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Title: The Education of King Peter Author: Edgar Wallace * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 1306231h.html Language: English Date first posted: Nov 2013 Most recent update: Nov 2013 This eBook was produced by Roy Glashan from a donated text. Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html To contact Project Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.net.auGO TO Project Gutenberg Australia HOME PAGE
So Mr. Commissioner Niceman had a long, long palaver, that lasted days and
days, with the Chief of the Akasava people and his councilors; and in the end
moral suasion triumphed, and the people promised on a certain day, at a
certain hour, when the moon was in such a quarter and the tide at such a
height, the women should be returned, and the goats also.
So Mr. Niceman returned to Headquarters swelling with admiration for
himself, and wrote a long report about his genius and his administrative
abilities, and his knowledge of the native, which was afterward published in
Blue Book (Africa) 7,943-09.
It happened that immediately afterward Mr. Niceman went home to England on
furlough, so that he did not hear the laments and woeful waitings of the
Ochori folk when they did not get their women or their goats.
Bailman, working round the Isisi River with ten houssas and an
attack of malaria, received a helio message:
"Go Akasava and settle that infernal woman palaver.
Administration."
So Bailman girded up his loins, took twenty-five grains of quinine, and,
leaving his good work, he was searching for M'Beli, the witchdoctor, who had
poisoned a friend,—trekked across country for the Akasava.
In the course of time he came to the city, and was met by the Chief.
"What about these women?" he asked.
"We will have a palaver," said the Chief. "I will summon my headmen and my
councilors "
"Summon nothing," Bailman said shortly. "Send back the women and the goats
you stole from the Ochori."
"Master," promised the Chief, "at full moon, which is our custom, when the
tide is so, and all signs of gods and devils are propitious, I will do as you
bid."
"Chief," said Bailman, tapping the ebony chest of the other with the
handle of his walking-stick, "moon and river, gods or devils, those women and
the goats go back to the Ochori folk by sunset, or I tie you to a tree and
flog you till you bleed."
"Master," said the Chief, "the women shall be returned."
"And the goats," added Bailman.
"As to the goats," said the Chief airily, " they are dead—having
been killed for a feast."
" You will bring them back to life," said Bailman.
"Master, do you think I am a magician?" asked the Chief of the
Akasava.
"I think you are a liar," said Bailman impartially, and there the palaver
ended.
That night, goats and women returned to the Ochori, and Bailman prepared
to depart.
He took the Chief aside, not desiring to put shame upon him, or to weaken
his authority.
"Chief," he remarked, "it is a long journey to Akasava, and I am a man
fulfilling many tasks. I desire that you do not cause me any further journey
to this territory."
"Master," said the Chief truthfully, "I never wish to see you again."
Bailman smiled inwardly, collected his ten houssas, and went back to
the lsisi River to continue his search for M'Beli.
It was not a nice search, for many reasons; and there was every excuse for
believing that the King of the Isisi himself was the murderer's protector.
Confirmation of this view came, one morning, when Bailman, encamped by the
big river, was taking a breakfast of tinned milk and toast. There arrived
hurriedly Sato-Koto, the brother of the King, in great distress of mind, for
he was a fugitive from the King's wrath. He babbled forth all manner of news,
in much of which Bailman took no interest whatever. But what he said of the
witch, doctor who lived in the King's shadow was very interesting indeed, and
Bailman sent a messenger to Headquarters, and, as it transpired, Headquarters
despatched, in the course of time, Mr. Niceman—who by this time had
returned from furlough—to use moral suasion on the King of the
lsisi.
From such evidence as we have been able to collect, it is clear that the
King was not in a melting mood: it is an indisputable fact that poor
Niceman's head, stuck on a pole before the King's hut, proclaimed the King's
high spirits.
His Majesty's ships St. George, Thrush, Philome, and Phoebe
sailed from Simons Town, and H.M.S. Dwarf came down from Sierra Leone,
and in less than a month after the King had killed his guest he wished he had
not.
Headquarters sent Bailman to clear up the political side of the
trouble.
He was shown round what was left of the King's city, by the flag
lieutenant of the St. George.
"I'm afraid," remarked that gentleman apologetically,—"I am afraid
that you will have to dig out a new king. We've rather killed the old
one."
Bailman nodded.
" I shall not go into mourning," he said.
There was no difficulty in finding candidates for the vacant post. Sato-
Koto, the dead King's brother, expressed with commendable promptitude his
willingness to assume the cares of office.
"What do you say?" asked the admiral commanding the expedition.
"I say 'no,' sir," said Bailman, without hesitation. "The King has a son,
a boy of nine; the kingship must be his. As for Sato-Koto, he shall be Regent
at pleasure."
And so it was arranged, Sato-Koto sulkily assenting.
They found the new King hidden in the woods with the women folk, and he
tried to bolt; but Bailman caught him and led him back to the city by his
ear.
"My boy," he asked kindly, "how do people call you?"
"Peter, master," whimpered the wriggling lad, "in the fashion of the white
people."
"Very well," said Bailman. "You shall be King Peter, and rule this country
wisely and justly, according to custom and the law. And you shall do hurt to
none, and put shame on none; nor shall you kill, or raid, or do any of those
things that make life worth living; and if you break loose, may the Lord help
you!"
Thus was King Peter anointed monarch of the lsisi people, and Bailman,
with the little army of blue-jackets and houssas, went back to
Headquarters; for M'Beli, the witch-doctor, had been slain at the taking of
the city, and Bailman's work was finished.
The story of the taking of lsisi and the crowning of the young King was
told in the London newspapers, and lost nothing in the telling. It was so
described by the special correspondents who accompanied the expedition that
many dear old ladies wept, and many dear young ladies of Mayfair said,﹃How
sweet!﹄And the outcome of the many emotions that the descriptions evoked was
the sending out from England of Miss Clinton Calbraith, who was an M.A. and
unaccountably pretty.
She came out to "mother" the orphan King, to be a mentor and a friend. She
paid her own passage, but the books that she brought and the school-
paraphernalia that filled two large packing-cases were subscribed for by the
tender readers of Tiny Toddlers, a magazine for infants. Bailman met
her on the landing-stage, being curious to see what a white woman looked
like.
He put a hut at her disposal, and sent the wife of his coast clerk to look
after her.
"And now, Miss Calbraith," he asked, at dinner that evening, "what do you
expect to do with Peter?"
She tilted her pretty chin in the air reflectively.
"We shall start with the most elementary of lessons—the merest
kindergarten—and gradually work up; I shall teach him calisthenics, a
little botany—Mr. Bailman, you're laughing!"
"No, I wasn't," he hastened to assure her; "I always make a face like
that— er—in the evening. But tell me this; do you speak the
language—Swaheli, Bomongo, Fingi--"
"That will be a difficulty," she said thoughtfully.
"Will you take my advice?" he asked.
"Why, yes."
"Well, learn the language." She nodded. "Go home and learn it." She
frowned. "It will take you about twenty-five years."
"Mr. Bailman," she said, not without dignity, "you are making fun of
me."
" Heaven forbid," said Bailman piously, " that I should do anything so
wicked."
The end of the story, so far as Miss Clinton Calbraith was concerned, was
that she went to lsisi, stayed three days, and came back incoherent.
" He is not a child," she cried wildly. " He is—a—a little
devil!"
"So I should say," agreed Bailman philosophically.
"A king! It is disgraceful! He lives in a mud hut, and wears no clothes!
If I'd known--"
"A child of nature," said Bailman blandly. "You didn't expect a sort of
Louis Quinze, did you?"
"I don't know what I expected," she said desperately; "but it was
impossible to stay—quite impossible."
"Obviously," murmured Bailman.
"Of course, I knew he would be black," she went on; "and I knew
that—oh, it was too horrid!"
"The fact of it is, my dear young lady," said Bailman, "Peter wasn't as
picturesque as you imagined him; he wasn't the gentle child with pleading
eyes; and he lives messy. Is that it?"
This was not the only attempt to educate Peter. Months afterward, when
Miss Calbraith had gone home and was busily writing her famous book,﹃Alone
in Africa—By an English
Gentlewoman,﹄Bailman heard of another educative raid. Two members of the
Ethiopian Mission came into Isisi by the back way. The Ethiopian Mission is
made up of Christian black men, who very properly, basing their creed upon
holy writ, preach the gospel of equality. A black man is as good as a white
man any day of the week, and infinitely better on Sundays, if he happens to
be a member of the Reformed Ethiopian Church.
They came to Isisi, and achieved instant popularity, for the kind of talk
they provided was very much to the liking of Sato-Koto and the King's
councilors.
Bailman sent for the missioners. The first summons they refused to obey;
but they came on the second occasion, for the message Bailman sent was both
peremptory and ominous.
They came to Headquarters—two cultured American negroes of good
address and refined conversation. They spoke English faultlessly, and were in
every sense perfect gentlemen.
"We cannot understand the character of your command," said one, "which
savors somewhat of an interference with the liberty of the subject."
"You'll understand me better," remarked Bailman, who knew his men, "when I
tell you that I cannot allow you to preach sedition to my people."
"Sedition, Mr. Bailman!" said the negro, in shocked tones.﹃That is a
grave charge.﹄Bailman took a paper from a pigeonhole in his desk—the
interview was taking place in his office.
"On such a date," he said, "you said this, and this, and that."
In other words, he accused them of overstepping the creed of equality and
encroaching upon the borderland of political agitation.
"Lies," said the elder of the two, without hesitation.
"Truth or lie," answered Bailman, "you go no more to Isisi."
"Would you have the heathen remain in darkness?" asked the man
reproachfully. "Is the light we kindle too bright, friend?"
"No," said Bailman, "but a thought too warm."
So he committed the outrage of removing the Ethiopians from the scene of
their earnest labors, in consequence of which questions were asked in the
English Parliament.
Then the Chief of the Akasava people—an old friend—took a hand
in the education of King Peter.
Akasava adjoins that King's territory, and the Chief came to give hints in
military affairs.
He came with drums a-beating, with presents of fish and bananas and
salt.
"You are a great King," he said to the sleepy-eyed boy, who sat on the
stool of state, regarding him with open-mouthed interest. "When you walk, the
world shakes at your tread; the mighty river that goes flowing down to the
big water parts asunder at your word; the trees of the forest shiver; and the
beasts go slinking to cover when your mightiness goes abroad."
"Oh ko ko!" giggled the King, pleasantly tickled.
"The white men fear you," continued the Chief of the Akasava; "they
tremble and hide at your roar."
Sato-Koto, standing at the King's elbow, was a practical man.
"What seek ye. Chief?" he asked, cutting short the compliments.
So the Chief told him of a land peopled by cowards, rich with the
treasures of the earth, goats and women.
"Why do you not take them yourself?" demanded the Regent.
"Because I am a slave," said the Chief, "the slave of Baili, who would
beat me. But you, lord, are of the great. Being King's headman, Baili would
not beat you, because of your greatness."
There followed a palaver that lasted two days.
"I shall have to get busy with Peter," wrote Bailman despairingly to the
Administrator. "The little beggar has gone on the war-path against those
unfortunate Ochori. I should be glad if you would send me a hundred men, a
Maxim gun, and a bundle of rattan canes, I'm afraid I must attend to Peter's
education myself."
"Lord, did I not speak the truth?" said the Akasava Chief, in triumph. "
Baili has done nothing! Behold, we have wasted the city of the Ochori, and
taken their treasure, and the white man is dumb because of your greatness!
Let us wait till the moon comes again, and 1 will show you another city."
"You are a great man," bleated the King, "and some day you shall build
your hut in the shadow of my palace."
"On that day," said the Chief, with splendid resignation, " I shall die of
joy."
When the moon had waxed and waned, and come again, a penciled silver hoop
of light in the eastern sky, the Isisi warriors gathered, with spear and
broad- bladed sword, with ingola on their bodies and clay in their
hair.
They danced a great dance by the light of a huge fire, and all the women
stood around, clapping their hands rhythmically.
In the midst of this there arrived a messenger in a canoe, who prostrated
himself before the King, saying:
"Master, one day's march from here is Baili. He has with him five score of
soldiers and the brass gun which says ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
A silence reigned in court circles, which was broken by the voice of the
Akasava Chief.
"I think I will go home," he said. "I have a feeling of sickness. Also, it
is the season when my goats have their young."
"Do not be afraid," said Sato-Koto brutally. "The King's shadow is over
you, and he is so mighty that the earth shakes at his tread, and the waters
of the big river part at his footfall; also, the white men fear him."
"Nevertheless," said the Chief, with some agitation, "I must go, for my
youngest son is sickening with fever and calls all the time for me."
" Stay," said the Regent, and there was no mistaking his tone.
Bailman did not come the next day, nor the next. He was moving leisurely,
traversing a country where many misunderstandings existed that needed
clearing up. When he arrived, having sent a messenger ahead to carry the news
of his arrival, he found the city peaceably engaged.
The women were crushing corn, the men smoking, the little children playing
and sprawling about the streets.
He halted on the outskirts of the city, on a hillock that commanded the
main street, and sent for the Regent.
"Why must I send for you?" he asked. "Why does the King remain in his city
when I come? This is shame."
"Master," said Sato-Koto boldly, "it is not fitting that a great king
should so humble himself."
Bailman was neither amused nor angry. He was dealing with a rebellious
people, and his own fine feelings were as nothing to the peace of the
land.
"It would seem that the King has had bad advisers," he reflected aloud,
and Sato-Koto shuffled uneasily.
"Go now and tell the King to come—for I am his friend."
The Regent departed, but returned again alone.
"Lord, he will not come," he said sullenly.
"Then I will go to him," said Bailman.
King Peter, sitting before his hut, greeted Mr. Commissioner with downcast
eyes.
Bailman's soldiers, spread in a semi-circle before the hut, kept the
rabble at bay.
"King," said Bailman,—he carried in his hand a rattan cane of
familiar shape, and as he spoke he whiffled it in the air, making a little
humming noise,—"stand up."
"Wherefore?" said Sato-Koto.
''That you shall see," said Bailman.
The King rose reluctantly, and Bailman grabbed him by the scruff of his
neck.
Swish!
The cane caught him most undesirably, and he sprang into the air with a
yell.
Swish, swish, swish!
Yelling and dancing, throwing out wild hands to ward off the punishment,
King Peter blubbered for mercy.
"Master!" Sato-Koto, his face distorted with rage, reached for his
spear.
"Shoot that man if he interferes," ordered Bailman, without releasing the
King.
The Regent saw the leveled rifles, and hastily stepped back.
"Now," said Bailman, throwing down the cane, "now we will play a little
game."
"Wow, wow—oh ko!" sobbed His Majesty.
"I go back to the forest," said Bailman. "By and by a messenger shall come
to you saying that the Commissioner is on his way—do you
understand?"
"Yi-hi," sobbed the King.
"Then will you go out with your councilors and your old men, and await my
coming according to custom. Is that clear?"
"Ye-es, Master," whimpered the boy.
"Very good," said Bailman, and withdrew his troops.
In half an hour came a grave messenger to the King, and the court went out
to the little hill to welcome the white man.
This was the beginning of King Peter's education, for thus was he taught
obedience.
Bailman went into residence in the town of lsisi, and there he held
court.
"Sato-Koto," he said on the second day, "do you know the village of
Ikau?"
"Yes, master; it is two days' journey into the bush."
Bailman nodded.
"You will take your wives, your children, your servants, and your
possessions to the village of lkau, there to stay until I give you leave to
return. The palaver is finished."
Next came the Chief of the Akasava, very ill at ease.
"Lord, if any man says I did you wrong, he lies," said the Chief.
"Then I am a liar," answered Bailman; "for I say that you are an evil man,
full of cunning."
"If it should be," said the Chief, "that you order me to go to my village,
as you have ordered Sato-Koto, I will go, since he who is my father is not
pleased with me."
"That I order," said Bailman; "also, twenty strokes with a stick, for the
good of your soul. Furthermore, I would have you remember that down by
Tembeli, on the great river, there is a village where men labor in chains
because they have been unfaithful to the Government and have practised
abominations."
So the Chief of the Akasava people went out to punishment.
There were other matters, of a minor character, requiring adjustment; but
when these were all settled to the satisfaction of Bailman, but by no means
to the satisfaction of the subjects, the Commissioner turned his attention to
the further education of the King.
" Peter," he said, "to-morrow, when the sun comes up, I go back to my own
village, leaving you without councilors."
"Master, how may I do without councilors, since I am a young boy ?"asked
the King, crestfallen and chastened.
" By saying to yourself, when a man calls for justice, 'If I were this
man, how should I desire the King's justice?'"
The boy looked unhappy. "I am very young," he repeated, "and to-day there
come many from outlying villages, seeking redress against their enemies."
"Very good," said Bailman; "to-day I will sit at the King's right hand and
learn of his wisdom."
The boy stood on one leg in his embarrassment, and eyed Bailman
askance.
There was a hillock behind the town. A worn path led up to it, and atop it
was a thatched hut without sides. From this hillock could be seen the broad
river with its sandy shoals, where the crocodiles slept with open mouth, and
the rising ground toward Akasava, hills that rose one on top of another,
covered with a tangle of vivid green. In this house sat the King in judgment,
beckoning the litigants forward. Sato-Koto was wont to stand beside the King,
bartering justice.
To-day Sato-Koto was preparing to depart, and Bailman sat at the King's
side.
There were indeed many litigants.
There was a man who had bought a wife, giving no less than a thousand rods
and two bags of salt for her. He had lived for three months with her, when
she departed from his house.
"Because," said the man philosophically, "she had a lover. Therefore,
Mighty Sun of Wisdom, I desire the return of my rods and my salt."
"What say you?" asked Bailman.
The King wriggled uncomfortably.
"What says the father?" he said hesitatingly, and Bailman nodded.
"That is a wise question," he approved, and called the father—a
voluble and eager old man.
"Lord King," he said hurriedly, " I sold this woman, my daughter. How
might I know her mind? Surely I fulfil my contract when the woman goes to the
man—how shall a father control when a husband fails?"
Bailman looked at the King again, and the boy drew a long breath.
"It would seem, M'bleni, that the woman, your daughter, lived many years
in your hut, and if you do not know her mind either you are a great fool or
she is a cunning one. Therefore, I judge that you sold this woman knowing her
faults. Yet, the husband might accept some risk also. You shall take back
your daughter and return five hundred rods and a bag of salt; and if it
should be that your daughter marries again, you shall pay one half of her
dowry to this man."
Very, very slowly he gave judgment, hesitatingly, anxiously, glancing now
and again to the white man for approval.
"That was good," said Bailman, and called forward another pleader.
"Lord King," said the new plaintiff, "a man has put an evil curse on me
and my family, so that they sicken."
Here was a poser for the little judge, and he puzzled the matter out in
silence, Bailman offering no help.
"How does he curse you?" at last asked the King.
"With the curse of death," said the complainant in a hushed voice.
"Then you shall curse him also," said the King, "and it shall be a
question of whose curse is the stronger."
Bailman grinned behind his hand, and the King, seeing the smile, smiled
also.
From that time on, Peter's progress was rapid, and there came to
Headquarters from time to time, in the course of years, stories of a young
king who was a Solomon in judgment.
So wise he was (who knew of the formula he applied to each case?), so
beneficent, so peaceable, that the Chief of the Akasava, from whom tribute
was periodically due, took advantage of the gentle administration, and sent
neither corn nor fish nor grain. He did this after a journey to far-away
Ikau, where he met the King's uncle, Sato-Koto, and they agreed upon common
action. Since the crops were good, the King overlooked the first fault; but
the second tribute came due, and neither Akasava nor Ikau sent; and the
people of Isisi, angry at the insolence, murmured, and the King sat down in
the loneliness of his hut to think upon a course that would be both just and
effective.
"I really am sorry to bother you," wrote Bailman to the Administrator,
again, "but I shall have to borrow your houssas for the Isisi country.
There has been a tribute palaver, and Peter went down to Ikau and wiped up
his uncle; he filled in his spare time by giving the Akasava the worst
licking they ever have had. I thoroughly approve of all that Peter has done,
because I feel that he is actuated only by the keenest sense of justice and a
desire to do the right thing at the right time—and it was time
Sato-Koto was killed; but I shall have to reprimand Peter, for the sake of
appearances. The Akasava Chief is in the bush, hiding."
Peter came back to his capital after his brief but strenuous campaign,
leaving behind him two territories that were all the better for his visit,
though somewhat sore.
The young King brought together his old men, his witch-doctors, and other
notabilities.
"By all the laws of white men," he said, "I have done wrong to Baili;
because he has told me I must not fight, and, behold, I have destroyed my
uncle, who was a dog, and I have driven the Chief of the Akasava into the
forest. But Baili told me, also, that I must do what was just, and that I
have done, according to my lights, for I have destroyed a man who put my
people to shame. Now, it seems to me that there is only one thing to do, and
that is to go to Baili, telling the truth and asking him to judge."
"Lord King," said the oldest of his councilors, "what if Baili puts you to
the chain- gang?"
"That is with to-morrow," quoth the King, and gave orders for preparations
to be made for departure.
Half way to Headquarters, the two met, King Peter going down and Bailman
coming up. And here befell the great incident.
No word was spoken of Peter's fault before sunset.
When blue smoke arose from the fires of houssa and warrior, and the
little camp in the forest clearing was all a-chatter, Bailman took the King's
arm and led him along the forest path.
Peter told his tale, and Bailman listened.
"And what of the Chief of the Akasava?" he asked.
"Master," said the King, "he fled to the forest, cursing me, and with him
went many bad men."
Bailman nodded again gravely.
They talked of things till the sun threw long shadows, and then they
turned to retrace their footsteps. They were within half a mile of the camp,
and the faint noise of men laughing and the faint scent of fires burning came
to them, when the Chief of the Akasava stepped out from behind a tree and
stood directly in their path. With him were some eight fighting-men, fully
armed.
"Lord King," said the Chief of the Akasava, "I have been waiting for
you."
The King made neither movement nor reply, but Bailman quickly reached for
his revolver.
His hand had closed on the butt, when something struck him, and he went
down like a log.
"Now we will kill the King of the lsisi, and the white man also."
The voice was the Chief's; but Bailman was not taking any particular
interest in the conversation, because there was a hive of wild bees buzzing
in his head, and a mazy pain; he felt sick.
"If you kill me, it is little matter," said the King's voice, "because
there are many men who could take my place. But if you slay Baili, you slay
the father of the people, and none can replace him."
"He whipped you, little King," said the Chief of the Akasava
mockingly.
"That also is true," said the King's voice calmly; "yet many little boys
have been whipped without shame."
After a long interval:
"I would throw him into the river," said a strange voice; "thus shall no
trace be found of him, and no man will lay his death to our door."
"What of the King? "said another. Then came a crackling of twigs and the
voices of men.
"They are searching," came a voice, in a whisper. " King, if you speak, I
will kill you now."
"Kill," said the young King's even voice; and he shouted, "Oh, M'sabo!
Beteli! Baili is here!"
That was all that Bailman heard.
Two days later he sat up in bed and demanded information. There was a
young doctor with him, when he woke, who had providentially arrived from
Headquarters.
"The King?" He hesitated. "Well—they finished the King. But he saved
your life—I suppose you know that?"
Bailman said "yes" without emotion.
"A plucky little beggar," suggested the doctor.
"Very," said Bailman; then, "Did they catch the Chief of the Akasava?"
"Yes. He was so keen on finishing you that he delayed his bolting; the
King threw himself on you and covered your body--"
"That will do."
Bailman's voice was harsh and his manner brusque at the best of times, but
now his rudeness was brutal.
"Just go out of the hut, doctor—I want to sleep."
He heard the doctor move, heard the rattle of the "click" at the hut door;
then he turned his face to the wall and wept.
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