Talbot Mundy

“ It was then that the much more unexpected struck us speechless—even Monty for the moment, who is not much given to social indecision. We had not known there was a woman guest in that hotel. One does not look in Zanzibar for ladies with a Mayfair accent unaccompanied by menfolk able to protect them. Yet an indubitable Englishwoman, expensively if carelessly dressed, came to the head of the stairs and stood beside Yerkes looking down at the rest of us with a sort of well bred, rather tolerant scorn. ”

“ We followed, for there is no use in choosing a leader if you don’t intend to obey him, even on occasions when you fail at once to understand. There was one turn on the wide stairs, and Monty stood there, back to the wall.
“Go below, you fellows, and catch!” he laughed. “We don’t want Will jailed for homicide!”
The struggle was fierce and swift. Coutlass searched with a thumb for Will’s eye, and stamped on his instep with an iron-shod heel. But he was a dissolute brute, and for all his strength Yerkes’ cleaner living very soon told. ”

“ The great black ceiling beams, heavy-legged table of two-inch planks, floor laid like a dhow’s deck—making utmost use of odd lengths of timber, but strong enough to stand up under hurricanes and overloads of plunder, or to batten down rebellious slaves—murmurings from rooms below, where men of every race that haunts those shark-infested seas were drinking and telling tales that would make Münchhausen’s reputation—steaminess, outer darkness, spicy equatorial smells and, above all, knowledge of the nature of the coming quest united to veil the map in fascination. ”

“ Lord Montdidier can get influential backing, but not influence among the natives! He can not get good men and true information by pulling wires in London. The British government once offered ten per cent. of the value of the ivory found. The Sultan of Zanzibar offers twenty per cent.—”
“Twenty-five per cent.,” corrected Hamed Ibrahim.
“Yes, but I should want five per cent. for my commission!”
“This sounds like a different yarn to the one you told on the stairs this afternoon,” said Will. “See Monty and tell it to him.”
“It is for you to tell Lord Montdidier. He runs away from me!” ”

“ Yerkes is a free man, able and willing to shoulder his own end of any argument. He closed, and the Greek’s ribs cracked under a vastly stronger hug than he had dreamed of expecting. But Coutlass was no weakling either, and though he gasped he gathered himself for a terrific effort.
“Come on!” said Monty, and went past me through the door like a bolt from a catapult. Fred followed me, and when he saw us both out on the landing Monty started down the stairs. ”

“ I’m not going to tell Monty a blessed word! See here—she thinks she knows where some o’ that ivory is. Maybe the government of German East Africa is in on the deal, and maybe not; that makes no present difference. She thinks she’s wise. And she has fixed up with the Sultan to have him claim it when found, so’s she’ll get a fat slice of the melon. There’s a scheme on to get the stuff, when who should come on the scene but our little party, and that makes ’em all nervous, ’cause Monty’s a bad man to be up against. Remember: she claimed that she knows Monty and he knows her. ”

“ No man gifted with imagination better than a hot-cross bun’s could be in Zanzibar and not be conscious of the lure that made adventurers of men before the first tales were written. Old King Solomon’s traders must have made it their headquarters, just as it was Sindbad the Sailor’s rendezvous and that of pirates before he or Solomon were born or thought of. ”

“ It’s my impression she has been in German government employ for a number of years. Possibly they have paid her to do some spy-work—in the Zanzibar court, perhaps—the Sultan’s a mere boy—”
“Isn’t he wooly-headed?” objected Yerkes.
“Mainly Arab. It’s a French game to send a white woman to intrigue at colored courts, but the Germans are good imitators.”
“Isn’t she English?” asked Yerkes.
“Her trade’s international,” said Monty dryly. “My guess is that Coutlass or Hassan told her what we’re supposed to be doing here, and she pretends to know where the ivory is in order to trap us all in some way. ”

“ Other doors began opening, and the appearance of an audience stimulated him to further peaks of rage. “The only chance I need is a sight of your carcasses within range, and a long range will do for Georges Coutlass!” He glared past Yerkes at Monty who had risen leisurely. “You call yourself a lord? I call you a thief! ”

“ She drew herself up very finely—very stately. Very lovely she was to look at in that half-light, with the shadows of Tippoo Tib’s [1] old stairway hiding her tale of years. But I felt my regard for her slipping downhill (and so, I rather think did Yerkes) . “You look well, Lord Montdidier, traipsing about the earth with a leash of mongrels at your heel! Falstaff never picked up a more sordid-looking pack! What do you feed them—bones? Are there no young bloods left of your own class, that you need travel with tradesmen?”
Monty stood with both hands behind him and never turned a hair. ”

“ I dare say even tavern brawlers respect you sufficiently to keep a lady’s secret if you order them. I will hope they have manhood enough to hold their tongues!”
Of course, dressed in the best that Zanzibar stores had to offer we scarcely looked like fashion plates. My shirt was torn where Coutlass had seized it to resist being thrown out, but I failed to see what she hoped to gain by that tongue lashing, even supposing we had been the lackeys she pretended to believe we were.
“The message is to my brother,” she went on.
“I don’t know him!” put in Monty promptly. ”

“ We were shown forthwith the ugliest, most suggestive weapons I have ever seen—long sliver-thin blades sharper than razors. The Arabs knelt on our chests (their knees were harder and more merciless than wooden clubs) and laid the blades, edge-upward, on the skin of our throats. ”

“ We spent a morning with Captain Thomas Cook, and left the store—Fred, Yerkes and I—with a battery of weapons, including a pistol apiece—that any expedition might be proud of. (Monty, since he had to go home in any case, preferred to look over the family gun-room before committing himself.) ”

“ Until both good and bad, both cowardly and brave give up the habit of dying in bed, or getting killed, or going broke, or ending up in jail for one cause and the other, there will surely always be fine pickings for men on the spot with a little money and a lot of patience—guns, tents, cooking pots, and all the other things. ”

“ Nineteen elephants shot wi’ that Lee-Enfleld, an’ the man’s in jail for shootin’ of ‘em! Sold at auction by the gov’ment, that one was. See, here’s an Express—a beauty—owned by an officer fr’m Indy—took by a shark ’e was, in swimmin’ against all advice, him what had hunted tigers! There’s no goon store a quarter as good as mine ’tween Cairo an’ the Cape or Bombay an’ Boma! Captain Cook’s the boy to sell ye goons all right! Sit down. Look ’em over. Ask anything ye want to know. I’ll tell ye. No obligation to buy.”
There is no need to fit out with guns and tents in London. ”