The League of the Leopard Part 20

"That was very kind," said Maxwell shortly, never moving his eyes from his enemy. "The eagerness was mutual. My friend here upset our breakfast equipage in his hurry to greet you. The cook, however, will get you some more presently."

Dane fancied he read satisfaction in his comrade's face when the other answered:

"I have the breakfast already. You smoke now. I have these from Cuba--he is smuggle. No? That is the pity; but we talk at least. I have affaire of importance to discuss with you."

"So I presumed," said Maxwell, with no excess of civility. "Our tent is hardly fit to enter, but there is still shade here. Please consider us attentive listeners."

"_Bien!_" Rideau carefully laid a silk handkerchief on a fallen cottonwood before he took his seat. "I come to search the gold mine, and find two men of my own color have find her already. Me, I am not greedy.

I say there is the plenty for three. So I make proposal. I go the partner with you."

"Suppose that does not suit us?" Dane broke in.

Rideau lifted one shoulder and stretched out the other arm with an air that was not wholly Gallic, but rather suggested the grimaces of a negro.

"It would be the pity. You know how we say, '_J'y suis_----?' As an American captain I have once small difference with tell me when he establish himself all day on my veranda: 'I'm here, Mr. Shylocker, and until I get what I've come for I stop right where I am.' Shylocker, I tell him, is a compliment not comprehended of me. That was a man of determination, but I vanquish him, my friends."

Hitherto something in the speaker's fastidious neatness and excessive bonhommie had, because his welcome was the reverse of cordial, prevented Dane from taking him seriously. Now there was a glint in his dark eyes which suggested that he might prove dangerous; and Dane surmised that the last sentence was meant as a warning. In any case, his blood took fire at its veiled insolence.

"It seems to me you could only have found your way here by means of a map stolen from me!" he said hotly, rising as he spoke.

Maxwell silenced him with a gesture.

"That is beside the question, Hilton. Monsieur Rideau is here, and, as he informs us, here he means to stay. The first question is whether, if we do not wish it, he is able to."

Rideau took up the challenge with outward good-humor.

"I have of camp boy two, or perhaps three, for every one I see of you.

Most he is also arm with the good rifle. If there is the bad understanding, somebody is possibly get kill, which is distressing to me. Beside, the barbaric indigene he go chop us separables, as the n.i.g.g.e.r say. United we are invincibles, _voyez vous_?"

"I believe I do," Maxwell answered, in a tone which suggested that he saw considerably more than the other's words revealed; and Dane watched the pair, as for some seconds they lapsed into silence--the Briton motionless and almost too rigid in bearing, with an expressionless face; the swarthy adventurer smiling out of s.h.i.+fty eyes, while his fingers betrayed his impatience.

Then Maxwell spoke abruptly.

"Your proposal demands serious consideration. I would prefer to give you an answer this time to-morrow."

"_Bien_," Rideau acquiesced; and after a detailed account of his adventures, which Dane surmised was wholly fict.i.tious, he took his leave.

"The savage has his virtues as well as his failings," said Maxwell, looking after him. "That man, however, is neither French nor negro, and such as he usually combine the vices of both sides of their ancestry.

What do you think of his proposal, Hilton?"

"I should have dismissed him with four expressive words. Why did you promise to consider it at all?"

Maxwell smiled dryly.

"Because I intend to do so. I will give you my reasons this evening when, after a day's consideration, I shall have them ready in a more definite shape. In the meantime, we had better continue the mining."

CHAPTER XIII

PESTILENCE

The result of the day's work was encouraging, though it cost Dane an effort to concentrate his attention upon his task. Rideau's swarthy face haunted him; he would have felt more cheerful had his companion decided to defy him. Maxwell, however, said little, and appeared to find pleasure in working with concentrated energy.

Evening came at last, and thick darkness closed about the lonely tent.

Neither of the men ate much, and when the frugal meal had been cleared away, Maxwell once more spread his map on the table.

"We have to make an eventful decision, and it might be well to consider our position," he said, laying his finger on the map. "We are somewhere here, just beyond the fringe of Shaillu's country, with a difficult and dangerous country between us and civilization, and a little-known land, whose inhabitants are supposed to be predatory tribes, to the north."

"We will take all that for granted," responded Dane. "Can you give me Rideau's record?"

"But little of it. He is evidently of mixed blood, and partly educated, a trader by profession, with a mysterious inland connection. I was told that the authorities suspect him of trafficking in unlawful weapons, or even in black humanity. I have little doubt it was he who hired the man with the scar on his forehead to arrange for Niven's destruction; and, while several points are not clear to me, I fancy he is at least partly responsible for our own misfortunes. Seeing his efforts to circ.u.mvent us fail, he has decided to join us--for a time. Lastly, I am inclined to surmise that by reason of some unlawful speculation, jointly undertaken, he has a hold on Dom Pedro, and so obtained possession of the map you lost. Now, what are we to say to him?"

"Very little, in my opinion!" grunted Dane. "Tell him to go to the devil! If that rouses his indignation, as I hope it will, I should find satisfaction in a.s.sisting him."

Maxwell smiled, but shook his head.

"Your ways are delightfully simple, but hardly practicable, Hilton," he said. "In the first place, Rideau means to stay, and has, he tells us, a force much superior to our own. Suppose we succeeded in driving him out by violence, we should have to meet a charge of filibustering when we returned to the coast, or stand a siege if he returned with a host of native allies. The one safe step in that direction would be the entrapping and total annihilation of Rideau and his party, which, presumably, would not recommend itself to you!"

"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Dane, convinced against his will. "Am I a professional murderer? Since you don't agree with mine, let me hear your views."

"In the first place we must hope that, as he suggests, there may be gold enough for three. Further, I consider Rideau least dangerous when under my own eye, and therefore consider it would be wisest to accept his proposal and watch him carefully. We shall thus have peace for a time, at least, and when necessary must endeavor to match our wits against his guile. That the man's company will not be pleasant, I need hardly say; but we can't afford to be particular with so much at stake. Remember that we came here to make money, and not in search of adventures, or to maintain our dignity."

Dane only nodded, and so the conference concluded. Sooner than lose what he hoped for he was prepared to concede anything; but it might have been better if he had adhered to his own simple plan; for it is difficult to make a bargain with such a man as Rideau, and keep it without material losses as well as diminished self-respect.

Early the next morning Rideau arrived, bringing with him an imposing number of colored desperadoes; and a written agreement was drawn up.

They were to share all risks and expenses, and divide what gold they won on its safe arrival at the coast. Rideau showed bland satisfaction when he read it through; but, before he filled a rusty pen, Dane rose and laid Bonita Castro's keepsake on the table.

"Faith is a question of training, and exactly what each man believes concerns only himself; but probably all of us respect this as a symbol,"

he said. "Is that not so, Monsieur Rideau?"

Rideau glanced from the speaker to Maxwell, and there was a gleam in his eyes, then he bent his head.

Flinging down his battered sun-hat, Dane laid his right hand on the object on the table, saying: "So I solemnly promise, first to keep this bargain and faith with my partners, if it cost me my life or fortune; and secondly, to demand a full account from either should he betray his trust, as, if I fail them, they shall do to me."

Maxwell in turn recorded his promise with quiet simplicity; but Rideau started when the object was pa.s.sed on to him. It was a beautifully wrought crucifix of medieval workmans.h.i.+p. For a moment he stared malevolently at Dane, and then a look akin to fear crept into his eyes.

But, raising one hand aloft, he pledged himself more solemnly than either, and attached his name first of all to the foot of the agreement.

He retired shortly afterward to pitch his camp, for the new partners had decided that their respective carriers would be best kept apart; and Maxwell looked at his comrade.

"Had you mentally rehea.r.s.ed that scene, Hilton?" he asked. "It was almost a stroke of genius."

"No. I don't claim to be a genius. It was simply the most solemn thing I could think of from his point of view. I meant exactly what I said, and I feel somewhat easier now that Rideau has pa.s.sed the test."

Maxwell smiled.

"You are very confiding, Hilton--and he did not pa.s.s the test. Still, considering the blend between the worthy missionaries' teaching and African superst.i.tion which, while it would probably astonish them, accounted for his momentary hesitation, Rideau is either braver or more avaricious than I supposed him. Did it occur to you that he recognized Miss Castro's gift?"