Bones Being Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders' Country , livre ebook

Pub One Info - Edgar Wallace

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109 pages

English

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You will never know from the perusal of the Blue Book the true inwardness of the happenings in the Ochori country in the spring of the year of Wish. Nor all the facts associated with the disappearance of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Blowter, Secretary of State for the Colonies.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819903475
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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I
You will never know from the perusal of the BlueBook the true inwardness of the happenings in the Ochori country inthe spring of the year of Wish. Nor all the facts associated withthe disappearance of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Blowter, Secretary ofState for the Colonies.
We know (though this is not in the Blue Books) thatBosambo called together all his petty chiefs and his headmen, fromone end of the country to the other, and assembled them squattingexpectantly at the foot of the little hillock, where sat Bosambo inhis robes of office (unauthorized but no less magnificent), theirupturned faces charged with pride and confidence, eloquent of thehold this sometime Liberian convict had upon the wayward andfearful folk of the Ochori.
Now no man may call a palaver of all small chiefsunless he notifies the government of his intention, for thegovernment is jealous of self-appointed parliaments, for when menmeet together in public conference, however innocent may be itsfirst cause, talk invariably drifts to war, just as when theyassemble and talk in private it drifts womanward.
And since a million and odd square miles ofterritory may only be governed by a handful of ragged soldiers solong as there is no concerted action against authority,extemporized and spontaneous palavers are severely discouraged.
But Bosambo was too cheery and optimistic a man todoubt that his action would incur the censorship of his lord, and,moreover, he was so filled with his own high plans and so warm andgenerous at heart at the thought of the benefits he might beconferring upon his patron that the illegality of the meeting didnot occur to him, or if it occurred was dismissed as toopreposterous for consideration.
And so there had come by the forest paths, by canoe,from fishing villages, from far-off agricultural lands near by thegreat mountains, from timber cuttings in the lower forest, higherchiefs and little chiefs, headmen and lesser headmen, till theymade a respectable crowd, too vast for the comfort of the Ochorielders who must needs provide them with food and lodgings. "Noblechiefs of the Ochori," began Bosambo, and Notiki nudged hisneighbour with a sharp elbow, for Notiki was an old man offorty-three, and thin. "Our lord desires us to give him something,"he said.
He was a bitter man this Notiki, a relative offormer chiefs of the Ochori, and now no more than over-head of fourvillages. "Wa!" said his neighbour, with his shining face turned toBosambo.
Notiki grunted but said no more. "I have assembledyou here," said Bosambo, "because I love to see you, and because itis good that I should meet those who are in authority under me toadminister the laws which the King my master has set for yourguidance."
Word for word it was a paraphrase of an addresswhich Sanders himself had delivered three months ago. His audiencemay have forgotten the fact, but Notiki at least recognized theplagiarism and said "Oh, ho!" under his breath and made a scornfulnoise. "Now I must go from you," said Bosambo.
There was a little chorus of dismay, but Notiki'svoice did not swell the volume. "The King has called me to thecoast, and for the space of two moons I shall be as dead to you,though my fetish will watch you and my spirit will walk thesestreets every night with big ears to listen to evil talk, and greatbig eyes to see the hearts of men. Yea, from this city to the veryend of my dominions over to Kalala." His accusing eyes fixedNotiki, and the thin man wriggled uncomfortably. "This man is adevil," he muttered under his breath, "he hears and sees allthings." "And if you ask me why I go," Bosambo went on, "I tell youthis: swearing you all to secrecy that this word shall not gobeyond your huts" (there were some two thousand people present toshare the mystery), "my lord Sandi has great need of me. For who ofus is so wise that he can look into the heart and understand thesorrow-call which goes from brother to brother and from blood toblood. I say no more save my lord desires me, and since I am theKing of the Ochori, a nation great amongst all nations, must I godown to the coast like a dog or like the headman of afisher-village?"
He paused dramatically, and there was a faint – avery faint – murmur which he might interpret as an expression ofhis people's wish that he should travel in a state bordering uponmagnificence.
Faint indeed was that murmur, because there was ahint of taxation in the business, a promise of levies to beextracted from an unwilling peasantry; a suggestion of lazy menleaving the comfortable shade of their huts to hurry perspiring inthe forest that gum and rubber and similar offerings should be laidat the complacent feet of their overlord.
Bosambo heard the murmur and marked its horrid lackof heartiness and was in no sense put out of countenance. "As yousay," said he approvingly, "it is proper that I should journey tomy lord and to the strange people beyond the coast – to the landwhere even slaves wear trousers – carrying with me most wonderfulpresents that the name of the Ochori shall be as thunder upon thewaters and even great kings shall speak in pride of you," he pausedagain.
Now it was a dead silence which greeted hisperoration. Notably unenthusiastic was this gathering, twiddlingits toes and blandly avoiding his eye. Two moons before he hadextracted something more than his tribute – a tribute which was theprerogative of government.
Yet then, as Notiki said under his breath, oropenly, or by innuendo as the sentiment of his company demanded,four and twenty canoes laden with the fruits of taxation had cometo the Ochori city, and five only of those partly filled hadpaddled down to headquarters to carry the Ochori tribute to theoverlord of the land. "I will bring back with me new things," saidBosambo enticingly; "strange devil boxes, large magics which willentrance you, things that no common man has seen, such as I andSandi alone know in all this land. Go now, I tell thee, to yourpeople in this country, telling them all that I have spoken to you,and when the moon is in a certain quarter they will come in joybearing presents in both hands, and these ye shall bring to me.""But, lord!" it was the bold Notiki who stood in protest, "whatshall happen to such of us headmen who come without gifts in ourhands for your lordship, saying 'Our people are stubborn and willgive nothing'?" "Who knows?" was all the satisfaction he got fromBosambo, with the additional significant hint, "I shall not blameyou, knowing that it is not because of your fault but because yourpeople do not love you, and because they desire another chief overthem. The palaver is finished."
Finished it was, so far as Bosambo was concerned. Hecalled a council of his headmen that night in his hut.
Bosambo made his preparations at leisure. There wasmuch to avoid before he took his temporary farewell of the tribe.Not the least to be counted amongst those things to be done was theextraction, to its uttermost possibility, of the levy which he hadquite improperly instituted.
And of the things to avoid, none was more urgent orcalled for greater thought than the necessity for so timing hismovements that he did not come upon Sanders or drift within therange of his visible and audible influence.
Here fortune may have been with Bosambo, but it ismore likely that he had carefully thought out every detail of hisscheme. Sanders at the moment was collecting hut tax along theKisai river and there was also, as Bosambo well knew, a murdertrial of great complexity waiting for his decision at Ikan. Aheadman was suspected of murdering his chief wife, and the onlyevidence against him was that of the under wives to whom shedisplayed much hauteur and arrogance.
The people of the Ochori might be shocked at theexorbitant demands which their lord put upon them, but they weretoo wise to deny him his wishes. There had been a time in thehistory of the Ochori when demands were far heavier, and made withgreat insolence by a people who bore the reputation of beingimmensely fearful. It had come to be a by-word of the people whenthey discussed their lord with greater freedom than he could havewished, the tyranny of Bosambo was better than the tyranny ofAkasava.
Amongst the Ochori chiefs, greater and lesser, onlyone was conspicuous by his failure to carry proper offerings to hislord. When all the gifts were laid on sheets of native cloth in thegreat space before Bosambo's hut, Notiki's sheet was missing andwith good reason as he sent his son to explain. "Lord," said thisyouth, lank and wild, "my father has collected for you manybeautiful things, such as gum and rubber and the teeth ofelephants. Now he would have brought these and laid them at yourlovely feet, but the roads through the forest are very evil, andthere have been floods in the northern country and he cannot passthe streams. Also the paths through the forest are thick andtangled and my father fears for his carriers."
Bosambo looked at him, thoughtfully. "Go back toyour father, N'gobi," he said gently, "and tell him that thoughthere come no presents from him to me, I, his master and chief,knowing he loves me, understand all things well."
N'gobi brightened visibly. He had been ready tobolt, understanding something of Bosambo's dexterity with a stickand fearing that the chief would loose upon him the vengeance hisfather had called down upon his own hoary head. "Of the evil roadsI know," said Bosambo; "now this you shall say to your father:Bosambo the chief goes away from this city and upon a long journey;for two moons he will be away doing the business of his cousin andfriend Sandi. And when my lord Bim-bi has bitten once at the thirdmoon I will come back and I will visit your father. But because theroads are bad," he went on, "and the floods come even in this dryseason," he said significantly, "and the forest is so entangledthat he cannot bring his presents, sending only the son of his wifeto me, he shall make against my coming su