Louis Tracy

“ Mam laughed. “You are always ready enough to turn a difficult conversation when it suits your purpose. Why don’t you show equal tact in your remarks to Mr. Schwartz? I would not ask this, Millicent, if I had not a special reason.” ”

“ There was a keen frost that night, and the scent of the nigger, not to mention some beery singers who call themselves “the waits,” kept me awake for hours. Every man has a different smell, though some folk get mad if you tell them so, but the Upper Niger tang was new to me, and I couldn’t help thinking what a place that must be for a hunt if even a well-washed black prince left such a bouquet behind him. I suppose you are surprised to hear a fox-terrier using French words, but I learnt them from Mademoiselle, Minkie’s governess, who went away last month. ”

“ No wonder people in Dale End called that a Black Christmas. It was nearly being a fiery one also, because others in the village shared Schwartz’s idea, and it was actually proposed that the police-station should be burnt down and the negroes roasted inside it. Isn’t there a proverb about scratching a Russian and finding a Tartar? Well, to my thinking, you will not find such a world of difference between Surrey and Alabama when a black man is suspected of doing away with a white girl. ”

“ The odd thing was that he refused to send for the police, and the more certain it became that the ju-ju was missing, the more jubilant grew Prince John’s face as he sat in the hall. At last, there was nothing for it but the nigger must be set at liberty. Schwartz wanted the Guv’nor to lock him up all night. Of course, that could not be done, as Surrey isn’t West Africa, and the Old Man had come to the conclusion that there was not much in the dispute between them, anyhow. ”

“ You have fallen among thieves. There is no telling what price they may force things up to before they let go.”
“Then the issue is quite plain,” said the Guv’nor, rising with the air of a man who has no more to say. “It will cripple, indeed, almost ruin me to raise five thousand pounds. Any material advance on that amount means bankruptcy, with goodness knows what evil results to my wife and daughters. If there is any law in the land it should not be possible for men to crush others in this barefaced way.”
“The law cannot help you. But sit down, Grosvenor. ”

“ Rikki is really doing you a good turn, Poll. Too many nuts are bad for you. Evangeline said so.”
Ingratitood, thy name is cat! I fairly boiled over. I even called Evangeline such things that she came running in with a stick. And, of course, she never saw that cunning fox, Rikki. He sneaked out while she was beating me, but he took the letter with him, and I wouldn’t be the least bit astonished if he told Minkie he had done it off his own bat.
Exactly why Minkie brought the Guv’nor and Schwartz out of the dining-room in such a whirl I never discovered. ”

“ I was that delighted that I scraped Minkie’s leg to tell her I was underneath the table. A mongoose coming to join the family! What is a mongoose, anyhow? Has it four legs, or two? Can it fight? I must have murmured my thoughts aloud, because the parrot gave a screech that made Schwartz jump.
“Go and hide in the nearest rabbit burrow, little dog,” he yelled. “Run away and bury yourself with a bone. When that mongoose turns up he’ll chase you into the next parish. Oh, Christopher! Aren’t we havin’ a beano? Another rum ’ot, please, miss.”
I kept my temper. There is no use arguing with a parrot. ”

“ Of course, I kept Jim’s appointment with the African Prince. It was nearly dark when I crossed the green, and there were four negroes standing in the road near the Manor gate. They were all much of a size, and I thought I should not be able to recognize the man who came to our house. But I spotted him at once. There must be something in being born a ruler, even a savage one. Prince John was quite different to the others in his manners and appearance. ”

“ The pantomime was essential in Dale End; had Minkie been in the Kwantu bush she might have seen more of the reality; but then, under the latter conditions, she would have shown Schwartz a savate kick which I taught her, and he must have bitten off the end of his tongue in learning it. One acquires a lot of capital dodges, I assure you, when defending the top of a wall on a dark night. ”

“ The parrot was watching, and made a horrid noise at the right moment, just as Schwartz looked down and saw a pair of fierce red eyes glaring at him. The mongoose put on his best grin, which made matters [Pg 78] worse. Schwartz nearly overturned the dinner-table. I would never have credited six feet of man with being in such a funk. Everybody was glad he expressed his emotions in German—he himself more than the others when he calmed down. Minkie nearly came in for a scolding, but the Guv’nor, who is a real sport, was soon taken by Rikki’s antics, and rather chaffed Schwartz about his alarm. ”

“ Jim, too, was in league with our own maids to search everywhere for the ju-ju. Isn’t it odd that you can’t trust your fellow-mortals? Dan, or Bob, or Tib would die sooner than play the sneak; even that sarcastic old parrot would never betray the Gang, and little Rikki, though he is a newcomer, is with us tooth and nail. Anyhow, what between Schwartz and the servants inside, and Prince John and his tribesman outside, I made up my mind to act [Pg 145] a bit sooner than I intended. Perhaps the ju-ju egged me on also. You never can tell. The mysteries of fetish-worship are beyond me. ”

“ Grosvenor hasn’t come, miss,” said Jim, when the crowd thinned.
“Who said he was coming?” asked Minkie.
“Well, Evangeline thought—”
“Evangeline never thinks. The doctor has warned her against it. If ever she tries to do anything of the kind the excitement will kill her. No, Jim. Dad has told a Mr. Schwartz to come on by this train, and make himself at home until he joins him later. Schwartz is German for black. Most Germans are dumpy. But things often go by contraries. Our green-grocer is named Brown, so Mr. Schwartz should be a tall thin man, with straw hair and white eyebrows.” ”

“ Poor Mam was nearly crying, and Dorothy’s face was a study; she was terrified lest Minkie should blurt out the fact that she, too, was at the Four Lanes. As it happened, Minkie could not have mentioned a worse locality. It was the Four Lanes warren which first led to the quarrel between old Mr. Stanhope and the Guv’nor. There was a lawsuit about the shooting rights, which ought to have gone with our estate, but Mr. Stanhope’s lawyers made out a flaw in a copyhold, whatever that may mean, and we lost. I wonder why men invented law. ”

“ I expect you have finished tea long since? Can you squeeze the pot, Mam?”
“It will be here in a minute, Tom,” said Mam, smiling. “My husband hates to miss his tea, Mr. Schwartz. He would drink three cups now if I were to let him, though we dine at seven.”
“By the way, that reminds me,” said the Old Man, dropping into his regular chair in the drawing-room. “I fell in with your servant at Waterloo, Schwartz.”
“My servant!” said Schwartz, blankly, and both Dan and Tibbie heard every word, as Minkie had collected Dan again before she took her usual perch on a hassock near her father. ”

“ The Guv’nor handed it to him, but it was not yet refolded when Minkie burst into the room.
“Please come, dad!” she cried. “And you, too, Mr. Schwartz! Jim says that the house is simply surrounded by black men.”
Of course, Schwartz had no grit in him: his type of man never has. He went pale, shook a bit, and leaned back against the table, and I noticed that the letter fell from his fingers to the floor. After a breathless question or two from the men as to what Jim meant by his extraordinary statement, they all rushed out. ”

“ I could see the whites of his eyes, and they reminded me of a pollywog, but I kept a straight face.
“Do you mean to say you have found a bit of carved ivory, with a monkey’s head and a little beaded skirt? If so, girl, give it to me, [Pg 147] and I will reward you with a handful of gold,” he cried.
“I have not got your ju-ju in my possession at this moment,” I said, speaking slowly, and watching him as intently as Dan watches the mouth of a burrow when he hears the rabbits squeaking at the sight of a ferret. “But I am fairly certain I can lay my hand on it, on terms.” ”

“ Minkie noticed it, but I found it out long before her. You see, we parrots are very wise birds, quick to observe, and able to examine any new notion from all points of view; my habit of looking at Dan upside down riles him far more than the silly things I shout at him.
Minkie, I gathered, guessed that her father was in trouble over some Stock Exchange business, and the mention of Kwantu by Captain Stanhope brought back to her mind the name of the mining company whose affairs, as discussed in a newspaper, seemed to be the cause of the worry. ”