Leonard clambered up the steps of the embankment, followed by the others. On its further side stood the group of Settlement men who had returned from scouring the camp, thin and haggard fellows, scarred by the slave–irons, but very fierce–looking. In their midst a white man crouched upon the ground, moaning with terror and misery. Just then he lifted his face—it was that of the Yellow Devil himself. There lay that aged Iniquity, that hoary Shame caught at last in his own snares.
"Where did you find him, Otter?" asked Leonard as they crossed the drawbridge.
"In the magazine, Baas, and your gold with him, also many rifles and much powder. He had locked himself up there, but he had not the heart to fire the powder and make an end."
Pereira did not see them as yet, but raising his head he begged for water.
"Give him blood," said one of the men sullenly. "He has drunk it all his days, let it be his last drink."
Leonard motioned to Francisco the priest to bring water, then Pereira saw them and began to pray for mercy.
"Antonio Pereira," Leonard answered sternly, "last night I and two companions, a woman and a black dwarf, set ourselves a task—to take this armed place of yours and rescue a white girl whom you had condemned to slavery. It did not seem possible that we should do it, but between sunset and sunrise we have done it. Who helped us then?—that we should have carried out this thing which was impossible. I will tell you; God helped us as He helped this lady when she called on Him. Cry to God, then, to do that which is still more impossible—to help you. From me you will have justice and no more."
For a moment Pereira ceased whining, and a flash of the old ferocity came into his eyes.
"Ah! my friend," he muttered, "if I had but known!" Then turning to Juanna he said: "My dove, have I not treated you kindly? Will you say no word for me, now that my enemies prevail against me?"
By way of answer Juanna looked first at the human reptile before her, and next at the bosom of her torn dress, now roughly pinned up with the spikes of aloe leaves. Then she turned and went.
"Baas," said Otter, "may I speak?"
"Speak on," Leonard answered.
"Hearken, Yellow Devil," said the dwarf. "Ten years ago you took me, and I lay in this camp a slave; yes, in yonder shed. Here are the marks of the irons—your own seal. Ah! you have forgotten the black dwarf, or perhaps you never noticed him; but he remembers. Who could forget you, Yellow Devil, that once had slept beneath your roof? I escaped, but as I fled I swore that, if I might, I would bring vengeance upon you. The years went by, and the hour came at last. I led Baas to this place. I found you this morning, and we are not parted yet, Yellow Devil. What did you boast last night—that you had sent twenty thousand of us black people to slavery? Yes, and for every one that you have sold you have killed five—old men white with years, women with child, little children at the breast, you have murdered them all. Ah! yes, I have seen you laugh and kill them before the eyes of their mothers, as last night you killed the kitten.
"And now your time has come at last, Yellow Devil, and I, Otter the dwarf, will give you to drink of your own medicine. What! you cry for mercy, you who never gave it even in a dream? I tell you, did my chief yonder bid me loose you, I would disobey him even to force; I, who would rather die than put aside his word on any other matter.
"Look now at these men," and he pointed to the Settlement people, who glared hungrily at the crouching wretch, much as hounds glare at a fox that is held aloft by the huntsman; "look at them! Do you see mercy in their eyes? They, whose fathers and mothers you have murdered, whose little children you have stamped to death? Wow! Yellow Devil, the white men tell us of a hell, a place where dead people are tormented. We know nothing of that, it is for the white people, and they may keep it all to themselves. Now you are beginning to taste that hell of yours—only beginning, Yellow Devil.
"Baas Leonard, I demand this man to be tried by us and dealt with according to our customs, for it is against us black folk that he has sinned most of all, and we ask his blood in payment for our blood."
"What!" howled Pereira, "am I to be given over to these black dogs? Mercy! Mercy! Francisco, plead for me. Shrive me. I know I killed your brother, I had to do it. Plead for me!" and he rolled in the dust, trying to clasp Leonard's feet.
"I cannot shrive you," answered the priest shuddering, "but I will pray for you."
Then the hungry–eyed natives pounced upon Pereira to drag him thence, but Leonard broke through them saying:
"I will have none of your savage cruelties here. Let the man be shot if you will, but no more."
As it chanced, however, Pereira was not destined to die by the hand of man, for even as Otter gripped him he turned livid, threw up his arms, groaned, and fell to the earth.
Leonard looked at him; he was dead, dead through the fear of death, for terror had stopped the beating of his wicked heart.
"The Shepherdess prophesied truly," cried Otter presently, "for the Heavens above have robbed us of our vengeance. Wow! it is hard, but at least this one shall work no more evil."
"Carry it away," said Leonard with a shudder, for the dead man's face was ghastly to behold. Then turning to him as if nothing had happened, he added:
"Otter, take these men and loose the rest of the slaves; then get the ammunition, rifles, and stores from the arms–house and bring them to the water–gate. We must clear out of this place at once, or we shall have the escaped slavers and the crews of the dhows down upon us."
Thus then did fate at last find out Antonio Pereira, the Yellow Devil.
Chapter XV
Disillusion
Once more it was morning, and the travellers were encamped by that reedy point where they had left the big boats which they cut loose from the island. From the earliest dawn Leonard had been superintending the transport across the river of the hundreds of slaves whom they had released. They there were put on shore by the Settlement men, provided with a store of meal, and left to shift for themselves, it being found utterly impossible to take them any further.
"There, they are gone," said Otter, as the last boat–load set out under the charge of Peter. "Well, let them go, the silly sheep. So much the less trouble for us, who, although we have a Shepherdess, can scarcely lead so large a flock. Well, we have pulled the Missie yonder out of the Slave Nest, and the Yellow Devil—ah! we have talked with him and all his crew. And now are we to go on to win the gold—the real Yellow Devil, Baas?"
"I suppose so, Otter," answered Leonard—"that is, if Soa keeps her word. But it isn't gold, it is rubies. At any rate we must make for the Settlement below Sena, to take these men back and see if we can hear anything of Mavoom."
"So," said Otter after a pause. "Well, the Shepherdess, as these Settlement people call her, will want to find her father. Say, Baas, she is proud, is she not? She looks over our heads and speaks little."
"Yes, Otter, she is proud."
"And she is beautiful; no woman was ever so beautiful."
"Yes, Otter, she is beautiful."
"And she is cold, Baas; she does not say 'thank you' nicely for all that you have done."
"Perhaps she thinks it the more, Otter."
"Perhaps she thinks it the more. Still, she might say 'thank you' to you, Baas, who are her—husband."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, Baas, that you bought her first, according to our custom, and married her afterwards according to your own, and if that does not make her your wife, nothing can."