catching the lad’s hand, gently drew him down and caused him to bend in the saddle sufficiently to permit her to cast a similar garland round his neck!

It was a distinctly embarrassing situation for a modest young Englishman to find himself in, but as he heard the shouts of greeting and acclamation that rang out from the throats of the jubilant crowd who thronged the streets, and realised that all this was but the outward expression of a very real and deep feeling of gratitude for important services rendered, he put his embarrassment on one side, and bowed and smiled his acknowledgments, to the frantic delight of the spectators.

In this fashion, then, the troops paraded the principal streets of the city, while young girls and tiny children strewed flowers before them in the roadway, and the populace cheered and applauded, until the spacious park in which stood the palace and the House of Legislature was reached, when a halt was called before the principal entrance of the palace, where the Queen, once more in radiant health, came forth and, in a few well-chosen words, expressed her fervent gratitude to all the brave men who had borne themselves so nobly and gallantly in the defence of their country, winding up with an expression of admiration and sorrow for the fallen, and of sympathy for those whom the relentless cruelty of war had bereaved of their nearest and dearest.

Then Malachi and his fellow Elders appeared and pronounced a long oration of a very similar character, but going somewhat more into detail. He dwelt particularly upon the fierce, undying animosity with which the savages of the surrounding nations had regarded the presence of the Izreelites in the country from time immemorial, reminded his hearers of the state of almost perpetual warfare in which the nation had lived through the ages, and described the recent attack as the most virulent and determined that they had ever experienced, being nothing less than a carefully elaborated and well-ordered plan for their complete extermination. Then he touched upon the arrival of the two young Englishmen in the country, spoke of the law prohibiting the admission of strangers, and fully explained the reasons which had led to an exception being made in their case, and congratulated himself and everybody else upon the happy issue of that exception, going on to say that but for the warlike knowledge and skill of the visitors, and the superlative importance of the parts which they had played in planning and carrying out the scheme of defence, that day of triumph and glory for Izreel would never have dawned. And he wound up by saying that, in acknowledgment and recognition of the enormously important and valuable services which these young men had rendered to the nation, he and his fellow Elders had felt it to be their duty to recommend the Queen to confer upon both the honour and distinction accompanying the title of Princes.

A roar of delighted approval greeted this peroration; and if perchance there happened to be here and there a noble or two who regarded with disapprobation the bestowal of this unique honour upon aliens, they were too prudent to permit that disapprobation to be suspected, in view of the apparently universal popularity of the act.

The Queen, acutely conscious of the fact that she contemplated a step, the effect of the announcement of which it was utterly impossible to foresee, and quick to recognise that the popularity of Grosvenor and Dick would probably never be greater than it was at that moment, determined to make the utmost of the opportunity; and, upon the occasion of the public investiture of the newly created princes, electrified everybody present by calmly announcing—in a manner which seemed to suggest that she was doing something which she was certain would meet with the full and unanimous approval of her people—that it was her intention to espouse Prince Philip as soon as the necessary preparations for the ceremony could be made!

The announcement was followed by silence so tense that, to make use of a much hackneyed expression, one might have heard a pin drop, and it lasted so long that the Queen grew white to the lips, and her eyes began to glitter ominously. Was it possible that the nobles—who but for the military genius of Phil and Dick would now in all probability have been, with herself, captives in the hands of the savages—were going to show themselves so selfishly ungrateful as to disapprove of her choice? An impatient stamp of her little foot on the daïs, and a defiant upward toss of her head seemed to threaten an outburst that would probably have caused the ears of those present to tingle, when somebody—whose identity was never established—began to applaud vociferously. The applause was almost instantly taken up by another, and another, and others, until within a moment or two the vast chamber was ringing and vibrant with the expressions of approval and rejoicing. The verdict, though delayed, perhaps, a second or two too long for Her Majesty’s entire liking, was decisive, unmistakable, and not to be gainsaid; and if there were any present who recognised that it meant the final collapse of certain cherished ambitions of their own, they were wise enough to say nothing about it.

But although the Queen’s choice of a husband was thus ratified by the only section of her subjects who might possibly have raised objections to it, a great deal of exceedingly delicate negotiation and arrangement was found to be necessary, and a number of quite unexpected difficulties and hitches arose, before the path to the hymeneal altar was made perfectly smooth for the royal lovers; while, on the other hand, as the negotiations and arrangements progressed, it grew increasingly clear that a man possessed of Grosvenor’s outside knowledge and experience was infinitely preferable, from the point of view of the national advantage, as a ruler, to even the most powerful and influential of the Izreelite nobles. By the time, therefore, that everything was settled, approval had become intensified into delight, and there was every prospect that Phil’s reign would be a highly popular one. Then, in due time, came the marriage, which may be dismissed with the mere mention of the fact, since this makes no pretence to being a love story.

But although even a royal wedding may possess little or no interest for those for whose entertainment this story is written, it had a most important effect upon the fortunes of those whose adventures are here set forth. For, by the Izreelite law, it not only made Philip Grosvenor the Consort of the Queen, but it also put into his hands the actual government of the nation; it made him, in fact, the King, an absolute monarch, with power to shape and control the destinies of the nation as seemed to him good; with nobody to say him nay, whatever the nature of the decrees he might promulgate, and to whom even the Queen herself became subject. Then, with regard to Dick Maitland, it will be remembered that he, as well as Grosvenor, had been compelled to take an oath that he would never seek to leave the country without the royal assent. But, now that Phil was King, that assent was, of course, to be obtained easily enough; and obtained it was, as soon as the wedding was over and Grosvenor was securely installed in his new position. For, whatever inducements there might be for Phil to pass the remainder of his life in the strange, scarcely-heard-of land of the Izreelites, no such inducements existed in the case of Dick Maitland, who was now all impatience to return to England and provide for the welfare of his mother—if, haply, she still survived.

Accordingly, having in due form sought and obtained the royal assent to his departure from Izreel, Dick lost no time in completing his preparations for the long and perilous journey that lay before him. And, first of all, he presented Leo—now nearly full-grown and, thanks to careful and judicious training, a most amiable, docile, and affectionate beast—to Queen Myra, as the most cherished possession it was in his power to offer her. Of the horses which they had brought with them into the country he kept only the one which King Lobelalatutu had given him, leaving the rest with Phil—there being no horses in Izreel. Ramoo Samee, being given his choice, elected to remain in Izreel, in the capacity of stud groom; but Mafuta, Jantje, and ’Nkuku returned with Dick, as a matter of course. And, as a measure of precaution, Grosvenor arranged for an escort of five hundred Izreelite warriors to accompany the wagon through the country immediately on the other side of the border; for although the savage inhabitants had received such terrible chastisement that they were scarcely likely to interfere with anyone coming from Izreel, it was deemed wisest to run no risk of a possible hostile demonstration.

At length the day and hour of parting came, and Dick, fully equipped for his journey, presented himself at the palace to say farewell. The moment was not without its emotions, for although it had already been planned that at no very distant date Maitland should revisit Izreel, bringing with him certain matters which Grosvenor felt it would be highly desirable for him to possess as monarch of a people of such great potential possibilities as the Izreelites, both remembered that the journey from Bethalia to the nearest confines of civilisation was a long and arduous one, bristling with perils of every imaginable kind, and who could say that it would be accomplished in safety, or, if accomplished, could be repeated? For life is too full of chances for a man to make plans for the future, with any certainty that he will be able to carry them out. Therefore, when these two adventurous sons of the most adventurous nation on earth finally clasped hands and said their last words of farewell, though those words were entirely cheery and optimistic, the voices which spoke them were a little husky with feeling, and the firm, strong hand-grip was lingering, and relaxed with much reluctance.

Dick’s ride from the palace through the town to the point of embarkation for the mainland was one long, unbroken ovation; for there had now been time for the people to recognise, and also to appreciate, the many fine qualities of the young Englishman’s character; realisation of the enormous debt which they owed to him and to his friend, their new king, had come to them, and they were as unfeignedly sorry to witness his departure from among them as a naturally unemotional people could well be.

As he stepped into the swift-sailing cutter which was to convey him across to the mainland, where the wagon, already inspanned, was awaiting him, a letter was handed to him by one of two men who had just carefully deposited in the boat a well-filled leather portmanteau bearing Grosvenor’s initials. The letter ran thus:

“Dear old Chap,—“The portmanteau which accompanies this note contains Myra’s and my own parting gift to you, in the shape of the finest diamonds which a gang of twenty men have been able to extract from the newly discovered mine during the last month. They are quite valueless to us, it is true, but in the dear old country to which you are bound they ought, even apart from the rubies which you are taking back, to make you one of the most wealthy men in the world. May God grant you health and long life to enjoy that wealth, and to employ it—as we know you will—in ameliorating the lot of those who are worse off than yourself! We confidently look forward to your return to Izreel in the course of the next year or two; but should unkind fortune forbid that return, think of us occasionally, and remember that in the far interior of Africa there are two hearts in which your memory will be cherished so long as life shall last.“Yours, in undying friendship,—“Phil.”

“Dear old Chap,—

“The portmanteau which accompanies this note contains Myra’s and my own parting gift to you, in the shape of the finest diamonds which a gang of twenty men have been able to extract from the newly discovered mine during the last month. They are quite valueless to us, it is true, but in the dear old country to which you are bound they ought, even apart from the rubies which you are taking back, to make you one of the most wealthy men in the world. May God grant you health and long life to enjoy that wealth, and to employ it—as we know you will—in ameliorating the lot of those who are worse off than yourself! We confidently look forward to your return to Izreel in the course of the next year or two; but should unkind fortune forbid that return, think of us occasionally, and remember that in the far interior of Africa there are two hearts in which your memory will be cherished so long as life shall last.

“Yours, in undying friendship,—

“Phil.”

My story is told. It only remains to add that, some six months later, Dick Maitland arrived safely in England, with all his treasure intact, just in time to rescue his mother from the grip of destitution that was on the point of closing relentlessly upon her, and to place her in a position of such absolute safety and luxury that it was months before the dear old lady could persuade herself it was not all a tantalising dream, from which she would sooner or later awake to again find herself face to face with the ever-recurring, harassing, heart-breaking problem of ways and means, and the even more painful state of anxiety and uncertainty concerning the whereabouts of her son that had so worried and distressed her during the past year.

As for Doctor Julian Humphreys, Dick nearly drove the good man crazy with delight by placing to his credit at the bank a sum so stupendous that he might have spent the rest of his days in riotous luxury, had he so chosen. But that was not Humphreys’ way at all; his heart was set upon the relief of those who suffered the keen pangs of poverty through no fault of their own; and he thenceforth enjoyed the pleasure of doing good to the top of his bent, retaining his modest establishment at 19 Paradise Street, but greatly enlarging his surgery, stocking it abundantly with every drug, instrument, and appliance that could possibly ameliorate pain or heal disease, and continuing enthusiastically to practise medicine and surgery among the poor, without fee or reward of any sort, save an occasional expression of gratitude from some more than usually appreciative patient.

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