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(p. 172)
BOOK III
_____
CHAPTER I
THE insurrection in Soudan, and the
flight of the Emperor, caused great consternation in
(p. 173)
minds of capitalists as exercising a
conservative influence. They might not be altogether favourable to the Jews
themselves as such or to those sections of Christendom which traced their
religious descent to the stock of David; but it was considered impossible that
they should revolt against the heirs of the blood and crown of Solomon. So, when
the thoroughness and extent of the revolution was demonstrated by the appearance
of the Emperor’s son as a fugitive in
It is by virtue of their wealth, and not of their courage or armaments, that the
Jews of Palestine have maintained the sway which has rendered their recent
history so remarkable. Whatever the project resolved upon, they have but to find
the money, and there are plenty of others to find the method and the means of
execution. Thus, without a soldier or sailor of their own, they avenge
themselves by contract upon peoples who, being as yet too barbarous to
acknowledge the solidarity of nations, and join the confederated civilizations
of the world, venture to outrage their interests or their honour.
It does not come within the functions of the Grand Council of European States to
interfere in disputes between one of its own members and a nation lying outside
it. But, as between its own members, it holds, happily, far too high a sense of
its duties to allow even the mighty Jewish influence to interfere with its
strict impartiality. It is only when a clear case of wilful and outrageous wrong
is made out, that it allows the resort to force, and the employment of the
military forces of the Confederacy.
The moral sense of the rest of the world is thus an effective counterpoise to
the tendency manifested by the capitalists of
(p. 174)
of the Confederacy to make war upon a
fellow-member without such permission, rightly entails a forfeiture of the
protection of the Confederacy; and lays the offending member open to
retribution, as an individual who, in a civilized country, takes the law into
his own hands.
At the time of which I am writing, it was fortunate for at least one of the
peoples neighbouring to the Jews, that they were both under the jurisdiction of
the Confederacy. For it needed such restraint to keep the ancient enmity of the
Jews to the Egyptians, from breaking out into fierce expression and violence.
The Empire of Central Africa lay outside, and was equally hostile to
Its peculiar geographical position, too, made it practically inaccessible,
either by sea or land. Had it been a republic instead of a monarchy, it could
have defied attack from all quarters whatsoever. But its political system was
not adapted to the present state of the world. The advance of science has
rendered the person of a sovereign too easily assailable for a monarchical
regime to enjoy the same security as that of a republic.
When the public credit of a country depends upon the stability of its
institutions, and those institutions are summed up in and represented by a
single individual, it is clear that the invention of flying vessels, which can
at any moment swoop down with an armed squadron upon any spot of the earth, and
carry off any individual, be he private citizen or emperor, must deprive the
system of personal government of any element of permanence.
Even under, the ancient “constitutional monarchies,” the liability of the
sovereign to seizure by death, rendered it necessary to postulate for him a
fictional immortality, as was exemplified in the saying, “the king never dies.”
But liability to seizure by balloon is another matter. With their sovereign rapt
away by an aërial force, and his whereabouts
(p. 175)
beyond their ken, it would be impossible for
a people to determine whether the throne were vacant or not.
It is true that, to some extent, the evil provides its own remedy; for it is
possible to employ an aërial guard to ward off or avenge aërial outrage. But
experience has too fully manifested the danger of entrusting such a product of
advanced science to a people civilized enough only to abuse the power it confers
on them. Life in
The long-smouldering dissatisfaction was brought to a crisis when the Emperor
resolutely vetoed an act passed by his legislature for repudiating the public
debt conditionally on the Jews refusing to lower the interest by one-half. The
Emperor, though sympathizing with his people, dared not do otherwise; for not
only was he a man of high integrity, and sagacity enough to know the ultimate
costliness of a policy of repudiation; but the known unflinching firmness of the
Jews in avenging an injury to their interests, involved severe and inevitable
punishment. There were not wanting rumours of swift and secret vengeance
inflicted by their aërial agents on their recalcitrant debtors. On this
occasion, when it was found, on assaulting the royal palace in Bornou, that both
the’ Emperor and the crown jewels had disappeared, the Jews were credited with
having a hand in the work. It was not the first time that the jewels had
disappeared, as we know by their being found in the balloon which descended on
the iceberg at the birth of Christmas Carol. The unhappy Emperor himself has
told us how that disappearance was effected. But even he was ignorant
(p. 176)
of the circumstances attending their descent
into the volcano of
CHAPTER II
ONCE again far away from the earth’s
teeming surface, and aloft in the familiar regions of the upper air. Not this
time bent on some enterprise of science, enjoyment, or humanity; not to seek
intercourse with the sublimated occupants of the spiritual world; but solely to
hold commune with his own inmost self, apart from all disturbing influences of
circumstance and man, did Christmas Carol, possessor of manly youth, beauty,
courage, skill, strength, knowledge, millions, and a soul, soar aloft to find in
meditative abstraction the duty imposed upon him by his newly revealed
endowments.
As he floated swiftly upon the eddying currents of that mid-winter season,
unheeding whither they bore him – so absorbed was he by his own thoughts – he
found those thoughts taking shape and varying as never had they done before.
Thus, at one moment he found himself assailed by visions of all sensuous
delight, in which every ideal of excellence in nature and art seemed to be
subordinated to the lower self, impelling him, in an access of voluptuousness,
to cry, “Oh, Pleasure, I worship thee,” and to regard the world as a victim to
be lawfully offered at the shrine of his own self-gratification.
Wondering whence these thoughts, so unfamiliar to him, proceeded, he chanced to
glance at the magnetic register of his course, and found that he was poised over
the historic land of all sensuous life; that land whose rulers had ever held
that their country must be great, no matter at what expense of its neighbours;
whose people had ever held that it was the function of all their rich endowments
of wit and knowledge to minister to man’s lower and animal nature; that land in
which the moral sense and pure intelligence had never raised their
(p. 177)
heads to protest against the national
selfishness, but to lower them speedily in agony and blood – the
Criss had learnt from his angel friends that there is a mysterious link between
the sympathies of the upper and lower worlds; and the discovery of his position
showed him that he must now be under the influence of the class of ideas which
have their root in the Gallic soil and temperament, and enter perchance into the
composition of the heavens above them, and tinge the souls of its spiritual
occupants.
Impatiently rejecting the suggestions thus infused into his mind, Criss urged
his car onwards, once more giving rein to his spontaneous thoughts. Finding a
more robust sentiment animating him, and his patriotic emotions taking the place
of all others, he glanced downwards, and found by the white gleam of the snowy
mountain ridges beneath him, that he was passing over the land once of Tell, and
now the gymnasium of nations.
Presently his reverie took a religious character, wherein he found himself plied
with impulses to devote himself wholly to the cultivation of all that is
beautiful in art and poetic in sentiment, in conjunction with the symbolism of
the ancient faiths, and so to build up a universal temple, into which,
constrained by its beauty of rite and mystery of doctrine, all men should hasten
to enter.
“Absorbed in me, Self will disappear,” said the voice that now addressed him,
“and with self will go the lower loves, – the love of country and of knowledge,
the love of woman and of offspring, and the MAN will appear in all his unimpeded
might, and the world acknowledge a new Cæsar and Pontiff of religion and art.”
Glancing once more at his index he perceived that he had drifted across the
Alps, and was being assailed by the spirit of Italy; that spirit of insatiable
dominion, which seeks ever to subordinate mankind to one overpowering regime, to
the utter destruction of the individuality and higher development of man.
“And even,” mused Criss, “were I to choose such a career,
(p. 178)
and become exalted over all others, even to
being regarded as a divine founder or regenerator of such a system, unless
mankind were the gainer thereby, it would be as nought and worse than nought;
for though I win all to myself by virtue of the powers vested in me, nothing can
convert the loss of others into my gain. Man I am and will be, and with man I
must suffer or rejoice. ‘Consecrate my talents to God?’ Even that may be but
another name for pride and self-seeking.
“So farewell, oh Home! who in time long past forced upon man Law, and made him pay dearly for it –
even his all here; and in time later forced upon him Dogma, and made him pay for it yet more
dearly – even his all here and hereafter – pay with body and soul in time and
eternity. Well indeed, doth the Laocoon, noblest of thy relic-marbles, represent
Humanity struggling in thy once fatal toils!”
And now the blue mists of the Mediterranean and its border lands of sunshine
began to disappear, as the moist south-west currents coming up from the restless
Atlantic bore him towards the home of the north-east trade wind; and his soul,
still kept open to receive whatever influences might pour into it from the
surrounding world of spirit, found a new vision growing before it. This was a
vision of times when men no longer suffered themselves to be ruled through the
lower or more sensuous part of themselves, or suffered interest or love to dim
their sense of justice and truth.
For now Criss’s car had drifted over the great Teuton father-land, where the air
was interpenetrated with pure and keen intellect, ever on the alert to know what
was true, and holding nought as divine – contain what it might of beauty, use,
or even of goodness – unless it put Truth first, and made all else subordinate
to it.
This was so consonant to the ordinary tone of Criss’s mind, that he was
surprised at the elation he felt on coming into con-tact with this new sphere.
But he presently learnt to ascribe it to the contrast which these fresh
influences made with those of Trance and
(p. 179)
that he despised physical pleasure. He had
too much happy animal health in him for that. Or failed to appreciate intensely
all beauty in sentiment and art. He had too much soul for that. But the
spiritual airs which emanated from Germany, found a perfect response in his
intellect, inasmuch as they encouraged him not only “To place Truth first, but
to reject as intrinsically hideous and pernicious whatever in life, in art, or
in religion was not established upon a basis of pure science, at once verifiable
and harmonious with itself. “Here,” said Criss, “I strike the key-note of the
modern civilizations.”
And now, as in search of the fast-sinking wintry sun, he rose higher and higher,
and was carried by the winds that came from the Steppes of Tartary once more
over his own English home, influences of various kinds from far and wide, but
already harmoniously blended together, seemed to gather round him. Viewed
through their medium, the land of his adoption appeared to him as a vast
digestive apparatus, receiving and assimilating all things that were cast into
it, and by virtue of its sound constitution, converting all into good living
substance. At the basis of the system of thought now presented to him, Criss
found the clue to the character and history of
Contrasting the dominant idea of the Church of the Emancipation with that of the
old mediaeval sacerdotalism, he saw clearly that
(p. 180)
Catching sight, as he glanced downwards, of the great city lying far below, and
descrying in the midst of its blaze of lights the dim outline of its cathedral,
Criss found himself thus apostrophising the sacred edifice –
“And thou, St. Paul’s, on whose lofty summit I have been wont to pause from my
flights through the air, and alight, noblest, externally, of earth’s citadels of
the soul, and, within, gem of England’s richest art, – thou, St. Paul’s, core of
the throbbing heart of _this great city, thine is the glory of symbolising the
victory of this people over man’s worst, man’s sole en«my, his own fears of the
imaginary, fears which banished God from the living world to the remote past,
and delivered man over a prey to the terrors of superstition; fears which
magnified the spirit of evil until it took many gods to be a match for one
devil; fears now happily cast out by knowledge, and the trust that comes of
knowledge.
“Beneath thy capacious dome, once restricted to a name and a sect, England’s
sons can now meet, united in heart and method, no matter how diverse the
conclusions of their intellect. Not until they found grace to withstand the
wiles of priests who divided, and creeds which confounded, and to regard the
best human as the most divine – were they adjudged of
Recalling the reproach anciently brought against
This triune combination of endowments, Patience, Self-reliance, and a high
Ideal, had he perceived in the recent centuries, though often in the dark, ever
been working towards the end now happily attained; until it has come that
England still maintains her ancient prerogative of teaching the nations
(p. 181)
how be live; of showing to the world that the
Practical can be lawfully wedded to the Ideal; Work to Faith; Science to
Reverence; and that the most fatal of errors consists in the attempt to divorce
them, or to deny them the fruition of their proper affinity.
And as he thought of what such Spirit and such Work had done for the world and
for
As thus, under the influence of English airs and feelings, he soared in thought
towards the noblest aims, so, as if by conscious sympathy, his car rose higher
and higher in the Empyrean, and his thoughts uttered themselves, in poetic
rhythm: or, were they indeed voices that he heard around him, as of an invisible
chorus, accompanying with angelic gratulations his high-born resolves? Criss
would not gather up his analytic faculties to inquire; but left his mind open
for the ideas to enter freely without effort on his part, and without seeking
for their source. Afterwards, he might, if his memory retained them, commit them
to writing; but at the time itself, it was his wont to do nought to break the
spontaneity of their flow. Having aimed at keeping his mind in tune with the
holiest and the best, what need of further effort to make it produce sweet
music? Or what else was needed to win the angels into sweet converse? Nay, had
he not even but now been rejecting all promptings of the lower parts of his own
nature, all temptation to use for his own gratification the manifold resources
of earth’s various provinces so freely put at his disposal, and finally resolved
to bring his own inmost into consonance with the greatest good to others? What
wonder, then, if in the access of his ecstasy it should seem to him as if the
angelic dwellers in those rare and sublime spheres came and ministered to him?
(p. 182)
If Criss had doubts, they were soon resolved, for soon the invisible chorus
became visible, and his old friends from the ethereal spheres flocked around
him. And foremost among them was the tall angel, now no longer alone, but with
his wedded sunshine clasping his arm, and ready to listen with bright and arch
intelligence to her beloved’s utterances as he opened to Criss some of the
mysteries of the perfect life.
“If by Conventionality you mean the worship of the outer-most,” he said in reply
to Criss, “we have none such among us; at least, these higher spheres, in which
I and mine dwell. For with us, all possess a law of their own inmost, to which
alone allegiance is due. We reverence Matter, as that of which we and all things
are composed. We reverence sensation and perception, which are faculties common
to all. But we adore our own inmost, for that is to each the manifestation of
the divine personality.
“Yes, we are affected by the course of events below. We do not understand how it
comes about, but, somehow, good done or thought on earth radiates or vibrates
sympathetically to us, and draws us nearer to the scene of it; while we recede
from wilfulness and evil.
“It is a mistake to suppose that anything can subsist without a physical basis.
Whatever exists is something, unless it be a mere effect. And whatever is
something is material and actual. The spiritual is but an effect or operation of
the material, even as the emotional is: the diviner effect of an entity already
divine. For matter is divine in its origin and infinite capacity for
development, involutional as well as evolutional. Differences are in degree, not
in kind. There is no real without an ideal; no ideal without a real. The most
sublimated among us owns kindred with the grossest elements of earth, for we
have a common basis. Herein, doubtless, consists the secret of our mutual
sympathy.
“The Supreme? Ah, who can tell! Even could you penetrate the abysses of yon
flaming orb, and drag his secret forth, you would be no nearer to learning what
the Supreme is. Yet by way of illustration the sun can help us somewhat. Once
(p. 183)
upon a time the sun filled with his physical,
bodily presence, all the space over which our system now extends, and yet more,
uniformly diffused, and homogeneous in constitution. It was the all, and in all,
and no other personality or entity existed therein; for it contained in nebulous
potentiality all that you and we are or can be, in body and soul.
“The illustration I perceive in your thought is a fair one, and this shining
cloud may be likened to the spat discharged by the oyster in clear water.
Though to all appearance but a cloud, it contains the germs of the whole future
brood. Artificial appliances enable you to magnify and discern the young
creature existing in perfection, though so minute. But scarce any appliance
short of infinite perception can detect the capacity for future development
lying hid in the nebulous cloud of space.
“Well, this cloud contracting and changing, gradually withdrew its actual
presence from the outermost portions of the vast arena, depositing as it did so,
the materials for those other individualities which we now behold as Worlds.
But, though withdrawing itself in one sense, its influences of power and
attraction, of heat and light, still permeate and govern them all as beings
distinct, yet dependent; beings not made, not begotten, but proceeding. In it
and of it, they live, and move, and subsist; and the intelligences upon them,
constituting their flower and fruit, best fulfil the intention of their being
when they acknowledge their oneness with the rest of the Universe, and strive to
fulfil to the utmost the laws which provide for their well-being and happiness.
“You are perplexed, and know not whether it is of the sun, or of the Supreme,
that I speak. The Supreme is the Infinite, beyond force, beyond mind, beyond
being, beyond doing, beyond language, beyond ideas; while the sun, though a
complete individual in itself, is but one of many; one member of a great family,
a part and not the whole. Remember that whatever there is in you, or in us, now,
in our present state, that, in some form or other, was in the original nebula
out of which we are formed, that nebula being but a portion of the infinite,
(p. 184)
detached from the parent mass, and provided
with the capacity necessary to enable it to evolve a perfect individuality of
its own. Call it sun, or call it Supreme, you must believe that whatever exists
consists of something, or you make God a negation. Matter is not contemptible.
It is as the root to the flower; and the flower of matter is the soul. Matter,
therefore, is the basis of spirit. It is the basis also of duty. On yonder
earth, to which you belong, lies your highest, your sole, duty in the present.”
Here Criss suddenly found himself alone, but in the presence of a smile that
seemed to beam upon him and warm him to the heart; a smile as from an unseen
face; until, as he descended towards the earth, it clothed itself in features
which at first he took for those of his tall angel friend’s angel bride, and
then for those of the fair girl he had left shedding passionate tears on the
slopes of Atlantika.
On approaching the surface of the earth and examining the configuration of the
land, he found that the currents had wafted him near to the ranges of the
“Ancestors! Parents!” thought Criss. “Ah, me; why is it that I have no near
kindred to call beloved, to please and to be proud of? Ah, if I could only find
some, however poor and destitute, to share – nay, to claim – All this wealth,
which to me is but a burden; for if such live, surely it is theirs rather than
mine. Oh, if my father still exists – no other parent can – what joy to find him
and tell him that a portion, at least, of her he loved, still survives. I wonder
why I have never before yearned towards an earthly parent; least of all towards
an earthly father. Of a possible mother I have sometimes thought with longing,
but never of a father, save of the supreme Father of all. Can it be that the
very absence of the tender relations of humanity has served to throw me more
into the arms of an
(p. 185)
ideal and spiritual father; or that in
kindness I have been compensated for the loss? It has not been unknown before
that one deprived of sweet parental reciprocities, has been caught up, as it
were, in spirit, and made one with the divine soul of all; driven by the absence
of the longed-for real, with sweet compulsion to the ideal. I am sure that my
father must have been noble of spirit. At least, I will endeavour so to live,
that, be he noble as he might, I shall not be unworthy of him. Now to descend
into
CHAPTER III
IN a city of the importance and
extent of
But what most excited his interest, was the account of an interview which had
taken place on the previous evening between the fugitive prince and the Soudan
bondholders’ committee, in which much bitterness had been expressed on both
sides towards the intervening State of Egypt, as the secret fosterer of the
insurrection. The Jewish journals, too, one and all, seemed to have jumped at an
opportunity for exhibiting the bitterness still remaining from the ancient feud
between
(p. 186)
and
Finding himself in the same city with the crown prince of Abyssinia – for such
was the title of the heir to the throne – Criss became desirous of making his
acquaintance, but without revealing himself. He perceived that his accidental
connection with the late Emperor, and possession of the sacred gems, to say
nothing of the mysterious link apparently existing between their families,
placed him in a position to exert considerable influence; but he felt that to be
able to use that influence for good, he must retain his secret until some
supreme and fitting crisis for its revelation.
He was thus in some difficulty; for he could not seek a formal introduction
without giving a sufficient reason; and to give as a reason his meeting with the
prince’s father, would be to expose himself to questionings respecting the
property the Emperor had carried off in his flight, and committed to Criss’s
care, as already related. Moreover Criss was ignorant whether the knowledge the
Emperor had shown of his name, as owner of the diamonds, was shared by the
prince, or any of the Jewish upholders of his crown.
(p. 187)
This last consideration led him to suppress his given name of Christmas, and
enter himself in the hotel book simply as Mr. Carol, of
After much cogitation, he bethought himself of his friends at Atlantika, Nannie
and her relatives, the Hazeltines; and he decided that he would approach the
prince for the purpose of learning his opinion respecting the possible danger to
them through the known hostility of the insurgents. However, it was reserved for
accident to do what he required without his putting himself forward in any way.
Criss had not ordered any coffee after his dinner; nevertheless, the waiter
brought him some. Immersed in his reflections, Criss did not perceive that he
had got what he had not ordered, until the waiter came and with many apologies
took it away again, saying he had brought it by mistake: it was ordered by the
other gentleman.
Taking no notice of the incident, Criss continued to reflect, until recalled by
some conversation at a neighbouring table, the only one besides his own now
occupied, for the rest of the diners had gone out to smoke in the verandah.
“I should like to see the gentleman the man took for me and gave my coffee to,”
said the occupant of the other table in a tone of more asperity, it struck Criss,
than the circumstances warranted; a tone, apparently, of one not accustomed to
be crossed.
“He sits yonder, your highness,” replied the master of the house, who had come
in person to explain the waiter’s mistake, while the attendants remained
standing in a group near the entrance to the salon, evidently, now that Criss
had looked up to see what was going on, curiously examining the two visitors.
The stranger looked towards Criss, and their eyes met in a steady scrutinizing
gaze.
Presently the other said, manifestly with the design of being overheard, –
(p. 188)
“Have you apologized to that gentleman for your mistake? No? Then I will do so.”
And getting up he approached Criss with an air of mingled dignity and deference.
“The servants, in excuse for the blunder they have made about our coffee, plead
a resemblance between us, which they declare to be extraordinary. But perhaps my
Arabic speech is lost upon you?”
Criss rose as the stranger addressed him. The two young men fastened their eyes
intently upon each other. The group of attendants involuntarily drew near. The
resemblance in face, figure, and voice, was so extraordinary as to strike both
the bystanders and the young men themselves. Criss, however, thanks to the Greek
infusion in his blood, was of a fairer complexion, and a more refined and
spiritual expression. Both were dressed in the prevailing costume of
“No apology is necessary,” answered Criss, in the same language, “unless it he
for the liberty I have taken in bearing any likeness to you. But pray do not
remain standing. I am a stranger, a traveller just arrived, and shall be happy
to take some coffee in your company.”
“A stranger? a traveller? and from where may I ask?” said the other with a
curious eagerness, taking the proffered seat at Criss’s table.
“From
“No, but to one who admires and respects your country,” said the stranger. “I am
an Abyssinian by descent, and, like yourself, a stranger and a traveller, having
lately left my own land in consequence of the troubles there. You, probably,
feel little interest in them. It seems strange, though, that two persons of such
different origin should be sufficiently alike to be mistaken for each other.”
Criss remarked that he believed he had some oriental and southern blood in him,
which might account for the likeness; and added that he took a great interest in
Central African politics,
(p. 189)
and that not merely because he had friends
settled there, for whose safety he was concerned, but because he had himself
seen a little of the country, and conceived a respect for the character of its
royal family.
“By your general look and mode of speech, I should certainly have taken you for
one of my own people,” returned the other, in terms which Criss recognized as
almost identical with those which the late Emperor had used to him.
The stranger went on to ask him about his calling or station, and Criss
expressed himself as being often amused at being taken for a courier, as his
fancy for aërial yachting – a taste not uncommon among English gentlemen –
caused to be the case; and added that the last occasion on which this occurred
was in passing over Bournou during the outbreak of the insurrection, when he had
given cause for the supposition by stopping over the post office and letting
down a line for mails.
“And since that where have you been?”
“With my friends in
“I, too, am a traveller and a gentleman,” said the stranger, “and I have already
said that I belong to Soudan, and am here through family and political
misfortunes. Excuse me for saying,” he continued with a slight smile, “That you
appear to me to be one who has never experienced a sense of misfortune. But I
should not therefore judge you as incapable of sympathy.”
“Misfortune of my own,” returned Criss, with emphasis, “I have never known.
Misfortune of others it is my greatest happiness to sympathize with, and, if
possible, to alleviate.”
“You, probably, have never lost parent, place, or fortune. I have lost all
three. At least I fear the worst for the first.”
“Do you mind telling me all?” said Criss, already prepossessed in the stranger’s
favour, and divining that the
(p. 190)
other was only desirous to be certain that
his confidence would not be abused. “Fortune and place are not irrecoverable at
your – at our age; but a parent – a father – ah! that is a blessing I have never
known. But you speak of his fate as if still in suspense.”
“I am already known to too many in
At this Criss rose, and respectfully taking the hand of the stranger, was about
to touch it with his lips; but the prince withdrew it, saying:
“Nay, such homage is with us reserved for the Emperor himself. I hope, though
almost against hope, that he still lives.”
Regaining possession of his hand, Criss kissed it solemnly, saying:
“Emperor of Soudan and
“You speak positively! How can you know this?”
“The Emperor escaped, wounded and alone, in a flying machine. Crossing the
Sahara to
“Alone! wounded! My poor father! Were you present when he died?”
“No; immensely to my regret, I was compelled to be in
(p. 191)
“It is scarcely credible that he should have guided himself so far in safety,
even had he not been wounded. But your account of his escape tallies with the
fact that he was last see-n entering the tower where the crown jewels are kept,
for I know that there was an old flying machine in a chamber at the top, kept
there as a curiosity, I supposed. But now it seems as if he had a purpose in
keeping it there. Yet I never was led to think he anticipated revolution. How
strange is this accidental meeting with one able to give such information!”
“As strange,” said Criss, “as the coincidence of my lighting upon this
particular country and city, and entering this particular hotel, at the moment
of your being here. Yet all these coincidences would have led to nothing but for
the servant’s mistake about the coffee.”
“And that, again,” remarked the prince, “would not have occurred but for the
likeness between us. But in what way, may I ask, is your arrival here
accidental? Did you not mean to come to
Then Criss told him of his love for aërial navigation, and how that, being free
from the necessity of working for his living, he spent much time in travelling.
That on this particular occasion, having recently come of age, he had ascended
in his car, in order to meditate on the best way of disposing of his life so as
to be most useful in the world; and that, after being many hours at a great
height in the air, carried about at will by the currents, he found, on returning
to the earth, that he was close to Jerusalem, and having, as he believed, some
Jewish blood in him, he resolved to visit the ancient capital of his race.
The prince took a lively interest in his recital, and said he envied him the
liberty he turned to such good account. “But what,” he asked, “Is the resolve to
which you came?”
“Nothing very definite, I fear,” said Criss, “beyond a resolution to do my
best.”
“What blood have you in you besides Jewish?” asked the prince, somewhat
abruptly.
“Mostly Greek, I believe,” was the answer.
(p. 192)
“No Egyptian, or anything to lead you to sympathise with
“None whatever. Next to the land of my home, my sympathies are all with the two
races I have named.”
“I am glad to think there is no barrier to your serving me. I consider I have a
claim, since you served my father.”
“I will serve you with my whole heart,” said Criss, “provided I serve mankind by
doing so.”
“I recognize the propriety of the reservation. It proves your English training.
I have no vocation to be a tyrant; at least, I think not. But those Egyptians
ought to be punished. They are the cause of my troubles now, as they have been
of all my country’s troubles for the last five or six thousand years.”
And, started on the topic which constituted a deep sore in his mind, he rapidly
recounted the wrongs done to Abyssinia by
“Its own, do I say?” he exclaimed with vivacity. “
(p. 193)
ages been carrying down from our mountains,
“Oh, if ever I am restored to power I shall take care that it be not again
endangered by this ungrateful people! The
(p. 194)
CHAPTER IV
THE first portion of that night,
after parting from his new friend, was passed by Criss in that anxious
meditation which possesses so much in common with earnest prayer; the latter
part, in the quiet sleep which was habitual to him. But it was only when his
mind had attained the goal of resolve that his body sank into the repose of
sleep. Could it be that in this young and uncrowned Emperor he had found his
mission, and perhaps his relative, sole upon earth? The thought brought no joy
to him, save in so far as it indicated a duty to be fulfilled, and a subject
worthy of affection. What did trouble Criss was the frame of mind which
misfortune seemed to have evoked in the prince. He could not conceive of himself
as breathing out threatenings and slaughter against any individual, under any
circumstances. Much less could he comprehend the mood that personified a whole
people, and sought to inflict vengeance upon them as upon a personal foe.
Surely, if no other duty presented itself to him, to mitigate the imperial
ferocity was a duty worthy of all his solicitude. Criss felt that he was not
altogether powerless to promote his restoration. Could the prince by such agency
be restored to his throne a better man, nations would be the better for Criss
having lived.
The morning’s telegraphic intelligence from the revolted capital, gave a new
direction to Criss’s thoughts. The insurgent government was determined to punish
the foreign settlers for their sympathy with the late dynasty, and coldness
towards the new regime; and an expedition was to start at once for the wealthy
settlements of the whites in the mountains. Atlantika, as the leading district,
was to be the first to suffer.
Criss’s eyes became dimmed as he beheld in imagination the fair regions he had
so lately visited, ravaged by war, their smiling homestead^ blackened by fire
and stained with blood,
(p. 195)
and their happy, prosperous occupants – Ah! –
and here a pang shot through him as he thought of Nannie, the passionate,
wayward Nannie: she of the sunny smile and April eyes, who resembled the fairest
angel of his sweetest visions, – Nannie in danger, perchance a fugitive, alone
and foodless, amid rough mountains and horrid infested woods, her wealth of
golden hair streaming behind her as on bleeding feet she fled from barbarous
negro ravishers, and seeing no salvation on earth, gazing with wild looks into
heaven as if thence only, even as once before, a deliverer might come. And shall
she look in vain? No! thundered the heart of Criss, as, starting from the trance
in which he seemed to have seen all these things as vividly as with his bodily
eyes, he rose and hastened to prepare for an immediate start to Soudan.
His preparations consisted in paying his hotel bill, and dispatching a telegram
to Avenil, begging him to back with promptest endeavour any movement of the
Council of Confederated Nations for saving the European settlers in
“Forgotten me already?” said the prince. “You look as absorbed in your thoughts
as if you too had a kingdom to recover.”
“Your highness will pardon me,” returned Criss. “The news from Bornou is bad for
my countrymen. I am starting for the hills, to see if I can aid my friends. I
have little doubt of being able to return in a few days, – probably three or
four, – and then I shall be at your highness’s service, for any good that we can
do together.” And Criss put a marked emphasis on the word good.
The prince gazed on him with a strange and almost troubled look, but did not
immediately speak. As Criss divined, his thoughts were apologetic, for presently
he said, –
(p. 196)
“Ah, that good, cool
Criss shook his head.
“Your resemblance to me. I see it more strongly today even than last night. But
you are the handsomer of the two. That Greek dash has done you a good turn. And
I suspect you are the better of the two. You have been improved. I claim only to be improvable.”
“Show yourself so, and I shall love you and serve you truly,” said Criss, his
eyes beaming on the prince with an ineffable tenderness. “Show yourself so, and
you will have no cause to regret your present misfortunes, be they temporary or
not.”
“You speak to me as equal to equal. Pray does every Englishman hold himself a
king?”
“Many are more than kings, for they are superior to all dictation, save that of
their own consciences. Is there aught of commission that your royal highness
desires to entrust tome?” “My friends are organizing a force to support me,”
returned the prince. “The only question is whether I ought to return and place
myself at their head. They advise delay until they are stronger. I wish to do
what is best for the country and the dynasty. This very day I hold a conference
with the bond-holders’ committee on the subject. Otherwise I should be inclined
to beg a passage with you. Could you take me in your car?”
Criss was startled by the singularity of the coincidence, by which the son
sought to return in the same conveyance which had aided the father’s flight. But
he only said,–
“Best wait my return. I will tell you exactly how affairs stand. For the
present, farewell.”
The prince insisted on seeing him off. On beholding the
(p. 197)
Ariel, he exclaimed warmly in praise of its
exquisite combination of diminutiveness, strength and elegance.
“Surely it is unsurpassed,” he said.
“It is unequalled,” replied Criss; and was about co start, when the prince said;
–
“Have you any arms?”
“None; only instruments and tools to meet various emergencies. I hate the idea
of personal violence, and cannot imagine myself having recourse to it under any
circumstances, not even in self-defence.”
“That is because you have always lived in civilized and peaceful lands. Now you
are going into barbarism and danger. People who behave as wild beasts must be
treated as such. But whether as a weapon, or as a remembrance of me, pray accept
and wear this pistol, at least until we meet again. If not for yourself, you may
need it for others.”
The last remark decided Criss, and buckling round him the weapon, which was an
explosive multiplier of the finest make and utmost potency, he entered his car.
As he was quitting the ground, a thought struck him, and he said to the prince,
–
“Should it be needful for you to return, and I be prevented from coming for you,
will you entrust yourself to the agent I purpose to employ?”
“I will trust you and your agent implicitly,” said the prince, “Only let me know
the situation, before I decide upon returning. The bondholders here have a claim
to influence my movements.”
Mounted aloft, Criss referred to his chart, his compass, and his chronometer.
“Nearly thirty degrees south-west, and now nine A.M. At the rate of two degrees
an hour, I shall not reach Yolo until midnight. There is no twilight there, and
I must arrive before dark, if possible. Now to see the direction and probable
force of the winds.” And he consulted his chart of atmospheric currents.
To his great satisfaction he found that by flying at a certain
(p. 198)
elevation, he would have the aid of a
north-east current, which at that season of the year blew steadily and strongly.
Referring to his barometer, he ascended to the requisite height, where, putting
on a high speed, he travelled in his course for an hour. He then took
observations to ascertain the distance he had covered. The movements of the air
at such altitudes are not to be judged by the corresponding movements called
winds below. Beyond the reach of retardation by friction with the earth’s
surface, the great currents aloft sweep along unimpeded at rates which here
would make hurricane and disaster.
“Four degrees in the hour,” said Criss, joyously. “Oh, current, only hold thus, and before sundown the goal will be in sight.”
CHAPTER V
ON the eve of the day which saw
Criss hasting with all speed to the succour of his friends, were held two
councils of war. One in the Bornou capital by the leaders of the insurrection.
The other by fugitive planters from the white settlements, high up on the slopes
of Atlantika, where, in a natural fortress of rocks, camp fires were kept
burning to scare off wild beasts, and temper the keen mountain air for the women
and children who crowded, scared, around them. Now that the trial was come, the
young women who had been so eager to add military practice to their other
accomplishments, found their hearts fail them, and this so utterly that they
quite forgot to resent the cool matter-of-course way in which the men left them
entirely out of their calculations in the measures they adopted for defence.
Curiously enough, somehow, the men did not think the worse of the other sex for
thus vindicating itself. For no reproaches passed between them on the subject.
It was known in the mountain that the insurgent forces
(p. 199)
might be expected at any hour. Of a prolonged
resistance the whites were hopeless. They relied mainly upon the material aid,
or threats equally efficacious, of the Council of Confederated Nations, to.
which they had dispatched an urgent appeal by telegraph. The Council not being
in session, it had to be specially summoned. This had caused delay. When met, it
acted with the utmost promptitude and energy; for it dispatched a powerful
aërial squadron to Bornou, with instructions to rescue or avenge the settlers,
and destroy the capital unless the leaders of the revolution guaranteed the
liberty, lives, and property of the entire foreign population of the country.
With internal politics it was not to meddle.
On the mountain, the consultation was about the appeal and the chances of its
having reached its destination; and also of their ability to hold out until the
arrival of succour.
In the capital, the consultation was between the leaders of the revolt, who
already were divided among themselves on two important points; one, the policy
of incurring the hostility of Europe by ill-treating the whites; the other, the
advisability of declaring the young prince Emperor, in the event of his
complying with certain conditions; and this whether his father were dead or not.
Criss had crossed the
He could not now reach the point at which he aimed before nightfall; and he was
doubtful whether he could find that point in the dark. Descending towards the
earth in search of the favourable winds which had failed him aloft, and which
were likely to be prevalent on the
(p. 200)
if they had wished to do so, and there might
be at hand means of communicating direct with the plantation, without risk of
interception in the capital. He remembered that the central office of the hill
district was close to the Elephant farm, and under the supervision of Nannie’s
brother-in-law; and his telegraph-guide informed him that Atlantika, being the
highest mountain of the range, was provided with the usual convenience for
aëronauts.
The sun was getting low when the desert blasts became sufficiently lulled for
the mist of sand to abate, and the atmosphere clear enough for him to scan the
ground as he skimmed along near the surface. Soon he caught sight of a large
white building, which he recognized as the place of a well. It was scarcely
doubtful that it would contain also a telegraph station, for in that thirsty
land a well is the only possible halting place. The presence of travellers,
however, might make it unsafe for him to descend and communicate.
Examining with his glasses the inscription on the roof of the building, so
placed in immense letters for the benefit of aëronauts, Criss was pleased to
find that he had not deviated in any wise from his direct course, and that the
well was in a locality whose inhabitants owed much to the late Emperor: for it
was the well of
Kebir, in the country of the Tebu. But he had still two-fifths of
his journey to accomplish.
A large caravan was halting at the well, such being even then the usual method
of locomotion between the provinces of Fezzan and
Approaching close enough to parley, Criss learnt that a very large party even
among the insurgents were believed to be favourable to a restoration; and in
return for this news he told them the Emperor was dead, and the young prince at
Jerusalem holding himself in readiness to return and head his party.
(p. 201)
In answer to his enquiries respecting the telegraphs, they, after an examination
of the wire-labels, told him that he could telegraph direct to the plantation
station below Atlantika, and they offered to dispatch any message Criss wished,
if his journey was too urgent to allow him to come down and do it himself.
Criss said it was true that he was in great haste, but the message he had to
send was in English, and therefore it was necessary for him to communicate it
himself. Would they, therefore, be so good as to attach the wire he would let
down, to the wire which communicated with the Atlantika station, as he had a
battery in his car?
This done, Criss sent two messages; one for Hazeltine himself, and another for
transmission to the
CHAPTER VI
EVEN amid the dangers of the
insurrection, Nannie, with her wonted wilfulness, refused to regulate her
conduct by that of the rest of the girls of the settlement. She laughed at their
fears, refused to believe in the approach of any enemy, and declared that she
would justify her nickname of Wildcat, by remaining in her home after everybody
else had deserted it. The body of settlers were already on their march up the
mountain when her absence was observed by some of the neighbours.
(p. 202)
“Where is Nannie?” They asked of her brother-in-law.
“She prefers to stay at home, for once.”
“But surely son e one had better go back for her.”
“Not if you want her to come,” was his response. “Nannie has a way of pleasing
herself. Our best chance is to let her alone.”
They appealed to her sister, who with looks the reverse of cheerful, was riding
in a covered wagon with her children.
The only answer they got from her was, –
“Nannie knows what she is about. It is pleasanter there than here. And I dare
say quite as safe.”
The neighbours looked at each other significantly, and said no more. As Nannie’s
relations did not show concern, it was not for others to do so. So they held on
their way, none of the young men venturing to volunteer on a quest of such
doubtful acceptance. Besides, there was a general conviction that Nannie would
follow them when she got tired of being by herself.
The night and the day passed without molestation, and the party had leisure to
occupy and fortify a strong position high up on the mountain side, whence they
could with their glasses descry the railroad from the capital, and any military
demonstration that might approach from that quarter. Fortunately it was not the
season for rains; and the fear of animals being less than the fear of the enemy,
the camp fires were early extinguished.
So things went until towards midnight on the day after their arrival, and no
Nannie had made an appearance. Then came an alarm. A bright glare lit up the
mountaintop, yet a considerable distance above them, and, by reason of
precipitous cliffs, inaccessible on that side. While they were wondering what
the light could mean, screams were heard; then a succession of shots; and
presently all was quiet, and the glare died away. Some of the party had fancied
they had heard a shot or an explosion in the earlier part of the evening.
Conjectures were active for a time, but no attack or demonstration followed, and
the alarm was not renewed. Only Nannie’s sister had, with blanched cheek,
whispered to her husband, –
(p. 203)
“I am certain that was Nannie’s voice.”
The alarm of the night was forgotten in the excitement of the morning, when
train after train appeared morning up towards the station at the foot of the
mountain, and bands of soldiers disembarked from them, and formed into lines
with the manifest purpose of ascending the slope. This was the signal for
removing the women and children to a yet greater height, so that they might be
out of the reach of injury by the expected assault. These had not been long up
there, before they sent word down to say that they had discovered the cause of
last night’s alarm; for they had found the telegraph station on the summit burnt
down, and the bodies of three negroes killed either by lightning or by gun
shots.
Strange to say, the enemy, instead of advancing, made a long halt in their ranks
at the foot of the hill station. Then, breaking into groups, they appeared by
their vehement gesticulations, to be engaged in hot controversy together.
Presently, to the still greater astonishment of the settlers, they set to work
deliberately to prepare a meal.
While the fugitives were marvelling what the delay and apparent change of
purpose meant, an aëromotive hove in sight, coming straight from the capital
towards the mountain. Their best glasses failed to make out its character and
occupants. Arrived directly over the insurgent camp, but considerably below the
position held by the planters, the car stopped, and a conversation took place,
which manifestly roused the interest of the troops to the utmost pitch. On its
termination, the whole force broke into rounds of ringing cheers, and very
explosions of shouts. The car then proceeded on its course, and approached the
party on the mountain with the evident intention of joining it.
(p. 204)
CHAPTER VII
NANNIE did not herself comprehend the
feeling which made her remain in the settlement when every one else fled from
it; but Nannie was one whose fancies were to her as inspirations, and who, when
she had a fancy, felt that she must give way to it, or else go beside herself.
“It must be so, because I think it.”
“I know it is true, because I dreamt it.”
These were her usual formulæ. Talk to her of being reasonable, and her lovely
mouth would curl with ineffable disdain, as she exclaimed, –
“Reasonable! a woman’s business is to feel, not reason.”
With this creed she was born, and in it she had grown up, refusing all culture
of mind, all discipline of habit; yet in native quickness of perception so far
surpassing all around her as often to justify the contempt she openly expressed
for their inferiority and slowness.
“Logs! They are all logs compared to me,” she would exclaim when any other woman
was mentioned as capable of doing anything whatever. And her bright eyes would
flash, and her bright hair cristle, and every dainty limb quiver with
excitement, as she asserted the thoroughness of her own womanhood, to the
despite of every example that could be quoted in comparison with her.
Her outward resemblance to her sister was very great, but in character Nannie
was the less self-considering of the two. Her sister was not incapable of being
selfish by intention. Nannie was never selfish, except through the impetuous
heedlessness which was apt to cause as much annoyance and distress to others as
if she had intended to hurt them. All heart as she was, and was proud of knowing
herself to be, she was not the less likely to be the cause of unhappiness to
herself and those she loved, than if her heart had been under the dominion of a
head, and
(p. 205)
that head proportioned in a way to shock all
phrenological proprieties.
After the evacuation of the settlement, Nannie roamed about prying into the
neighbouring houses and gardens, fondling the deserted and wondering animals,
and-not hesitating to break a window and force* an entry wherever she espied a
cat or a bird gazing wistfully on the unwonted solitude. More than one tame
elephant and other huge beast acknowledged her as their deliverer. Loading
herself with provisions suited to their various tastes, she went through the
avenues followed by a crowd of animals, whom she petted and teased by turns’.
Thus the time passed, until the second evening approached, and she began to tire
of their sole companionship. So, finding herself back at her home, she took
refuge in the telegraph office, a place she was always longing to explore,
principally because her brother-in-law, dreading her reckless inquisitiveness,
had strictly forbidden her to enter it.
Here at length, after committing various antics with the instruments by way of
experiment, being completely tired out, she fell fast asleep on a rocking chair,
close alongside the signal telltale, and was soon far away in the world of
dreams, a world that with her possessed a reality even more vivid than the world
of her waking hours.
Nannie had ever been a wild dreamer, and there was a perfect consistency between
her dreaming and her waking characters; for, as when awake her fancies would
ever insist on being transmuted into facts, so when asleep her visions revealed
themselves in movements and utterances. In short, she was addicted to talking
and walking in her sleep; and this through no morbid affection or cerebral
disturbance, but solely through her being so intensely alive in every atom of
her composition, that it was scarcely possible for the whole of her to be asleep
at once. She suggested the notion of one of those zoophytic creatures, each
piece of which, on its being cut up, becomes a living and entire animal.
Since her adventure at sea and rescue by Criss, she had
(p. 206)
become conscious of some change in her moods,
both waking and sleeping. There were even moments when she felt her wildness
vanish almost entirely away; and she soon discovered that these unwonted
accessions of docility were contemporaneous with her reminiscences of Criss.
Sometimes her sister caught her still and thinking for a minute or two together,
and on twitting her with her seriousness, Nannie would colour and exclaim, –
“Oh, I daresay he is a log, like the rest. I hate
logs.”
But who the he was, she did not reveal.
On the present occasion, Nannie was dreaming of her voyage through the air, and
of the dark-skinned, bright-eyed young man who sat aloft in the rigging, leaving
her the comfortable car all to herself, and patiently answered all her
questions, and listened to her fitful discourse. Then she dreamt of herself
crying wildly in the garden on his departure, and declaring that he must be a
log, or he wouldn’t have gone away at all; and then of her rage with herself for
seeming to care, when in reality she did not care a bit, and only cried, – she
did not know why; she supposed the tears came of themselves; she did not want
them to come. And then, red and white with mingled emotions, she started from
her sleep, crying out, –
“Yes! yes! What is it? I am coming! Quick! quick!”
For the magnetic alarum beside her was sounding its sharp appeal, in token that
a message had just inscribed itself upon-the recording tablet.
Nannie was soon wide enough awake to remember where she was, and to guess what
had happened. Darting eagerly towards the tablet, she found herself gasping for
breath as she saw Criss’s name, and then read his message from the desert well.
“Oh, those stupid, stupid people; to all go away and leave no one to mind the
messages,” she exclaimed. “Criss, dear, good, stupid Criss, coming to help us,
and he will go floundering about in the dark, looking for the mountain; and
there is no one to light the beacon, or send his message on to the summit
station. How I wish I had learnt to use the thing. All the other girls here know
it. Why did they let me grow up so ignorant? I don’t seem to have ever been
taught anything.”
(p. 207)
And here she stopped in her tirade, and collared violently, for she remembered
that it was solely her own fault in always persistently refusing instruction.
Then seizing the wire which communicated with the summit, she applied the
magnetic battery to it; but in trying to use the instrument, she puzzled in vain
over the letters necessary to indicate the message. Then she cried with
vexation, for she thought the settlers might already be on the top of the
mountain, and it only needed that she should send on the message for them, to
fire the beacon for Criss’s guidance. Her next thought was, that perhaps they
would not go so high up, and that the message would be of no use, even if it got
there, through the absence of some one to receive and act upon it.
This last reflection quite overcame her patience; and seizing the battery and
the wires, she dashed them vehemently down, as stupid, useless creatures. Nannie
did know that though she could not transmit the message, she had exploded the
message-signal on the summit.
Then sinking into the chair in which she had lately been sleeping, she
meditated.
“I’ll do it myself,” she cried, starting up with a determined air. “I’ll outwit
them yet!”
She had not employed precisely the phrase that expressed her meaning; but it was
natural to Nannie to inveigh against circumstances as if they were persons, and
evilly disposed towards her.
Another hour saw Nannie, laden with matches and combustibles, resolutely
trudging up the mountain, by a path with which she was well acquainted, but
which lay at a distance from that taken by the fugitives. It was quite dark, and
she knew it would take her two or three hours to reach the top; but the thought
of being useful to Criss sustained her, and she did not doubt of accomplishing
her purpose by the time he had specified in his message. She was animated, too,
by a sense of triumph over those who would have induced her to leave the
settlement with them, and of the now proved superiority of her instinct to their
reason.
(p.
208)
Much of the track by which she had to travel, was rough with sharp stones, and
tangled with creeping plants – impediments she had never discovered in her
daylight journeys – and Nannie, in her eagerness to get on her way, had
neglected to provide herself with shoes fitted for such work. By the time she
reached the summit station, her little feet were bleeding from many a cut, her
clothes torn, and her body bruised with many a heavy tumble; but her big heart
never faltered, or let her fears prompt her to turn back, or even to join the
fugitives, whom she perceived to be encamped at no great distance on another
part of the mountain.
The station was in a little wooden hut, known as the chapel, from having been built several
generations back by the missionaries, who had been instrumental in converting
that country from Islamism to Christianity, partly for devotional purposes, and
partly to shelter persons caught in the storms, which at that elevation are wont
to be of tremendous violence. It was of dry pine, and highly inflammable, as
Nanny happened to know through the fierceness with which it had burnt, and the
difficulty with which it had been saved, when accidentally set on fire once by a
picnic party, at which she had been present as a child.
A few yards from the hut was a ledge of stone, on which it was the wont of
excursionists to make their fires for cooking, and it was on this ledge that
Nannie prepared to make the beacon required by Criss.
Wanting light to enable her to see in order to collect fuel from the surrounding
thickets, she commenced by making a small fire on the stone. To her great
dismay, she found that, with all her searching and gathering, the utmost she
could obtain was barely sufficient to keep this alive; and her idea of a beacon
very properly involved a blaze that could be seen far and wide.
After a little while, it surpassed her resources to maintain even this little
fire. Rushing into the neighbouring thicket, she lighted match after match
against any tree that she thought might be dry enough to burn. But all was of no
use, and at last, fairly beaten, she sat down by the smouldering embers on the
(p. 209)
stone, and began to cry. Depressed by
disappointment, a sense of her desolation and loneliness now came vividly over
her, and to her other woes added that of terror. That Criss might fail to carry
out his design never occurred to her. She was entirely occupied with the idea of
him hovering round in the dark, and feeling, as it were, for the summit whereon
to alight.
But, hark! A sound! And her heart beat as she prepared to scream loudly in
response to his signal. Ah! it is only the public clock of the settlement, far
below and miles away, booming the hour.
Mechanically Nannie counted the strokes. “Twelve! Mid-night! Why, he was to be
here towards midnight! Oh, what shall I do! What shall I do!”
A thought strikes her. Another minute, and the thought has become a deed. And
now, with a fierce roar, the flames of the burning chapel are darting high into
the air, and lighting up mountain and sky with a bright and steady blaze, while
Nannie is running and dancing around it, and laughing triumphantly, and clapping
her little hands, as if to encourage it. Nannie was no historian, or she would
have known that she was not the first of her sex to set fire to a church for the
sake of her lover. And not only was she no historian, but she did not know that
her feelings for Criss partook in any way of the character of love.
A voice, and a rush! “He comes! oh, he comes!”
And Nannie looked round in the direction of the sound.
Alas! no Criss, no lover; though needed more than ever as a deliverer now.
Needed far more, even, than when on the brink of the burning ship she stood
ready to plunge into the ocean. For the creatures that meet her gaze are hideous
savages, grinning and glaring upon her, as half-mad with drink and brutal
passion they advance, three in number, towards her, with out-stretched arms and
fiendish yells.
They are negroes, who have taken advantage of the disturbances to plunder, and
retired to the mountain to carouse unmolested, and who have been attracted to
the summit by the unusual sight of the fire.
(p. 210)
Shrieking loudly, Nannie darted from them, passing the burning but so closely
that the flames scorched her. Terror stricken and fleet of foot, she would
probably have escaped, but the dense thicket brought her up, and she could not
get away from the light of the fire.
They were closing in upon her, as she still flew and screamed, when, to their
amazement they found themselves confronted by another whom they had not seen
before, and who now darted between them and their prey, with imperious language
and gestures, bidding them to forbear, on pain of instant destruction.
The wretches were too infuriated to heed the speaker. Two of them turned on him,
while the other continued the pursuit of Nannie, now too exhausted to fly
further. Extreme measures were absolutely necessary. What matter whether
anthropoid apes, or pithecoid men? Had it not lately been declared, and by one
entitled to authority in that country, that those who behave like wild beasts –
to say nothing of their looking so much like them – must be treated as such?
A couple of shots in rapid succession laid two of the assailants on the ground.
In another moment, the third had shared their fate; and Nannie, glancing round
at the sound, recognized her deliverer, and, with a scream of joy, fell fainting
on the ground.
CHAPTER VIII
CRISS ran towards the fallen figure of
her whom he had a second time rescued; but finding his efforts to restore her to
consciousness vain, he hastened to his car, which he had left close at hand, and
presently returning with a cordial was more successful in winning her back to
life. When she opened her eyes, he addressed her in Arabic, and was surprised to
receive only a vacant stare in return.
(p. 211)
Supposing that she was still under the influence of her recent swoon, he
proceeded to pour more of his reviving liquid on her brow and hands. But she
impatiently repelled the attention, and said sharply,
“Why do you talk to me in a language I don’t understand? Are you not Mr. Carol?”
“Certainly, that is my name; but ––”
“But you don’t know me,” she interrupted, “and you thought it was some other
girl you were saving?” And in the access of her momentary jealousy, she
energetically repulsed him.
Then, softening,
“I did it all to please you,” she exclaimed, and burst into tears.
“What! can it be Nannie!” he cried; “my pretty little friend Nannie! alone, up
here, and in this plight!”
“Of course it is. Why, who else did you think it could be?”
And then, glancing at her hands and clothes, which were all torn and soiled, she
said,
“Well, I do look like a beggar girl; but, oh! I am so sore all over, with my
tumbles, and the thorns, and running away from those nasty negroes. I am sure I
must have some dreadful wounds somewhere,” and lifting her dress, she revealed
some ugly cuts above the ankles, from which the blood was flowing. This alarmed
her, and exclaiming,
“Oh, I can’t bear the sight of blood,” she swooned away again.
Criss was somewhat embarrassed. He could not leave her there and thus. And he
was most anxious to set about fulfilling his mission. Besides, as a young man,
and one who was not a doctor, he was naturally shy about investigating the
bodily state of one of the other sex.
Nannie, however, gave him little leisure for indulging his embarrassment.
Starting to her senses again, she cried,
“Why don’t you stop the bleeding? Surely a man is not afraid of the sight of
blood. Have you nothing that will do
(p. 212)
for a bandage? Here, wrap this round. It will
do till something better can be got.”
And she tore off some strips from her tattered skirt, and gave them to him.
Setting to work as directed, Criss did not fail to derive considerable relief
from her manifest unconsciousness of the peculiarity of the situation, and was
glad to accept her rebukes for his clumsiness in proof of that unconsciousness.
“I am so hungry,” said Nannie, whimpering once more.
“That is soon remedied,” replied Criss. “But you must get into your old place in
the Ariel’s car, and then you can feed, and sleep too, as we go along.”
“Why, where are you going to take me?”
“Well, you see, we are not the only people in the world to be thought of,” he
returned. “Now just tell me exactly how matters stand at the settlement?”
“Oh, such fun!” she cried, clapping her hands; “There’s not a human creature
there; and I have set all the doors and gates open, and let all the cats and
dogs, and cows and poultry, and other tame beasts loose, to go where they like,
and broken the telegraph things, and ––”
He succeeded at length in learning from her the whole situation, so far as she
knew it. He then told her that he had passed the troops on their way, and that
he must at once return to the capital to see if he could do anything to arrest
their progress.
“Then what are you going to do with me?”
“Under all circumstances,” he returned, “I think it best to take you with me to
the capital, and perhaps deposit you with a doctor to be properly attended to
while I am busy.”
“You seem very anxious to get rid of me,” she said, with a pout. “I hate
doctors, and don’t want to be left by myself in the city, with strangers.
Besides, I am quite well now, or shall be when I have had something to eat.”
“Well, get into the car at once,” said Criss, “and we will settle the rest as we
go along.” And he helped her to get up, and move towards the Ariel; but she was
so stiff and exhausted that he had almost to carry her and lift her in.
(p. 213)
The couple of hundred miles which separate the mountain from the city, were soon
spanned; but not before Nannie, who had eaten a hearty meal, was fast asleep.
Criss had been amused to find that on catching sight of herself in a little
mirror which was in the car, for the fire still burnt brightly, she insisted on
washing her face and arranging her disordered hair before touching a particle of
food. With a light wrapper of Criss’s thrown over her head and shoulders, she
really looked as charming once more, Criss thought, as it was possible for any
one to look, even under. The most favourable circumstances.
Approaching the capital, Criss arrested his flight, intending to hover around it
until the arrival of daylight should make it possible for him to hold
communication with the authorities.
To his great satisfaction, his passenger continued to sleep soundly.
CHAPTER IX
AVENIL knew that Criss would not have
dispatched such a message to him as that which he received from
Criss did not pause to hover around the capital as he had in
(p. 214)
tended. For, although it was not yet light,
he found the whole population on the alert, and the leaders in full conclave.
Un-certain of their temper, he hesitated about alighting to seek a doctor for
Nannie. Besides, her sound continued sleep assured him that, under the care of
nature, she was doing well.
He had intended to plead with the insurgent chiefs the cause of the fugitive
prince and the settlers, by assuring them of vast rewards if they would
reinstate the former, and of the severest punishment if they injured the latter.
And he was prepared to work upon the popular superstitiousness by announcing the
safety of the sacred gems of the crown, and to offer himself as a guarantee that
they and the prince should be forthcoming at a fitting time. But for the present
he would defer seeking the necessary interview.
Finding the city awake and abroad as if it had been up and out all night, he
contented himself in the first instance with descending low enough to catch the
meaning of the cries and conversations which were going on in the streets. He
could do this without himself being seen, as, though the city below was lighted,
the air above was still dark. Yet he observed numberless faces constantly
upturned towards the still darkened sky, as if in expectation of a visit from
that region: but it was some time before he could string together the sentences
he caught, so as to gather from them a connected meaning.
At length when dawn was so near that he thought of retreating, he discovered the
cause of the general anxiety. A message had arrived in the night from the
Council of European Nations, declaring in the most positive terms that the city
should be razed to the ground, and utter destruction dealt on the people, if any
injury was done to a single European in the country; and that an aërial
expedition was already on its way, with strict instructions and ample means
relentlessly to execute the vengeance denounced.
This was such a practical method of dealing, that Criss was strongly disposed to
see Avenil’s hand in it, and he congratulated himself on his forethought in
telegraphing to him from
(p. 215)
Having thus obtained a key, he soon succeeded in unlocking the mystery. The news
of the threatened vengeance had got abroad, and the whole population had
assembled to insist on the Government instantly countermanding the movement of
the troops dispatched against the settlers; and such was the alarm lest the
Confederate Squadron should arrive and commence the work of destruction, that
even after they knew the expedition had been recalled, they remained all night
in the streets watching the northern sky for the first glimpse of the expected
foe. Such was the estimation, justly earned, in which the Council of the
Confederated Nations was held.
The circumstance of the Central Military Depot of the Federal Aërial Forces
being in
Assured now that a stranger had nothing to fear, but rather the contrary, from
the populace, Criss had no longer a motive for concealment. He determined,
however, to reveal himself in such a way as to impress them with a sense of the
importance. and authority of his mission.
So, making a considerable detour to the north, and ascending high into the air,
he rapidly returned in a direct line towards the city, dropping from his car as
he flew, signal bombs, which exploded in the air. He was gratified by the result
of this scheme in two ways. First, the explosions attracted the attention of the
populace, eliciting from them loud cries of terror, and from the authorities
signals in reply. And, secondly, they did not awake Nannie.
It was daylight now, when, beheld by myriads of upturned eyes, Criss’s car
rushed through the air, and alighted upon the flat roof of the lofty building
which he had before ascertained to be the headquarters of the authorities.
Surprise took the place of fear when it was seen that this little car was alone,
and that it contained, apparently, but a solitary individual.
(p. 216)
Addressing the people through his speaking-trumpet, Criss desired the principal
persons in authority to show themselves on the terrace of the building below, in
order that he might hold an interview with them.
These presented themselves, and respectfully enquired of Criss whether he was
connected with the threatened expedition of the European Confederacy.
Criss replied in the affirmative, and added that it was not very far behind him.
The object of his presence thus early was to obtain in advance of its arrival
positive information respecting the situation, especially as it affected the
foreigners, and to report to it accordingly. Nothing but the safety of the
whites would ensure their own. What had they done towards this end?
They assured him by their chief spokesman that the troops which had been
despatched to the mountains over night would be met on their arrival by positive
orders to abandon the enterprise, and return to the capital.
“Can you depend upon their obeying you?” he asked.
It was clear to Criss that this was a perplexing question, and that the
revolutionary government placed very little reliance on the fidelity of the
troops in the event of their desire for violence and plunder being thwarted.
“The Federal squadron,” he said, “will certainly not return home without
inflicting punishment, unless they have positive proof that their countrymen are
unharmed. It is a part of my duty to proceed to the settlements, and ascertain
their condition for myself. When I have actually seen the troops embarked on
their way back, I will return and communicate the intelligence to the Federal
commanders, whom I shall then doubtless find here. In the meantime you will do
well to consider what further steps are practicable for compelling the instant
return of the troops.”
After a brief and excited colloquy, the chiefs again addressed him saying:
“We thank you for the suggestion. We have decided to place the wives and
families of the entire force under immediate
(p. 217)
arrest, and telegraph to the troops that on
their failure to obey us, we shall massacre the whole of their families.”
Feeling sure that such a necessity would not arise, Criss could not help smiling
inwardly at the vigour of the resolution, and the testimony it bore to the
wholesome respect for European civilization felt by these people. He thought of
Avenil’s doctrine of the physical basis of virtue.
“So far, well,” he replied, “but I must proceed thither nevertheless. There is
one other point in which I have first to confer with you. This time I speak, not
as connected with the Federal Council, but as agent of the fugitive Prince of
Abyssinia, your legitimate sovereign, now that his father, the late Emperor, is
dead.”
Was it certain that he was dead? they asked eagerly.
“Certain I was with him when dying, and received his dying injunctions.”
They announced to the multitude, who stood watching the conference with vast
interest, that Theodoros was really dead; and a great shout immediately arose,
which appeared to Criss to be one of satisfaction.
Was it the Emperor personally, the dynasty, or the form of government, that was
obnoxious to them? he asked.
This question excited an indescribable commotion. It seemed to Criss as if
everybody was shouting at once, and shouting conflicting answers. Among the
replies he caught one to the effect that they had nothing against the young
Prince; and another, that they would acknowledge no dynasty which did not
possess the Talisman of Solomon.
On the hubbub subsiding, the chiefs asked Criss why he should interest himself
in their form of government.
“In this matter,” he replied, “I act as one who wishes to serve you, the Prince,
and all people; and also as one who has both the power to restore the Prince and
the sacred gems, and the will to assist him, if he be restored, in making this
one of the happiest countries of the earth, – even to the turning of the Sahara
into a garden,” he added, using their favourite hyperbole.
(p. 218)
It seemed to him that at this moment they must have obtained a better view of
him than during the previous part of the conversation, or had come to take a
greater interest in his person; for, as by one consent, all eyes had commenced
intently to scrutinize him, as he stood erect in his car, with one hand holding
one of the Ariel’s side rods, and his speaking-trumpet in the other.
The scrutiny continued for some moments in silence, Criss, on his part,
composedly confronting the crowd, and waiting for a reply.
Then as from one huge throat arose the shout:
“It is the Prince! It is the Prince himself!”
Criss had not thought of the resemblance, and the effect it was likely to
produce if observed. Should he utilize the mistake, or undeceive them? To
attempt the latter, he at once perceived would be unavailing. What would his
word be against the unanimous testimony of their own eyesight? He must therefore
utilize the mistake. But before he had time to speak, they cried:
“Come back, oh Prince, come back to us; come back with the Sacred Talisman of
thy ancestors, and we will receive thee gladly. But without that no king reigns
in Soudan.”
“Answer me this, then, before I go forward on the mission that is to save your
homes from destruction. Do you pledge yourselves to receive back your Prince,
and to remain faithful to him, whenever he shall present himself with the sacred
talisman?”
The crowd and the chiefs were by this time become as one body. Criss addressed
himself alike to all, and all joined in the replies.
“Yes! yes!” they cried; “but where is it now?”
“It is safe, in
“
“Christians indeed,” thought Criss, with an inward sigh, as he remembered how,
in close imitation of the long dark ages of
(p. 219)
Christendom, the country had fostered under
that sacred name some of the most degrading superstitions. He thought, too, how
natural it seemed to be for those who remained in the rudiments of things, to
regard as apostates and unbelievers those who proceeded to higher developments.
“
“You may be assured that all this, and much more, will be as you wish, if only
you act like an enlightened and civilized people,” returned Criss. “For my part
I pledge myself to do my utmost to fulfil your righteous desires. For the
present I go to the. mountains to see that the
At the moment of departing he paused once more, and writing something on a
tablet, he threw it down to the chiefs, desiring them to give it to the
commander of the Federal squadron on his arrival. Beside a message to that
officer, it contained also a message for Bertie, in case he should have
accompanied the expedition, an event which his knowledge of Avenil caused him to
regard as more than probable; and which his scheme for solving the problem of
the situation rendered almost indispensable.
He was anxious to start without further delay, for he heard Nannie moving in the
car as if awake, and he was exceedingly averse to her being discovered there.
“Have I been good?” she asked, when they were once more aloft, and on their way
back to the settlement. “I did so want to pop my head out while you were talking
with those people; but I did not know whether you would like me to be seen.”
“You have been the very best of girls,” said Criss. “Under the circumstances, it
would have been exceedingly inconvenient for you to be seen. I am glad to find
you have so much self-control.”
“Oh, I haven’t a bit of that,” she returned; “but I thought you would approve of
my keeping still. What would they have done had they caught sight of me?”
(p. 220)
“That I cannot exactly say; but it might have interfered with some very
important plans which I have.”
“You are very young to have anything so important to do.”
“Circumstances sometimes force things upon one,” answered Criss. “Did you ever
happen to see the late Emperor or his son?”
“No, never; hut I have heard that the Prince is very good looking. And I hope he
is, for I cannot imagine a Prince being ugly.”
“Well, they want the Prince to come back and be Emperor; and I promised to let
him know, and perhaps help to bring him.”
“Why, where is he?”
“I left him yesterday at
“So you will be going away again,” she said, pouting.
“Certainly. I am but a chance visitor to these regions. My home, you know, is in
“I’ll never be good again,” said Nannie, resolutely, after a short pause, and
looking very miserable.
“Surely that is a rasher vow than you will find it in your mind to keep.”
“Oh, you don’t know how bad I can be,” she answered. “I have the evilest mind,
but I don’t think my heart is bad. But I never get anything nice by being good;
at least, since grand-mother died.”
“And how did she reward you?”
“She always kissed me. I have had no one to kiss me since. I would have done
anything for her, darling granny. She took all the care that was taken of me
after my mother’s death. I believe my father hated her only because I was fond
of her. He never kissed me in his life, that I can remember.”
“It’s a pity that I am not your grandmother, Nannie, for then I could have
rewarded you as she used to.”
“You did kiss me once, you know. But I did’nt like it.”
“Indeed! I am sorry for that. You must ascribe my unskilfulness to want of
practice.”
“It isn’t practice that’s needed,” she said, shortly.
(p. 221)
“No? What then?”
“Affection. You didn’t care for me enough to kiss me in the right place. People
who care don’t kiss on the forehead,” she added, pouting.
“Well, Nannie, I must say that when you put out your lips like that, they do
look very much as if they were made for kissing.”
“Of course they were,” she said. “Only you expect me to be good without
rewarding me when I am.”
“Well, Nannie; if a kiss from me, in the right place, be any reward, I am sure
you are welcome to so slight a gift.”
“Hear the boy!” she exclaimed. “He calls ‘a slight gift’ what Mattie declares
any other man would give his eyes for,” and she put her face, covered with an
arch smile, close to his – for they were in the same compartment of the car –
and pouting like a petulant bewitching child, said, –
“Give it to me, then.”
When they had exchanged kisses, Nannie was quiet and content, merely remarking
demurely, –
“I suppose I ought to say ‘thank you,’ for I am evidently the one favoured,” And
again, after a pause, as if speaking to herself, –
“I do believe he gave it to me because he thought I wanted it, and not because
he wanted it himself.”
But for Criss, unacquainted as he was with the magnetic phenomena of the lips, a
new order of things seemed to have commenced in the universe. He felt his whole
nature for the moment possessed by some novel and powerful sorcery, and scarce
knew whether to regard Nannie as woman, child, or witch. Anyhow, he felt
convinced that no other pair of lips in the world could have such a power.
It required a much more practised faculty of discernment in such matters than
Criss had, to see that, while on one side of Nannie’s nature she was as a child
starving for an endearing caress, on the other side she was a very woman in her
consciousness of the irresistible might of her charms.
(p. 222)
CHAPTER X
IT has already been related how
Criss visited the troops encamped at the foot of Atlantika, and after a
lengthened colloquy ascended to the settlers who were posted on the hill.
His arrival from the capital occurred at a fortunate moment, for the troops were
almost in open mutiny against their officers, and disposed to attack the whites;
or at least plunder the settlement, in spite of the urgent dispatches received
from the city, and the positive orders of their commanders. These latter knew
enough of the Federal Council and the resources at its disposal, to fear the
worst in the event of its menaces being disregarded. With the ignorant soldiery
it was different, and the arrival of the dispatch from the authorities in Bornou
declaring that in the event of their orders being disobeyed they would massacre
every woman and child belonging to the force, proved a most useful stimulus to
their submission.
In this mood, while sullen with disappointment, and angry with the revolutionary
leaders, Criss’s arrival proved a welcome diversion. It served to give reality
to the news from the capital, and reconcile the troops to their own forbearance.
Throughout his journey he had been possessed by one apprehension. He feared that
the authorities might anticipate his-arrival at the camp, by a telegram
announcing him as the prince, and notifying their readiness to receive him as
Emperor, now that Theodoros was dead. That they had not done so was due only to
their distrust of the temper of the troops. The intelligence of the
counter-revolution might exasperate them into committing the violence now so
much deprecated.
So Criss himself was the bearer of the news that the aërial squadrons of the
Confederate Nations of Europe were hourly expected at the capital; that the
Emperor was dead, and the whole people ready to welcome the prince, who, on his
part, was prepared to rule in accordance with their wishes. The one thing
necessary now was that he should be enabled to return
(p. 223)
almost immediately to the city, and inform
the Federal commanders that he had himself seen that the whites were unmolested,
and the troops actually in the trains, and on their return home. As for their
present disappointment, they ought to be thankful at having escaped the disgrace
of violating the laws of hospitality in regard to the white settlers; and, for
the future, let them only prove faithful to their new engagements, and a
compensation would not be lacking under the restored regime.
Criss committed Nannie to the charge of her relatives on the hill, telling them
that she had been injured by a fall, and required attention. Nannie herself was
too disconcerted by the necessity for Criss’s speedy departure to say much about
herself. Indeed, if the full truth were to be told, it would have to be admitted
that for several hours she was much too cross to open her mouth.
Criss gave the settlers a sketch of the position of affairs, and as soon as he
had seen the last train moving off with the troops, started on his way back to
the capital, having promised Nannie to return before long, and enquire after her
wounds.
It was with considerable anxiety that Criss once more approached the city.
Knowing how shallow and fickle are all uncultivated peoples, especially those
reared under the tropics, he feared that the resolution of the Bornouse would
not long hold, excepting under the pressure of a palpable object of dread. It
was mainly to the expected arrival of the Federal squadron that the recent
conversion had been due. Should any chance occur to delay its coming until after
the return of the troops from the hills, it was impossible to say what revulsion
of sentiment might take place. At any rate, thought Criss, it would not do for
him to show himself again until backed by the expected force. It was therefore
with much anxiety that he kept his lookout as he approached the city.
The excitement in the Bornouse capital was intense, when at length the word was
given that Something was visible in the northern horizon. Taking it for granted
that such Something could only be the expected expedition, the whole population
flocked to the roofs of their houses, and all the most elevated places, to
witness the portentous advent.
(p. 224)
They were not disappointed, either in the fact of the Something being the aërial
fleet, or in the strangeness of the aspect it presented.
Swiftly and steadily the vessels came careering onwards, looming larger and
larger as they approached, resembling, in their order and regularity, a flight
of gigantic wild fowl; for now they would range themselves in long lines,
wedge-shape, one behind the other; now expand into curves, and then stretch
straight out into one long array, like an advancing line of battle; and finally,
as they came up to the menaced capital, reversing the direction of their line,
so as to arrive singly, one after the other, the car of the admiral in command
having the lead.
Arrived directly over the city, they suddenly brought up, and remained nearly
stationary. As they paused on high, keeping themselves, by a slight movement of
their machinery, floating slowly about, now spread out over the whole area of
the city, now collected into a compact mass, it might well have seemed to the
myriads of the inhabitants, who, with upturned faces, were gazing from below,
that they themselves were fishes at the bottom of the sea, and that this was a
vast fleet of huge war ships, whose dark hulls lay floating on the surface.
It was indeed a far larger force than was necessary for the task of destroying a
city. But the chance had been utilized as an occasion for practice; and in
addition to the vessels of destruction, the Council had deemed it advisable to
dispatch a large number of transports, in case it should prove necessary to
remove the white settlers from the country.
So impressed was the multitude with the aspect of these mighty engines of war,
lying so secure in their calm grandeur, far out of reach, that they remained
hushed as in ‘terrified expectation of the sudden descent of the shower of
all-consuming fire with which they had been threatened.
The national flag, exhibited by being stretched horizontally above the Hall of
Government, indicated to the aërial squadron the headquarters of the
authorities. Presently a line was seen, with a dispatch attached to it,
descending from the car of the
(p. 225)
admiral, straight upon the Hall, where the
chiefs were collected.
With eager anxiety, it was received and read.
Briefly stating the nature and object of the expedition, the message asked what
plea the city could urge against being instantly destroyed.
A reply was returned, stating that no injury whatever had been, or would be done
to the white settlers, and that the troops sent against them had been recalled,
and were then on their way back. Moreover, that it had been determined to
restore the Empire, by setting the Prince of Abyssinia on the throne, and that
the prince had gone in person to assure himself of the safety of the foreigners,
and was hourly expected to return to meet the chiefs of the Federal Expedition.
Together with this reply they sent up the note left by Criss.
“Bless the boy!” exclaimed Bertie to the admiral (for owing to Avenil’s
sagacious intervention, and powerful interest, Bertie was indeed there). “Bless
the boy! what does it all mean? I know he left the prince at
“Who is he?” asked the admiral.
“A difficult question to answer all at once,” replied Bertie. “For the last
twenty-one years he has occupied the position of ward to Lord Avenil and myself; and now
having come to his fortune, he is looking for an investment for it.”
“Large?” asked the admiral, who delighted in the laconic, and spoke as if his
habit of navigating the air had made him short of wind: so reluctant is
professional mannerism to yield to the advance of civilization.
“Millions,” replied Bertie, unconsciously adopting the admiral’s style; and in
his desire to win credit for Criss, totally forgetting his pledge of secrecy.
“What has he to do with these people?”
“Has friends here, and came to save them.”
“All by himself?” said the admiral, with an incredulous air.
“But for him we should probably have been too late.”
(p. 226)
“We should have taken ample revenge, though.”
“So that he has saved the city as well as the settlers.”
“Humph,” said the admiral.
“Please, sir,” said an officer, entering, “a visitor has called to see the
officer commanding the expedition.”
It was Criss, who, seeing the fleet resting over the city, had steered straight
for the admiral’s car. Having attached his own to it, he came on hoard.
“Mr. Carol, my late ward,” said Bertie, introducing him.
“Glad to see you, sir,” said the admiral. “Can you throw any light on this
document? What do these people mean by the prince?”
“They mean me,” said Criss, smiling; and he briefly related the circumstances
under which the threatened outrage had been averted, and the dynasty restored.
“You have got yourself into a mess, young gentleman,” said the Admiral, when he
had concluded.
“Not a bit of it,” said Bertie, somewhat brusquely, and to the admiral’s
surprise, for he was not used to being contradicted, least of all in his own
fashion and on board his own vessel, and he did not like it. But Bertie, gentle
and patient as he was, would not brook the least snub to Criss.
“How can anyone be in a mess,” he asked, “when he can fly away to the ends of
the earth, without a possibility of being tracked or overtaken.”
“I see the difficulty plainly enough,” said Criss; “but it is in your power,
admiral, and Bertie’s, if he will join, to set things all right.”
“How so? I am not here to meddle with local politics,” said the Admiral, who
entertained considerable respect for Criss’s millions. “I have nothing to do
with restoring dynasties, or changing governments for the folks here. That is
their own affair. But I must send an answer down. How do I know that the foreign
residents are safe?”
“I have just left them returning to their homes untouched,” replied Criss,
“having first seen the troops in the trains, and on their way back.”
(p. 227)
“You have done excellently well,” said the admiral; “but it will not do for me
to go home and say that I have been told such and such things. I must
report on my own authority.”
“Then leave part of your force here; at least until the troops have returned,
and go with another part to the hills, and visit the settlers yourself,”
suggested Criss.
“And how about the mock prince? Besides, I must exact guarantees for the
future.”
“Let us get the true prince over, and he will give them to you.”
“By Jove!” exclaimed the admiral, unconsciously illustrating by his choice of an
abjuration, the marvellous vitality of the ancient Pagan theism.
“But they suppose him to be already here,” remarked Bertie; “and will probably
be exasperated on discovering their mistake.”
“Why need they discover it?” said Criss. “Admiral, what do you think of this
plan? That you go and visit all the settlements, taking three or four days about
it, and letting the authorities here suppose that the prince has accompanied
you. And in the meantime Bertie and I will go to
“Humph,” said the admiral; and taking a tablet he wrote upon it, and showed them
what he proposed to send down. It was to the effect that he should leave part of
his force to threaten the city, and send part to the settlements to inspect the
condition of the foreigners. On its return they would be at liberty to
reconstruct the government. In the meantime a telegraph to
“Expedition arrived off Bornou. All well. Settlers reported safe.” This was the
first message sent to relieve anxiety in
“While the admiral was superintending the execution of these
(p. 228)
details, Criss and Bertie conversed together.
The matter was one of which they seemed unable to make up their minds; for,
addressing the admiral, Bertie said, –
“Admiral, we want your advice, not professionally, but as a man of practical
knowledge and wisdom. You may, or may not know, that in this country the
prestige of the crown has long been bound up with its possession of a certain
heir-loom, called the
Talisman of Solomon.
It consists of an exceedingly magnificent set of diamonds and other gems – crown
jewels, in fact, of the ancient empire of Abyssinia, – whose royal family, as
you doubtless know, claim direct descent from Solomon, – and now of the united
empires of
“Well, the Talisman of Solomon has been believed to be lost. The prince himself
supposes it lost, and mistrusts the stability of his throne for want of it. Thus
he may, when it comes to the point, hesitate to trust himself back in the
country. My young friend here, however, has pledged himself to the people to
bring back not only the prince, but also the crown jewels, provided the dynasty
be restored. We have agreed to go and fetch the prince at once. What do you
think about the jewels? Is it better that they come with the prince, or after a
certain period; and then on condition of the continued good conduct both of
people and Emperor.”
Criss could not help smiling at this very elliptical statement. He was not sure
whether it was by accident or design that Bertie had made the omission which
rendered it utterly unintelligible.
“It strikes me you are in a second scrape, young sir,” said
(p. 229)
the Admiral to Criss. “It is a pity they are
lost, for one great blow is worth any number of successive taps. The prince’s
return with the talisman they think so much of, would produce far greater effect
than any subsequent proceedings. There is nothing for it, that I can see, but to
postpone the diamonds until paste ones can be made.”
This ingenious solution of the supposed difficulty drew hearty laughter from
both Criss and Bertie. The Admiral looking surprised, Bertie hastened to
explain.
“We are laughing, Admiral, at my stupidity in omitting to mention that, so far
from being really lost, the jewels in question are safe in England, and actually
in possession of my young friend here. How they came so is too long a story to
be told now. No, the question is, whether we shall let them remain there for the
present, or telegraph for them to be sent to meet us and the prince at
The Admiral was too stupefied with astonishment to be able to make a suggestion.
The point was finally settled by Criss’s remarking, –
“I am thinking that I ought to have some guarantee for the good conduct of the
prince, as well as you for that of the people. So I have made up my mind to
retain possession of the jewels for the present, and make their return
conditional. I shall fix his coronation for the anniversary of his accession,
and if I am satisfied with him, let him wear them for the first time on that
occasion.”
“Well, gentlemen,” said the Admiral; “I remember reading the Arabian Nights in
my youth; but I do not remember that the Genii who played with kingdoms ever
took the form of a young man of twenty-one. Supposing, however, that I am not in
an Arabian Night at this moment, and that everything about me is real and
genuine, I can only say that the last notion strikes me as an exceedingly
sensible one. When one has a hold on great people, as you seem to have on this
prince, it is well to keep it. That settled, there is no longer any cause for
delaying your start. I presume you feel confident he will
(p. 230)
consent to return with you? If he does not,
you must lose no time in telegraphing the fact to me, that the return of the
fleet be not needlessly delayed.”
“What do you think,” asked Bertie, “of lending us an escort, Admiral?”
“Impossible, without leave from home; and
So Criss and Bertie set off, Criss in his favourite Ariel, and Bertie in his
more capacious vessel, for
CHAPTER XI
THE Prince desired, before returning
to occupy the throne of his ancestors, to fulfil an appointment he had made with
the Soudan Bondholders’ Committee of the puissant Stock Exchange of Jerusalem.
Between the fears entertained by these of a total repudiation of the debt, and
the desires of his countrymen to be relieved of the burden of its interest, he
hoped to effect a compromise agreeable to both parties.
Criss readily agreed to the delay of a day, or even two, before returning, as he
was anxious to visit
(p. 231)
they consulted a solicitor respecting the
laws of inheritance and abandoned property.
The solicitor perfectly remembered the fact of the disappearance of the old
merchant and his family from the country, and said that the property thus left
without a claimant would remain in the custody of the local authorities for
twenty-one years, at the expiration of which it would be sold, and the proceeds
applied to the public use. These, however, were liable to be reclaimed by the
natural heirs at any time during a further period of twenty-one years.
“The twenty-one years,” he said, referring to a register, “since the
disappearance of which you refer took place, have quite recently expired. You
will probably find, therefore, that the houses in question are at this moment
being inspected and cleared, in order to be taken possession of by some incoming
purchaser. Property in this country is too valuable to be long left idle.”
It was not without considerable emotion that Criss found himself at length about
to visit the home of his mother. Of her unhappy fate there was no room for
doubt. But he did not know whether his father was living. If he were, Criss
thought, surely he would put in a claim for the property of his wife’s father.
If he had not done so, surely the fact might be accepted as an assurance of his
death.
On enquiring in the proper quarter, Criss found that shortly after the
disappearance an attempt had been made to obtain possession of the property in
question. It had been done through an agent, who had kept the name of his
principal a profound secret. The attempt had failed, owing, it was sup-posed, to
the inability of the applicant to prove himself legally entitled to the
succession, for the claim had never been renewed.
The story told by Bertie before the local court in
(p. 232)
of all the circumstances, and upon securities
being given for the restitution of the property in the event of the claim being
ultimately disallowed, Criss was permitted to take possession of all documents
and other movables found in the houses.
These articles, therefore, were put into the train (for this excursion had been
made by railroad), and taken to the hotel in
The result of the interview between the Committee and the Prince had been
unsatisfactory, owing to the inability of the latter to give any confirmation of
the intelligence upon which he had relied to influence their decision. The
telegraph between Bornou and
He himself, in relating all this to his two friends, ascribed much of his
difficulty with the Board to the hostility of one of its members, who seemed to
have a personal feeling against him and his cause. This was the President, a man
of vast repute for commercial sagacity, not famous for scrupulousness, and
believed to be mainly of Greek origin, though naturalized as a citizen of
In answer to a taunt from this personage, the Prince had requested an
adjournment of the Conference, until the following afternoon, in order that he
might consult with his friends as to the expediency of placing the Committee in
possession of further information.
The result of the previous day’s conference had been to excite immense interest
respecting the affairs of Soudan. The confident tone and bearing of the fugitive
Prince had produced a profound impression on the Board, although its members had
(p. 233)
studiously concealed the feeling from him.
His positive assertions that his father was dead; that the throne was awaiting
his acceptance; and that the indispensable Talisman had survived one more
startling chance, and would be forthcoming on his coronation, had excited the
curiosity of the millionaires of Jerusalem to the highest pitch; and it needed
only the notification which the Prince sent them after again seeing Criss and
Bertie, that he would produce his authorities, to fill the Great Salon in the
Hall of Commerce with an attendance unprecedented.
The question for the money-kings of Israel, whose fortunes were to a great
extent involved in the stability of Soudan, was whether the Prince should be
regarded as virtually Emperor, and entitled to their highest consideration, or
whether he should be regarded as a penniless fugitive, and the dupe of
unprincipled adventurers.
The Stock Exchange of
On this platform sat the Committee and a large assemblage of the principal
members of the Stock Exchange, the heads of all the great mercantile houses, and
the governing chiefs, of the Jewish people. It was an assembly representative of
the world’s wealth of accumulated industry and realized property; an assembly
transcending in mere money-power that of any government on the face of the
earth.
The meeting was only so far not public, in that the reporters of the press were
not admitted in their recognized capacity. But that the press did not lack
competent representatives on this occasion may be seen by the report of the
conference contained in the following chapter, which appeared the same evening
in a special late edition of the Zion Herald.
(p. 234)
CHAPTER XII
THE REVOLUTION IN SOUDAN
__________
ALLEGED COUNTER-REVOLUTION
__________
IS IT A SHAM?
__________
THE PRINCE AND THE COMMITTEE
__________
A BRITISH MILLIONAIRE-AERIALIST IN THE SCRAPE
__________
STRANGE, IF TRUE!
__________
STRANGER, IF FALSE!
__________
WHO SHALL BE KING?
__________
WE doubt whether, since the days of
Hezekiah, when the Assyrian emissary Rabshekah held his memorable interview with
“The men that sat on the wall,”
It will he remembered that on the breaking out of the revolt, the Emperor
Theodoros disappeared, together – in point of time, at least – with the crown
jewels, which are reckoned the palladium of the country; and that his son and
heir, the Imperial Prince of Abyssinia, took refuge in this city. Our report of
yesterday’s meeting of the Soudan Bondholders’ Committee, conveyed to our
readers the startling change in the demeanour of the Prince, who, for reasons
entirely unknown to them, had suddenly exchanged his rôle of suppliant for that of
dictator.
(p.
235)
The meeting was scarcely less remarkable for the number and standing of the
persons who attended it, than for the singularity of the events which it
witnessed. Among those present were the heads of all our great mercantile and
banking houses, numerous members of the Sanhedrim, including the venerable chief
of that august body, the representatives of the allied provinces of
On entering the salon, which was already crowded, we found the Prince with two
other foreign gentlemen, one somewhat past middle age, the other considerably
younger, sitting in the appellant’s box, awaiting the commencement of the
interpellations. These began by the president of the committee, who is also
president of the Stock Exchange, addressing the Prince, saying that the Board
readily acknowledged his status as heir to the throne of Soudan, and sympathized
in his misfortunes; but that before admitting his right to represent that
country by entering into business relations with its creditors, they must have
sufficient ground for believing, first, that the Emperor, his father, was dead;
and, secondly, that the country acknowledged him as successor to the crown.
Here the Prince rose and, bowing with dignity, replied that he was now prepared
to afford the Court the same information that he himself possessed. He would
first, therefore, present to them his friend Mr. Carol, of
The young man whom we have mentioned as sitting beside the Prince, then rose,
and stated that he was ready to answer any questions affecting the matter before
the Court, but should reserve to himself the right to be silent respecting
matters which were private to himself – a reservation at which the President
very visibly arched his eyebrows; while the Prince himself appeared somewhat
surprised, not to say disconcerted. The elder stranger, however, unmistakably
betrayed his amusement
(p.
236)
by a smile, and a glance at his companion,
which was easily interpretable as signifying, “Well, you are a cool hand, young
sir.” As the sequel proved, the occurrence formed no exception to the maxim
contained in our
“It is easy to be self-possessed in the presence of millionaires, when one happens
to be a millionaire oneself.”
“We will endeavour to respect the reservation,” said the President, with the
formal courtesy of the man of the world who knows the value of such a demeanour.
“The Prince has described you as his friend. We will not, for the present at
least, dispute the satisfactoriness of his voucher. Pray, then, be so good as to
state the circumstances which are within your own knowledge respecting the death
of the late Emperor of Soudan.”
The young man then proceeded to narrate, in a manner so simple and voice so
touching as to win all hearts, how that about the middle of last month, while
returning from a visit in Central Africa to keep his birthday with his friends
in England, and travelling as he was accustomed, by himself, in an aërial car,
he passed over the Bornouse capital while the insurrection was in full progress
and the royal palace in flames. That continuing his way without touching ground,
he chanced, while traversing the
(p.
237)
made it absolutely certain that he who had
been thus picked up, was no other than the unfortunate Emperor of Central
Africa.
This statement was received with profound astonishment by the Court; but, what
seemed most curious, by no one was it received with such evident surprise as by
the Prince himself. It was clear that even with him his friend had made certain
“reservations,” and that he was now for the first time learning the particulars
of his father’s death.
“May we be made acquainted more fully with the nature of the communication to
which you refer?” asked the President.
“Its main purport,” replied the young Englishman, “was to thank me for my
services in his behalf, and to commend his son to my friendship. The original is
in
Here the elder stranger whispered something to the witness Carol, from which he
seemed to dissent. He then said aloud to the Court, –
“The British Minister, who, I believe, is present, can state whether he has
received from the Minister at
“It is true,” said the British Minister, rising, and addressing the Court, “that
a stranger of Central Africa, evidently a man of distinction, arrived badly hurt
at
Here the elder stranger rose, and said that he was present when the packet in
question arrived, and was acquainted with its contents.
In answer to the Court’s enquiry, this witness stated that his name is Greathead;
that he is a professional aëronaut, officially attached to the aërial expedition
of the Confederated Nations
(p.
238)
to Central Africa, and at present absent on
special leave to come to
A glance of astonishment ran through the assembly on finding so stout a
testimony to the accuracy of the prince’s information, and finding it, too, in
the person of an official of the expedition. The President alone seemed unmoved
by it. In the same tone of cold, measured courtesy, which had marked his manner
throughout, he said, –
“It seems strange to the Court that your services could be spared so soon after
the expedition reached the scene of its intended operations.”
“Not stranger to the Court than to myself,” answered the aëronaut Greathead, in
a loud, hearty, abrupt tone, which contrasted curiously with the keen inflection
of the President’s voice: “not stranger to the Court than to myself; but my dear
boy here can tell you all about it, if he chooses. It is all owing to him that
the revolution in Soudan is over, the white settlers safe, and the throne
waiting to receive the new Emperor as soon as he will let us carry him back.”
The President did not give the assembly time to indulge the surprise it felt at
this speech, but addressing the last witness, said, –
“You are, perhaps, not acquainted with the superstitious character of the people
of Soudan. But it is an undoubted fact that no sovereign has a chance of
acceptance unless he be in tutelary possession of certain jewels, known as the
Talisman of Solomon, from whom the royal family of the country claims descent
––”
“And therefore I have promised,” interrupted the younger Englishman, “that, on
the occasion of his coronation, – which I have, in my own mind, fixed for the
first anniversary of his accession, – the Sacred Talisman shall be forthcoming;
that is, provided he proves by his conduct in the meantime – as I have no doubt
he will do – that he is not unworthy of his high position.”
(p.
239)
And having said this, he turned and cast upon the prince a glance of such warm
friendship, as only a long and intimate acquaintance would seem to account for.
This speech, so extraordinary for its apparent and manifold presumption, was
uttered in a simple, eager manner, and without a particle of consciousness of
its almost preternatural boldness, on the part of the speaker.
The prince himself was for several moments absolutely stupefied with surprise.
Then starting to his feet he confronted the youth Carol, with an air that
demanded an explanation as to who it was that thus constituted himself the
arbiter of his destiny. But the young man merely said to him, –
“Not now, my dear Prince. You shall know all in good time.”
The President overhearing his remark, himself addressed the witness, saying, –
“If we are to make the concessions desired, it is necessary that we be fully
enlightened; and for that, it seems to the Court, no time can be so good as the
present.”
“You forget my reservation,” answered Carol. “I especially exempted anything
that touched upon my private affairs. All that I care to state now is, that the
secret of the crown jewels and their whereabouts, has been committed to me, and
that I shall reveal it at the fitting time.”
They had been standing side by side since the prince had risen, and it now
became evident from the whispering going on among the audience, that some
startling suggestion was being discussed by them. The whispers became general,
and then all eyes were turned upon the pair in intent scrutiny. Then the
President, addressing the young Englishman, said, –
“Have you any objection to giving the court some particulars of your birth and
parentage?”
“I cannot,” he returned, “of my own knowledge, give the information you ask,
though no doubt I was present on the occasion. But there is one here who is both
able and free to relate what he knows about it.” And he indicated the elder
foreigner.
(p.
240)
“Mr. Greathead,” said the President, “will you have the kindness to give the
Court any Information you possess on this head? The birth, for instance, of Mr.
Carol, – where did it take place?”
The witness stood erect, and assuming an air of the utmost gravity, pointed
upwards, and said solemnly, –
“In heaven!”
“We are aware,” said the President, “That you are an aëronaut. Did it take place
in one of your own aëromotives?”
Everybody, probably, except himself, noticed that the President’s voice had of
late entirely lost its keenness of tone, and his manner its severity.
“It occurred thus,” said the witness Greathead. “I, and some others, were
stranded on an iceberg in the Arctic seas, when a balloon was blown to us, – a
balloon of old-fashioned and foreign make, – a floating, rather than a flying
machine. This child was in it, evidently only just born ––”
“And the other occupants?”
“When the balloon reached us it had but one, an old man, an Asiatic, who expired
shortly afterwards.”
“But – but – you said the child was but just born. The old man could – could –
could not have beck its MOTHER! Where was SHE, then?”
The loud, eager, and excited way in which the President jerked out this
extraordinary speech, his eyes almost starting from his head, and his forehead
streaming with perspiration, attracted the observation of the whole assembly. On
being further informed by Greathead that there was reason to sup-pose a woman
had fallen out and been lost, very shortly before the balloon reached the
iceberg, he seemed to be gathering up his whole strength to ask one more
question.
“When, – when was this?”
“Christmas-day, twenty-one years ago.”
At this, with a cry, the President dropped senseless into his chair.
Fortunately a medical man vas present, and to him the patient was committed,
while the people talked together in groups.
(p.
241)
Some who knew the President intimately, said that it must be a heart complaint,
to which he had been liable ever since a loss he had suffered many years ago.
Presently it was announced that he was better, and refused to suspend the
sit-ting for more than a few minutes, when he expected to be himself again.
At length the President announced the resumption of the sitting. He asked the
full name of the young foreigner.
“Christmas Carol,” was the reply.
“I knew it! I knew it! Mr. President,” shouted a voice from the back part of the
platform. And there could be seen struggling to the front the venerable figure
of one of our most successful, and therefore deservedly respected, citizens,
well-known in connection with the diamond trade.
“I knew it, Mr. President,” he cried, “The moment I saw Mr. Greathead, the
aëronaut. To my knowledge, those jewels were in his possession nearly twenty-one
years ago, having been long ‘previously spirited away from Bornou, and lost in
the great volcano of the Pacific. I myself was the agent of their sale to the
Court of Soudan, at the time of the late Emperor’s coronation. I ask now by what
devil’s magic they have again come to light, and in the possession of this
youth?”
“Do you dispute his right and title to them?” asked the President, with a
curious smile.
“It is for me to do that, if anybody may,” interposed the Prince.
“And do you dispute it?” asked the President, with some perplexing expression on
his face.
“I am too much in the dark to affirm or dispute anything,” he replied.
Here the young stranger rose, and said that he thought they were rather
wandering from the main question. It was necessary for the Prince to start with
himself and friend without delay, if he was to redeem the pledge which had been
given on his behalf to the people of Bornou. It was important, moreover, that
his return should have the benefit of the distinction which the presence and
homage of the Federal expedition would
(p.
242)
give it. He added that the circumstance that
the people believed the Prince to be at that moment actually in the country, and
living as a voluntary hostage with the commander of the expedition, made any
delay most perilous to his chances. So that, whether the Committee acceded to
his wishes or not, it was better for him to go at once than to wait.
This was a new complication, and after listening to some suggestions of his
colleagues, the President, still with an un-definable expression, but with a
manner full of suavity, enquired of Carol how the people of Bornou came to
labour under such a delusion.
“In the conference which I held with them,” replied the witness, “They took me
for him, and insisted that I was the Prince.”
The singularity of the Presidents reply to this answer, added to the peculiarity
of his manner, produced at first the impression that his mind was still affected
by his recent attack.
“It is clear, then,” he said, “That you might return and personate the Prince,
and occupy the throne as Emperor, without suspicion or risk. We can see for
ourselves the resemblance of which you speak. It is as close as could well
subsist even between nearly-related members of the same family. For my part, and
I have every reason to feel secure of the assent of my colleagues, I am ready to
grant the terms asked of us, provided you yourself occupy the throne of Soudan.
You evidently have all the mental requisites for such a position, and the
strange fatality which has once more put you in possession of the sacred gems,
marks you out for the post whose previous occupants have been so ready to
abandon it at the first sign of danger.”
It was not the first time during this remarkable conference that the prevailing
sentiment had been one of profound astonishment. But it was the first time that
an expression of surprise had been suffered to invade the self-possession of the
young Englishman. His voice, when at length he recovered himself sufficiently to
speak, betrayed yet another feeling than that of surprise; for he spoke in tones
of anger and indignation, demanding of the President.
(p.
243)
“Do you, sir, when you counsel me to a course of treachery and dishonour, really
know to whom you are speaking?”
“I know that you, are worthy of a kingdom, both by merit and by station. Why
refuse to be a king?”
The interest with which this strange colloquy was listened to, was of the most
intense description. Even those who had deemed the Presidents mind affected,
thought they now discerned a sound meaning beneath his words. Whatever their
meaning was, they evidently did not strike the young English-man as irrational
or incoherent. Faintly and slowly, yet with intense distinctness, he at length
said:
“No kingdom of this world possesses attractions for me. To no spot of earth do I
care to be tied. My life and interest he yonder,” and he pointed upwards, in
manifest allusion to his passion for atmospheric yachting. “Why tempt me thus?”
A haggard look came over the face of the President. He shook like one in a
palsy, and his voice was harsh and hoarse as he essayed to reply. He commenced a
sentence and then broke off, and commenced another of different purport. At
length he said:
“Am I to understand that you finally and decidedly refuse to avail yourself of
the chance I have put before you?”
Instead of answering this query, Carol turned to the Prince, who sat lost in
amazement as to what it all could mean. The Prince rose at his look; when Carol,
grasping one of his hands with one of his own, and throwing the other round his
neck, cried:
“Fear not, my COUSIN! It is
not I who will supplant you.”
At this arose questionings as to who this could be that thus claimed close
kindred with the best blood of
“Christmas Carol, now that you positively refuse to entertain my suggestion, I
will answer your question why I tempted
(p.
244)
you thus. It is because I am your father!
And, being your father, partake the enmity which your mother’s branch of the
family bore to the branch reigning in Soudan. I have sworn that so long as that
branch occupied the throne in which it supplanted ours,
“I knew all, save that you were my father.”
“When did you obtain your information?”
“Last night, from the documents I found in my grand-father’s houses in
Here a private but animated conversation occurred in a group in which we
recognized several of the most distinguished members of the Stock Exchange and
of the Sanhedrim. They appeared after a little to have come to an agreement on
some knotty point, for the venerable chief of the Sanhedrim came forward, and
addressing the Court, said that while in all matters affecting the foreign
policy of the nation, they deferred to the authority of the Stock Exchange, it
devolved upon him as chief of the home and local government, to put certain
questions
(p.
245)
to the young gentleman respecting whom such
remarkable revelations had just been made.
“And first,” he said, “I have to enquire precisely respecting the gems composing
the sacred Talisman of Solomon. Whom do you, sir, consider the lawful proprietor
at this moment?”
“Myself, undoubtedly,” replied Mr. Carol, (who will forgive us for not
encumbering. our present narrative with his newly-discovered titles of honour).
“Myself, undoubtedly. But I consider that I hold them in trust for the future
Emperor of Soudan.”
The old man shook his head, and smiled blandly.
“There is a want of legal precision in your language. Not that this detracts
from your merits, my dear Prince, as a prince, if you will allow me to be the
first so to call you. If you hold them in trust for another, they are not your
own. May I ask you to define your title to them more precisely?”
“I consider that I have four distinct grounds of ownership,” replied the young
man. “First, I inherit them from my grandfather, to whose property there is no
joint or rival claimant. Secondly, they were found on an iceberg, when otherwise
they were hopelessly lost, and settled on me as a free gift by the finder, my
beloved foster-father and guardian here, Bertie Greathead. Thirdly, they are
mine by right of a clause inserted in the bill of sale by which they were
transferred to the late Emperor, a clause reserving to me the right of
repurchasing them within one year of my coming of age.
“You are a better lawyer than I was giving you credit for being,” interrupted
his interrogator, “Though you have failed to perceive that all this depends upon
the validity of your grandfather’s title. But, my dear sir, are you aware that
few men, even in
“I do not lack the means,” responded the young man, with the admirable
simplicity of one born to vast fortunes. “And I have yet another title to them,
and one that renders it unnecessary to rely on my inheritance from my
grandfather. But for me, they had been lost for ever in the great
(p.
246)
my right to them was recognized by the late
Emperor, both in the fact of his purchasing them of me at their full value, and
his consenting to my reclamation of them. His dying injunctions prove this. At
the same time he commended his son to me. It is at my option, then, either to
restore to him the jewels, or to give him their equivalent in money. But for the
happy termination of the revolution which excluded him from the throne, he
would, of course, have preferred to receive their value.”
The Chief of the Sanhedrim here raised his bent form to its full height, and
glancing round ‘on the assembly as if with conscious pride in the supreme
importance of the words he was about to utter, said:
“Then, since these invaluable crown jewels are your very own, as well as means
ample enough to have purchased them if they had not been so; and since you are,
next to the Prince of Abyssinia and Emperor of Soudan, the sole survivor of a
royal race in Israel, I, on behalf of my brethren of the Sanhedrim, and the
people of Palestine as represented by a quorum of the Stock Exchange of
Jerusalem here assembled, do invite you to solve the difficulty which has long
operated to the national disadvantage, and accept the throne of Syria and the
adjoining provinces of Persia, Arabia, and the Euphrates. You have yourself
proved that the Sacred Talisman of Solomon is your own, by a treble or quadruple
right. The lawful possessor of that talisman alone is worthy to sit on the
throne of David and Solomon, ruling the tribes of
As he concluded, loud acclaims rent the air, and many a hoary head bowed in
thankfulness, and many a lip trembling with emotion uttered the ancient
expression of supreme content, “Now can I depart in peace, having seen the
salvation of
The Prince of Soudan, however, was observed to turn very pale, doubtless
thinking that the boasted heirloom of his race had now in very deed departed
from him forever.
The first attempt of the new-found Prince of Israel to reply to this flattering
proposal, was lost in the hubbub of voices congratulating
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each other on the successful issue to a long
and difficult search; for, as all the world knows, it needs but a sovereign
worthy to sit on the throne of Jerusalem, to consolidate a great eastern empire
under Jewish sway.
On essaying a second time to make himself heard, for none heeded his answer,
taking for granted its affirmative character, the elder Englishman was observed
to say something as if in remonstrance to the prospective monarch of the Orient.
When, after this, he obtained a hearing, he said, with becoming modesty, that a
proposition of such magnitude was one for deliberating upon, for which a certain
time was necessary. Let the meeting be adjourned, and perhaps on the following
day he would be prepared to communicate his decision to the authorities.
The Assembly then broke up, without any resolution being come to respecting the
express object of its meeting, the greater and nearer event having. rendered
cool deliberation for the present impossible. We hope in our issue of tomorrow
evening to communicate to our readers and the world the great news that at
length “a king rules in Zion, and hath gathered the peoples under his wings,” as
saith one of our ancient poets.
CHAPTER XIII
IT was perhaps fortunate that beside
Bertie and the Prince, only one person in the whole assembly caught the remark
which Criss had first uttered in reply to the proposition last made to him. That
person was the President himself, who, fascinated as it were by the presence of
his new-found son, suffered no look or word of Criss’s to escape him. Criss’s
exclamation had been to the effect that he seemed to have lighted upon a
congregation of Judases. It was at Bertie’s entreaty that he abstained from
repeating the remark so as to be heard by all,
As the assembly began to disperse, a messenger approached
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Criss, and said that the President earnestly
desired his attendance in an adjoining chamber. Criss paused hut to hold a few
moments’ conversation with Bertie and the Prince, and then went to meet his
father.
“Child of my Zöe!” exclaimed the latter advancing to embrace him, “the shock of
joy on recognizing you just now had well nigh killed me. Even yet am I feeble
through its effects. But you still look somewhat coldly on me. Do you doubt that
I am your father?”
“I do not doubt it,” said Criss, “Though it was only during the last hour, and
by means of certain relics which I obtained from the
“Living image of her that you are, with just a trace of myself and my own” Greek
lineaments, behold here the companion picture to that, the picture of her, which
has never left my breast, even as she has never vanished from my heart.”
And he placed in Criss’s hands an exquisite likeness of the unfortunate Zöe.
Earnestly and tearfully Criss gazed upon his mother’s picture, but he still
failed to respond to his father’s demonstrations of affection. The latter
perceived his coldness, and sought to know the cause.
“You are reproaching mo in your mind for the neglect of which you consider me to
have been guilty in regard to you,” he said; “but believe me, I have sought and
sought in vain to ascertain what had become of my lost wife and her father. All
that I could ascertain was, that shortly after their ascent from
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“My father,” replied Criss with emotion, “you have failed utterly to divine the
nature of the feeling which divides us. I have to thank you, and I do thank and
bless you, for having infused into me that admixture of Greek blood which has
saved me from having a sordid nature, and enabled me to recognize the supremacy
of beauty and goodness over rank and wealth. But how is it that you, who are all
Greek, could so far abandon the traditions of your race as to propose to your
newly discovered son a course incompatible with honour?”
“For one side of your mental composition you may possibly be indebted to me,”
returned his father. “I mean the Æsthetic. But there you must stop. The Greeks, no more than the Jews, are
to be credited with the other qualities you ascribe to them. If Jacob be their
type, Ulysses is ours. Morality was never our forte; but on the contrary, with
all our addiction to philosophy and art, we have ever been an insincere and
venal people. No, for what you possess of moral sentiment, you must thank your
mother, not me; or rather her mother, for there you obtained your Teutonic
characteristics.”
“I have Teuton blood in me! I am indeed glad. The blood of the race to which
Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Tennyson, and Göethe belonged! as well as of the
race of Homer, Æschylus, and Plato! in addition to that of Moses, Isaiah, Jesus,
and Paul! What a privilege, but also what a responsibility! I am so glad to be a
Teuton! I understand now the secret of my sympathetic yearnings towards the
grandest of the world’s races, in its combination of the intellectual with the
moral; the first race in which Conscience was elevated to its proper supremacy.”
“Well,” resumed his father, “you see you have judged our conduct by some code
which finds no recognition here. Neither my proposition that you should
appropriate the throne of Soudan; nor that of the chief of the Sanhedrim, that
you should retain the Talisman of Solomon, to grace the restored crown of
Israel, rather than follow a sentimental impulse, shocked the prejudices of any
of our people. Following the divine law anciently given to them, the Jews, now
as ever, refuse to
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recognize as right anything that tells
against themselves. Whatever makes for them is good, whatever against then evil.
This in
“Besides, I consider myself entitled to hate those who robbed me of my Zöe. It
was through the persecutions your grand-father suffered from the reigning branch
in Soudan, that he fled, and she was lost to me. It was nothing to me that he
deserved their enmity. Right or wrong, I suffered by it, and I resented it. But
I have been avenged. For it is I who have been chief agent in grinding down
their people by taxation, and so bringing about the revolution with all its
dread results. It is I who have kept the Committee from acceding to all
entreaties for a mitigation. If I wished you to supplant that branch, it was for
personal vengeance. If I now wish you to become sovereign of this country, it is
as much for the sake of seeing my son the instrument of their punishment, as for
any other ambition.
“And now that we perfectly understand each other, come to my palace and abide
with me. Being my home, it is yours also. We shall have much to tell each other.
Together we will pen the acceptance of the offer conveyed to you by the chief of
the Sanhedrim, an acceptance which will make me father of a far greater
sovereign than any Emperor of Central Africa can ever be. For as king of
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refused nothing to his father David, not even
his dying request, involving, as it did, at least according to your code – the
Teuton code – crime and dishonour. Surely you, then, as sitting on the throne of
David and Solomon, will not have the presumption to affect to surpass them in
virtue, and condemn the morality of that great Semitic race whose blood you
share! The cost is indeed a slight one to pay for such an heir-loom.”
“We place a different estimate on the cost of such a deed,” replied Criss,
speaking with less restraint in his manner than before, for he was beginning to
regard his father as partially deranged, rather than wilfully dishonest. “But
you forget that the objection I raised before the committee was not against
being king of Soudan’ merely, but against being a king at all.”
“My son, you will have to forget what you said on that point. The Jews have too
long set their hearts on precisely such a solution of their political
difficulties as the discovery of you presents. They will not consent to waive
their nation’s longings in deference to your fantasies. Being in
“Well,” said Criss, in a light and cheerful tone, “we will not talk more about
that just now. You can understand that at the heights from which I am accustomed
to survey the world, its loftiest eminences are apt to seem very low. But I
really must leave you now. My friends will be expecting me at the hotel.
Farewell for tonight, my father. An eventful day, such as this has been, merits
extra repose.”
“What! will you not enter and sleep beneath my roof on this the first night of
our meeting? It is true I have no family to whom to introduce you. I dwell in
this palace,” he said pointing to a magnificent edifice before which they had
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now arrived, “solitary and sad. No new ties
have been mine. It is as if I had waited expressly for you to come to me – you,
who are the sole heir of my heart and my wealth. At least enter and eat with me,
if you cannot all at once reconcile your-self to your new ties.”
It was late when Criss returned to his hotel. Going straight to Bertie’s room,
he roused him from a light sleep, saying,
“Now, dear Bertie, we must be off. Is the Prince prepared, think you?”
“Perfectly, and impatient to start. He is congratulating himself on having a
friend and relative in the King of the Jews.”
“Ah,” said Criss, “we shall have to devise some other means for reducing
taxation in Soudan. Now, come softly, and say not a word. Unless I have been
misinformed, it is necessary that our departure be made very much like an
escape.”
“Escape! But will you not accept the ––?”
“Accept! Why, my dear Bertie, don’t you know I am a Republican?”
“That may be a reason for ref using to have a King over one, but not for ref
using to be a King oneself. Besides, in putting back this Prince, you are
setting up a King.”
“Oh, yes. I do not dictate to others. If they prefer a monarchy, they are
welcome. Here is the Prince’s door.”
The three descended in silence to the aëromotive-house, and having deposited an
ample payment with the custodian, were soon aloft and far away on their flight
across the desert towards the capital of Soudan, the Prince travelling with
Bertie in his capacious car, and Criss keeping near them in his own little
Ariel.
Ere they lost sight of the lights of the sleeping city, Criss cast a look back
upon it, and murmured,
“Oh,
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sake, and whose chief men counsel treachery!
Was it for this that thy prophet-poets of old heralded thy restoration! Not
until thou hast exchanged thy father Jacob as thy type, for that nobler
exemplar, even the Son whom, while rejected of thee, all other nations revere,
wilt thou become in truth a People chosen and blessed.”
And when morning came, and the cool stars overhead melted away and vanished in
the hot desert blasts,*and the travellers rose high in search of fresh airs and
favouring currents, Criss again thought of what money might do to redeem the
earth, could its possessors but consent to the sacrifice; and how, under its
present misuse, it was little better than a curse. And a longing came over him
to bury all the wealth of himself and his race in the sands of the
A few days later, and the universal press of the world contained an account of
the successful expedition of the Federal aërial fleet to Soudan, and the’
restoration of the Empire. The rejoicings on the occasion were described as
being of a somewhat novel character.
“The young Emperor,” they stated, “wishing to impress his subjects with a sense
of the advantages of a higher civilization than they have as yet attained, and
anxious to lose no time in improving their condition (for it appears that he has
developed a hitherto unsuspected tendency to philanthropy), requested the
admiral to signalize his accession by an exhibition of the destructive powers of
the squadron.
“The admiral, deeming that the expense of such a demonstration would be amply
compensated by its moral effects, consented, and was accordingly requested to
destroy the poorest and most unhealthy quarter of the Bornouse capital. For this
comprehensive measure, the Emperor obtained the consent of the inhabitants of
the district in question, engaging on his part to rebuild and furnish the doomed
quarter in a greatly
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improved fashion, and to provide for the
population during the interval.
“The proffer was accepted, and an evening fixed for the pyrotechnic
demonstration; the inhabitants of the doomed district being first comfortably
accommodated in various barracks and other public buildings. The admiral then
detached a couple of vessels for the service. These, cruising slowly round and
round over the town within the assigned limits, at a moderate elevation, dropped
at short intervals during a period of two or three hours, shells containing
explosives and combustibles, the native troops being employed to keep the fire
from spreading beyond the doomed quarter.
“The inhabitants seem to have been so delighted with the spectacle, that there
is some reason to fear that its beauty may have tended to counteract the
wholesome impression intended to be produced, and that an attack on the white
settlers will henceforth be considered a cheap price for such a display of
fireworks. A subsequent examination showed that not only was every street and
building, no matter what the strength of its construction, utterly destroyed,
but the very foundations on which they stood were ploughed and dug up by the
bursting of the shells after they had buried themselves in the earth.
“It is rumoured that the sudden collapse of the revolution, and restoration of
the Empire, have been achieved under British influence, and accompanied by some
very extraordinary circum-stances. However this may be, we trust that the spirit
shown by the young ruler, and the good understanding subsisting between him and
his people, will be productive of the happiest results to the country at large.
“The Federal fleet has since returned home.”
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