russell smiled slightly in reply. apparently he expected uzali to make that guess, for he went on again unsurprised. nor had mercer time to show any astonishment.
"i am obliged to you for saving me so much trouble," russell said. "it is so pleasant to have an appreciative audience. i don't mind admitting that at the time i was more surprised than mr. uzali appears to be now. mind you, i knew samuel flower well enough. i had done a variety of work for him from time to time, some of it shady, but nothing that one could call positively dishonourable. but to see that man on that side of the globe came on me like a shock. i thought the blackguard was in london, engaged in his congenial occupation of sending coffin ships to sea and profiting by their wrecks. when i came to think of it, i remembered flower once telling me that he had been pretty well all over the world in his youth, and now i guessed what he was doing in that out-of-way spot. i knew he was there with sinister designs upon my friendly host. i knew he must be at the head of the faction of natives who were bearing down upon the devoted city."
russell paused and helped himself to a fresh cigarette.
"mind you, i am not taking credit to myself for any philanthropy," he went on. "i admit those people were very good to me, but i wanted to get back to civilization nevertheless. and i am afraid i was thinking more about those jewels than anything else. if i could succeed in reaching the coast with them, why, then, my fortune was made. all these thoughts passed swiftly through my mind as i crouched behind the friendly shelter, watching flower and his companions. there were two europeans besides himself, and some half-a-dozen natives who stood at a distance waiting for orders. it puzzled me to know what they were doing up there, and it was some little time before i could make out. but gradually the thing began to appear plainer, for one of the europeans came along with something in his hand which i made out to be an electric battery. this man silently paced along the whole length of the dam, then he proceeded to make pencil notes in a pocket-book. flower seemed to be watching him carefully, as if waiting for a verdict.
"'no great difficulty,' said the man with the pocket-book by and by. 'on the whole the thing appears feasible. it only means removing a stone or two and applying a big charge of dynamite and the thing is done. i don't think we need take the trouble to keep our men here. the less people we have about us the better. we can easily find some excuse for sending them to the coast. it is by far the most expeditious plan, to say nothing of its absolute safety.'
"'and those places down there?' flower asked.
"the man with the battery shrugged his shoulders.
"'what does it matter?' he asked. 'it will only make the game exciting afterwards—the finest game of hide-and-seek you ever had in your life. you leave it to me and i'll fix it all right. and the sooner it comes off the better.'"
russell made another pause.
"i daresay you will think me stupid," he said, "but for the moment i could not make out what those fellows were doing. i knew there was mischief on foot. i knew that samuel flower would never come all that way for nothing. but, for the life of me, i couldn't see what they were driving at. i stayed there thinking the matter over long after flower and his companions had gone, but the more i pondered the more muddled i grew. still, i decided to go down presently and see how the chief was progressing. it only wanted a glance in the moonlight to see what had happened. the poor fellow was dead. he had told me the sober truth. he had fallen by a poisoned arrow shot by one of those miscreants who had guided flower and his companions to that out-of-the-way corner of the world.
"but there was nothing for it but to wait for the morning. i went back to my own quarters sorrowfully enough, feeling that i had lost what little power i possessed, for since the chief was dead my reputation for surgery would vanish to nothing. i might alarm the natives in the morning and try to show them what was in store for them if they had not much faith in my diplomacy. i lay on my bed full of fears and none the less alarmed because i did not know in which quarter to look for the danger. i suppose i must have dozed off into a sort of sleep, when i was alarmed by a tremendous crash and boom overhead as if a mighty thunderstorm were in progress, and a moment later i heard the torrents of rain roaring down the flinty streets. even then i did not connect this with the peril to come, though it was impossible to sleep for the noise of the rushing waters, and i sat up in bed. presently i could see the yellow flood creeping into my room and almost before i knew where it was it was knee-deep on the floor.
"and then it flashed across me what had happened. the truth came too late. i saw once more in my mind's eye the man jotting down his calculations in a pocket-book. it came back to me with vivid force what he had said about the dynamite, and i knew. they had removed some of the heavy coping-stones from the top of the dam, then with the aid of their battery they had fired a mine of dynamite, and in the twinkling of an eye the dam was no more. the huge wall had been removed as if by a gigantic knife, and the great lake overhead was rushing on to the destruction of the city. in a few minutes every man, woman and child would perish, and the gigantic buildings be torn apart like so many packs of cards.
"i rose from my bed and rushed into the street where the torrent was already high. with a shudder i looked upwards and saw a huge wall of water bearing down upon me like some all-compelling cataract down an alpine mountain side. i could hear a cry now and again as something human flashed by me, but i was powerless to give any assistance; i was even powerless to secure my own safety. a moment later and the water had me in its grip, tossing and turning me over as if i had been a chip. i remember sliding over a ledge of rock and finding myself pinioned by a great mass of bushes whilst the water slid over me, leaving me free to breathe, and indeed, the mass of rock forming a huge cascade as it did, saved my life.
"goodness knows how long i was held there. it seemed that the night changed to day and the day to dusk again before the mighty roar ceased and i was free to creep from under the shelter of the rock and gaze on the destruction which had taken place around me. as to the city itself, it had vanished. the great stone buildings were gone, the mass of temples were no more, nothing remained to speak of what had been except a mighty jumble of stones at the foot of the valley. i was the sole survivor of that appalling calamity. it did not need any one to inform me that i witnessed one of the most awful tragedies of modern times. for the time being i could not even think.
"but gradually my strength and courage came back to me. i knew that i was not altogether alone. i knew now what flower and his fellow-miscreants were after. they had not dared to meet the people of the granite city single-handed; they had taken this murderous way of sweeping life out of existence, so that they might recover the lost treasures of the city without interruption.
"this knowledge was my one chance of salvation. if i could keep on the track of those people without being seen, then it was just possible that i might make my way down to the coast. i could hang about the camp at night, for they would not be likely to keep a very close watch, so that i could help myself to what food i required. for the best part of three days i hid myself closely in the daylight and prowled about at night until i got on the track of those people. as i had expected, they were after plunder alone, and gradually began to collect a mass of loot. but with all my caution there was one thing i did not succeed in finding out, and that was, where the stuff was hidden. at the end of a week they appeared to be satisfied, and one morning they moved off towards the coast. it was only by a bit of sheer luck that i managed to keep up with them. you see, i had my life to think of, for all the treasure on the island was worthless to me without that. at the end of a week we began to see signs of civilization and i could afford to drop back and let flower and his party go their own way. the strange part of the whole thing was this—when flower reached the sea, save for one european he was alone. i don't insinuate anything, but i feel certain that not one of flower's escort lived to tell the tale. i believe that every native who went with him as far as the granite city was murdered. oh, that would be nothing to a man like flower. it would be easy to make a present of a case of whisky to those natives and see that it was heavily drugged with poison. and now i think i have told you everything. every word of it is true."
"absolutely true," uzali said. "i can confirm it if necessary. for the chief you spoke of just now was well known to me; in fact, i may say that he was my elder brother."
