CHAPTER XXVI--THE PALE-FACE QUEEN HAS FLED

Leeboo, the young queen, could see that the woman was flurried and excited.

She stood with her face to the pony and one arm was held aloft in the air. Her eyes were gleaming, and her hat had fallen over her back, allowing her wealth of coal-black hair to escape.

Weenah stood by the saddle.

"I have that to say," exclaimed her mother, in her strangely musical language, "that must be said speedily. If I am seen we are all doomed. But listen, and listen intently. You are free if you are fortunate. Liberty is at hand. Your friends are twenty miles down stream in camp. Down the stream of Bitter Waters. Ride this way to-morrow, and when far enough away take Weenah in your saddle, and gallop for your life into the forest. Weenah will be your guide."

So quickly did the woman vanish that for a few moments our heroine half believed she must have been dreaming.

But she pulled herself together at once, and now rode back to meet Kaloomah.

She was all smiles too.

"Why waits poor Kaloomah here?" she said, in her softest sweetest tones.

Kaloomah placed his hand on the saddle pommel, and panted somewhat. But Kaloomah was in the seventh heaven.

"Say--say--say 'poor Kaloomah' again," he muttered.

"Poor Kaloomah! Poor dear Kaloomah!"

She could even afford to place emphasis on the "dear", she was so happy.

"Oh--ugh!" sighed the savage; "but to-morrow it may be 'poor dear Kalamazoo!'"

"Ah, you are jealous! A little forest bird is pecking, pecking at your heart. But listen; to-morrow it shall not be Kalamazoo, but Kaloomah once again."

Well, I dare say that love-making is very much the same all over the wide, wide world, and so we cannot even laugh at this cannibal if he did bend rapturously down and kiss the toe of Leeboo's sandal-shaped stirrup.

"And now, Kaloomah," she added, "I would gather some wild flowers, and listen for a little while to the soo-soo's song while you twine my wild flowers into a garland. My little handmaiden, Weenah, will assist you.

"But, Kaloomah!" she continued archly.

"Yes, my moon-dream."

"You must not make love to my maiden, else a little forest bird will peck poor Leeboo's heart to pieces and Leeboo die."

----

I hardly think it would be putting it one whit too strongly to say that the pale-face maiden queen had turned this savage's head.

They all returned together at last to the palace, and the queen with her little handmaiden retired to her chamber to dine.

As to Kaloomah, the spirit of pride had got into him, and this is really as difficult to get rid of as if one were possessed of an evil spirit. So the chief, decorated with the garland of wild flowers that Leeboo the queen had placed around his neck, could not resist the temptation to parade himself on the plateau before Kalamazoo's tent. He wished the prince to see him. And the prince did.

The prince, moreover, was strongly tempted to rush forth, spear in hand, and slay his rival where he stood.

But he remembered in time that Kaloomah was not only a great chief but a mighty warrior. Over and over again had he led the cannibal army against the glens and valleys of distant highland chiefs. And he had been ever victorious, his soldiers returning after a great slaughter of the foe, laden with heads and hams, to hold nights and nights of fearful orgie.

Kalamazoo knew that Kaloomah was the people's favourite, and that if he slew him, he himself would speedily be torn limb from limb.

So he was content to gnash his own teeth, to count his mother's over and over again, and to remain quiescent.

It is seldom indeed that a savage is troubled with sleeplessness, but that night poor Benee was far too anxious to slumber soundly. For he knew not what another day might bring forth. It might be pregnant with happiness for him and the young girls he loved so dearly, or it might end in bloodshed and in death.

What a glorious morning broke over the woodlands at last! Looking eastwards Benee could note a strip of the deepest orange just above the dark forest horizon. This faded into palest green, and above all was ethereal blue, with just one or two rosy clouds. And westwards those patches of snow in the hollow of the mighty Sierras were pink, with purple shadows.

And this innocent and unsophisticated savage bent himself low on his knees and prayed to Him who is the author of all that is beautiful, to bless his enterprise and take his little mistress safe away from this blood-stained land of darkness and woe.

He felt better when he rose to his feet. Then he entered the cottage and had breakfast.

"I will come again some day," he said, as his "mother" bade him a tearful farewell. "I will come again and take Father and you to the far-off happy land of the pale-faces."

So he hied him away to the forest, looking back just once to wave his hand.

He well knew the road that Weenah and Leeboo--no, let us call her Peggy once more--would take, if indeed they should succeed in escaping.

He walked towards the river of Bitter Waters therefore, and, journeying for some miles along its wild romantic banks, lay down to wait.

Wild flowers trailed and climbed among the bushes where he hid; he saw not their bright colours, he was scarcely sensible of their perfume.

The soo-soo's song was sweet and plaintive; he heard it not.

He was wholly absorbed in thought. So the sun got higher and higher, and still he waited and watched--waited and hoped.

Only, ever and anon he would place his ear against the hard ground and listen intently.

'Twas noon, and they came not.

Something must have happened. Everything must have failed.

What should he do? What could he do?

----

But hark! A joyful sound. It was that of a horse at the gallop, and it was coming nearer and nearer.

Benee grasped his rifle.

It must be she. It must, and was poor Peggy, and Weenah was seated behind her.

He looked quickly to his repeating rifle, and patted the revolvers in his belt.

"Oh, Benee, Benee! how rejoiced I am!"

"But are you followed, Missie Peggy?"

"No, no, Benee, we have ridden clean and clear away from the savage chief Kaloomah, and we fear no pursuit."

"Ah, Missie! You not know de savage man. I do. Come. Make track now.

"Weenah," he added. "Oh, my love, Weenah! But come not down. We mus' fly foh de cannibal come in force."

It seemed but child's play to Benee to trot lightly along beside the pony.

Love, no doubt, made the labour lighter. Besides, on faithful little Dixie's back was all that Benee cared much for in the world, Weenah and "Missie Peggy".

True enough, he liked and respected Roland, and Dick as well, but they were not all the world to him as these girls were. And ever since he had found Roland and Peggy in the dark forest and rescued them, his little mistress had been in his eyes an angel. Never an unkind word was it possible for her to say to anyone, least of all--so he flattered himself--to Benee.

The poor, untutored savage felt, in his happiness, at this moment, that it would be sweet to die were the loved ones only near to hold his hand.

But he could die, too, fighting for them; ay, fighting to the end. Who was he that would dare touch the ground where Peggy or Weenah trod if he--Benee--were there?

And so they journeyed on and on by the river's side and through jungle and forest, never dreaming of danger or pursuit.

Ah! but wild as a panther was Kaloomah now.

When he found that he was baffled, befooled, deserted, then all his fury--the fury of an untamed savage--boiled up from the bottom of his heart.

Love! Where was love now? It found no place in this wild chief's heart; hate had supplanted it, and it was a hate that must be quenched in blood. Yes, her blood! He would be revenged, and then--well then, the sooner he should die after that the better. For his life's sun had gone out, his days could only be days of darkness now.

Yet how happy had he been only this morning, and how proud when he stalked forth from his hut and passed that of Kalamazoo, still wearing the wild flowers with which she had adorned him!

He tore those wild flowers from his neck now, and scattered them to the winds.

Then, as fast and fleet as ever savage ran, he hied him back to the palace.

Few had more stentorian lungs than Kaloomah!

"The queen has gone! The white queen has fled!"

That shout awakened one thousand armed men to action, and in less than an hour they were on the warpath.