In the Depths of the Dark Continent: or, The Vengeance of Van Vincent

CHAPTER XVI.
A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY

The two villains had no sooner tumbled from their steeds than the rest of the horses scattered in every direction, their riders flopping about upon them like a set of scarecrows.

"By thunder!" ejaculated Lank Edwards. "If them ain't dummies on them horses I'm a living sinner!"

"You are right," returned Van. "Come! we will go out and see if Doc Clancy and his partner are really dead."

The words scarcely left our hero's lips when Doc Clancy suddenly sprang to his feet, and, mounting his horse, sped away with the speed of the wind.

It all happened so quickly that our friends were unable to make a move to stop him.

Lank Edwards again raised his rifle to his shoulder, and was about to shoot at the fleeing villain, when Van detained him.

"Don't!" said he. "I want to capture him alive, if possible."

"But he'll git away," persisted the mate.

"Well, let him; we will catch him again."

The horses with the dummies upon their backs now started at a sharp gallop after the one rode by Doc Clancy.

Van led the way to the spot where the other scoundrel lay, and found him breathing heavily, with a wound in his right breast.

A single glance told all hands that the man was dying.

"Give me some whisky," he murmured, faintly.

Jack Howard quickly placed his flask to the dying man's lips.

After taking a couple of huge swallows, the fellow breathed a sigh of relief.

"I suppose you want to know where we got the horses and rigged 'em up," said he. "Well, I'll tell you. We found 'em in the woods t'other side of the plain. They belong to a nation of people who seem to be civilized, from what we seen of 'em, and were rigged with the dummies when we came across 'em. They followed us the minute we turned tail to the place, and Doc, he says it would be a good idea to ride back and get the best of you fellows. Where is Doc?" and he endeavored to raise himself upon his elbow to look around.

"He has escaped," replied Van.

"Well, he'll have to go it alone now. I'm about done for, I guess. Whoever fired that shot meant me; but I'm satisfied. I've been a bad man, and shan't kick now because I've been done up by the ones I've been trying to injure so long. Give – me – a – a – little – more – whisk – "

Before the sentence was finished the man gave a gasp and fell back, dead.

"It is a wonder that he lived as long as he did," said Dr. Pestle, examining the wound. "Let us give the wretch a decent burial and then be off. He spoke about civilized people; we must look them up."

There being no objections, a grave was scooped in the soft earth and the body buried.

Then our friends mounted their horses and started over the plain in the direction taken by Doc Clancy and the herd of horses.

Darkness overtook them before they reached the timber belt at the other side, but as it was moonlight, they kept right on.

A couple of hours later they reached the timber and followed a level roadway through it.

The belt was less than a mile wide, and ten minutes later the party halted, for the simple reason that they could go no further in that direction.

A huge stone wall, not unlike the great wall of China, was before them.

An iron gate of massive proportions stretched across the roadway, which showed that our friends had arrived at the entrance of some undiscovered city.

"Well, well!" exclaimed Prof. Drearland, in a tone of delight. "We have made the greatest discovery of the age. Who would have believed that such a thing as a thick wall of masonry and a huge gate of iron was in the very heart of Africa, where it is supposed that naught but wild beasts and savages live? This is something grand, my friends. We must get that gate open and see what lies beyond."

All hands agreed with the professor, and then Van dismounted, and, striking a match, held it close to the ground.

He could see the fresh prints of horses' hoofs very plainly, and this told him that Doc Clancy and the troop of horses must have gone through the gateway.

"We must open the gate," he said, rising to his feet. "Come! we will see if it is possible to do so."

Van had scarcely spoken when the huge, iron structure swung noiselessly open, as if by magic.

In an instant our hero was upon the back of his horse.

"Come!" said he. "We may be going into a trap, but I am ready to take the risk. Will you follow me?"

"We will!" came the reply from all hands.

The next moment the boy urged his horse through the gateway, and his companions boldly followed him.

As soon as the last one was through, the gate swung back to its former place, making no noise whatever.

"I don't like this business," observed Lank Edwards, with a shake of his head. "It looks as thought ther old boy has got somethin' ter do with this place. Howsumever, I'll stick to ther crowd."

"We may as well go on," said Jack Howard. "We are in for it now, anyway. Here is a fine, level road before us, and we may as well follow it."

"Of course," rejoined Van. "Doc Clancy has gone this way, and so must we."

Leaving the gate behind them, they started along the road at a brisk canter.

The moon, which had been shining brightly a short time before, was now covered with clouds, and the sky showed signs of rain.

Therefore, it behooved our friends to reach a sheltered spot as soon as possible.

Presently it became so dark that they could no longer see their way ten feet ahead of them.

They came to a halt.

They had scarcely done so when they became aware of the fact that they were very close to a building of some sort.

They could see its front not ten feet from them.

Van dismounted and approached the building.

As luck would have it, he struck the door of the place at the first attempt.

Pressing his knee against it, he gave a gentle shove.

Contrary to his expectations, it opened readily enough.

Just then huge drops of rain began falling.

"We are in luck!" exclaimed Van, turning to his friends. "Here is a stone building, which I don't believe is occupied. The door is open, so we may as well go in and stay till morning."

The doorway was a large one, and was on a level with the ground, and, noticing this, Jack suggested that they bring their horses in, as well.

There were no objections, so in the whole party filed, all on horseback save Van, who led his steed.

As soon as they got inside, Dr. Pestle struck a match.

By the light it made they saw they were in a broad hallway, which looked as though it had not been used for a generation or more.

A broad staircase led upward from the hall, and as soon as they saw this they decided to leave their horses where they were, and use the next story of the building for themselves.

This move was no sooner decided upon than our hero was leading the way upstairs.

His companions followed slowly behind him.

When they reached the landing Jack struck a match.

The floor was in one vast room, which looked so ancient and strange that a feeling of awe came over them.

"I say, Van, what do you think of this?" remarked Jack, turning around.

But there was no answer to his question.

Much mystified Jack glanced at his companions.

They were all there but Van.

"Van – Van!" he shouted. "Where are you?"

But there was no reply. Our hero had vanished as mysteriously as though he had been swallowed by an unseen goblin.

CHAPTER XVII.
WHAT BEFELL DOC CLANCY

It will now be the proper thing for us to follow Doc Clancy and see how the villain fared after his escape from our friends.

The bullet from the rifle of Lank Edwards had not touched him, but, seeing his companion fall, he concluded to do likewise, for fear he might be fired upon again.

When he sprang upon his horse again and dashed away, he did not turn his head to see whether his friend had been killed or not, but galloped away from the spot with all the speed his horse could command.

What the dead man had told our friends about the herd of horses with his dying breath was true.

The two scoundrels had followed the roadway to the massive iron gate, and here discovered the queerly mounted animals waiting to get inside the wall.

They thought it best to leave, and when the herd followed them, Doc Clancy was in high glee.

He thought he would surely best Van and his party now. But the reader knows how well he succeeded.

When the fleeing scoundrel had placed a quarter of a mile between himself and our friends, he turned in the saddle and saw them digging a hole in the ground.

"The poor devil must be dead," he muttered. "Well, I'll have to go it alone now. I suppose I had better make direct for that gate and try and get inside it and make friends with the people who live there. If I can do that, I may be able to set them against that young upstart, Van Vincent, and the rest of his gang. Well, I'll try it, anyhow. Here goes."

Clancy did not halt until he reached the gate, and he was just wondering how he was going to get through, when it opened.

Without any hesitation, the villain rode through, the herd of horses following him.

It was now dark, but he determined to let the horses take him to where they belonged. He had not proceeded very far before he noticed a number of ruined stone buildings, but as the animals did not appear to want to stop at any of these, he kept on.

When he had covered perhaps three miles over the hard, level road, he beheld a city before him – such as he had never beheld before.

We say a city, for though it did not contain over two hundred buildings, yet it was a city as far as its general appearance went. All its buildings were tall and beautiful, and built of stone, while the streets were broad and well paved.

The moment Doc Clancy entered it with the herd of horses at his back, a number of men rushed out to meet him and proceeded to catch the horses.

As the moon was now covered with heavy clouds for the first time that night, Clancy was not observed at all, and his horse was led away with those who had the dummies on their backs.

They were all placed in a large, comfortable stable, and then the men proceeded to remove the figures from their backs.

Doc Clancy now began to grow very uneasy.

He began to think of what would happen when they discovered that one of the animals had a real man on its back.

But the villain was desperate, and determined not be killed or captured.

Watching his opportunity, he slid from his horse's back, and then quickly removed the rude bridle from its head.

"Now," thought he, "I'll lay low till these fellows go out. Then I'll sneak outside myself and see what sort of a place this is."

This was a successful move, the men not noticing the deception at all.

Fifteen minutes later they left the stable. It was now raining, but Doc Clancy determined to go out, just the same.

Pushing his way between the horses, who were now munching their evening meal in a contented manner, he at length reached the door.

"This is a pretty tough night to go out, when you have nice, dry quarters like this to stay in; but I must see what sort of a place I am in, and work a way to make myself welcome," muttered Clancy, as he buttoned his coat about his neck.

The next moment he stepped outside in the storm.

The lights from houses on all sides of him could be seen, and he concluded to approach one of them and look in the window.

Selecting the nearest house for his purpose, he began crawling stealthily toward it.

In less than two minutes he was at the window.

A muffled cry of astonishment escaped the villain's lips as he peered in.

He was gazing into an oblong room, furnished something after the Oriental fashion.

The walls and ceiling seemed to be a glittering mass of gold and silver, and the light from a score of candles, thrust in candlesticks of the same metal, made the scene a dazzling one, to say the least.

Reclining on a divan was a woman, or, rather, a girl, for she could not have been over sixteen years of age.

She, too, looked like one of the dazzling beauties of the Orient, and was robed like the women of Egypt.

As Doc Clancy gazed at the ravishingly beautiful creature, his eyes sparkled.

"By Jove!" he muttered; "if I could only make friends with the people of this place, and then marry that girl, I think I should be as happy as a king. If I only dared, I would open the window. My! what a beautiful creature! I'll do it, anyhow."

Seizing the sash, he thrust it aside, and then sprang into the room with a single bound.

Foolish man! That was the very worst thing he could have done, and if he had only stopped to think he would never have done it.

As Clancy landed upon the floor the girl sprang from the divan and uttered a wild scream of terror.

"Keep still, my girl; I'm not going to harm you," Clancy hastened to exclaim.

But that one scream did the business.

The next instant a curtain was thrown aside and half a dozen men rushed in.

Before Doc Clancy could make a move, he was seized and thrown upon his back on the floor.

A silken cord was wound tightly about his arms and legs, and then in a twinkling of an eye he was whisked from the room.

His captors did not stop until they had descended a flight of stone steps, and Doc Clancy, who was now thoroughly frightened, felt a draught of chilly air blowing upon him.

Along a damp passage he was conducted, the men carrying lighted candles to show them their way.

Suddenly they came to a halt in a large, cellar-like chamber, and deposited their prisoner on the ground.

"I say," pleaded Clancy, "let me go, won't you? I'll get out of your country right away, if you will."

"Silence! you dog of an Englishman," exclaimed one of the men. "You must die! You sealed your death warrant when you dared to enter the private apartment of one of our chiefs' daughters."

"Oh, I know you will save me," whined the wretch. "You can speak my language, and surely you will not see me killed just because I came to your city a stranger and made a mistake."

"It matters not whether I speak your language or not. To-morrow you must be thrown in the lion's den; you must beg him to spare you, not us."

As if to doubly seal Doc Clancy's death sentence, a terrible roar rang out close at hand.

The villain had journeyed far enough through the African wilds to know what caused it.

It was the roar of a hungry lion.

"That is the fellow you will have to meet in the morning," said the man who had before addressed him. "We will place you in this pit next to him. Sleep well!"

Without any further ceremony, a door was opened and Doc Clancy, still bound hand and foot, was tumbled into a pit about twenty feet square.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE AFRICAN UTOPIA

But what became of Van Vincent? the reader might ask.

By the time his companions started to ascend the stairs, he had reached the landing above.

Regardless of the fact that it was pitch dark, and that he was in a strange place, he started to walk straight for the head of the staircase.

He did not take over ten steps before he brought up against a partition with a jar, which immediately gave way.

Van heard the noise made by his friends ascending the stairs, and then he went shooting downward with the velocity of a cannon ball.

He had a recollection of rolling over and over in some damp, foul-smelling place, and then he lost consciousness.

When he came to again he found himself in an elegantly furnished apartment with a man bending over him.

"Where am I?" gasped the boy, gazing wildly about him.

"You are all right now," was the reply. "You had quite a fall, but I have examined you and find no bones broken. Here, drink this, and you will feel first rate."

Van placed his lips to the shining metal mug that was proffered him, and drank its contents almost at a single gulp.

It tasted like wine, only more delicious than any he had ever drank before.

As the strange man said it would, it made him feel better, and he arose to a sitting posture.

Van glanced long and earnestly at the man before he uttered a word.

He saw that he was a Caucasian, attired in Oriental costume, and that was all there was of it.

"Who are you?" asked the boy; "and what place am I in?"

"You are in the African Utopia, which is situated in the wildest part of the Dark Continent," was the reply. "Now, let me ask you a question: How did you get here?"

"I traveled from the mouth of the Congo River," returned Van.

"What purpose had you in risking your life to make such a dangerous journey?"

"I came here partly because I am following a man who murdered my uncle, and whom I have sworn to take back to the United States, if he is not killed before I am able to do it."

"You said 'partly'; you must have another reason for coming here, then?"

"Yes; I fell in with some Englishmen, who were starting on an exploring trip, and joined their party."

"Where are they now?" asked the man.

"In the house where you found me – or, at least, they were the last I saw of them."

"You say in the house where I found you. How do you know but that you are in the same house yet?"

"I might be, but I don't believe it. That building was an old, tumble-down affair, and, judging from the appearance of this room, this is not."

"You are right, boy. You are two miles from the place where you had the fall. I had been out setting a trap to catch a lion, and on my way back stopped in the cellar of the old building. Almost the first thing I stumbled upon was your body, and, finding that you were one of my own nationality, apparently, I threw you upon my horse's back and brought you here."

"Well," said Van, after a pause, "I should like to go and look up my friends."

"You remain just where you are. I'll send out a couple of men to hunt up your friends. You lie down and go to sleep, and you will surely see them in the morning."

"I guess I'll do as you say," returned our hero. "To tell the truth I am so sleepy I can scarcely keep my eyes open."

Whether it was the drink that caused it, or whether it was because he was completely tired out, we cannot say, but, anyhow, five minutes later Van Vincent was sleeping soundly upon the soft divan.

The sun was shining brightly when he awoke, which informed him that another day had arrived, and also that the storm had cleared.

He was in the same room he had fallen asleep in, and, rising from the divan, Van went to the window.

As he looked out and saw that he was in a little city, a cry of surprise came from his lips.

"So this is the African Utopia," he mused. "Well, it looks like a place where naught but enjoyment could be found. I never saw such a beautiful spot in my life."

Our hero's meditations were cut rather short, for at that moment a door opened and a number of people entered.

To his great joy, he beheld his friends standing before him.

Yes, they were there in reality – Jack, Lank Edwards, Joe, and the professor and doctor.

Van did not utter a word till he had shook the hand of each.

"Where did you stay all night?" he then asked.

"In this house," replied Jack.

"You did?"

"Sure!" exclaimed Lank Edwards. "After we got tired lookin' for you in ther old building, we went downstairs by ther horses. About half an hour after that along comes two men, who said as how you sent for us. When we got here ther boss of ther house explained things to us, an' said as how you were asleep, so we concluded to wait till morning afore we seed you."

"That's about all there is of it," said Jack, with a laugh. "But come! our host is waiting for us to come to breakfast. A deuced fine place we have struck, I can tell you!"

Van followed his companions from the room, and then all hands entered an elegant dining room, where the man he had met the night before was awaiting them.

A few minutes later they were seated at a table, enjoying a sumptuous repast.

During the meal our friends learned considerable about the little city they were in.

Three hundred years before, a band of Egyptians had discovered it almost the same as it now was, only that it was deserted.

The race who had built it had in some way become extinct, but their handiwork still remained, and glad enough were the little band to take it as their future home.

One hundred years after the band of Egyptians – numbering less than fifty – took possession of the city within the wonderful wall, it had over five hundred inhabitants, and with the growth of its people many improvements were made.

During the last century more than one exploring party – or what was left of the original party – had reached it and found it a veritable haven of rest and contentment.

As yet, no man who had ever reached the city had made the attempt to leave it, and thus it was that its inhabitants numbered over two thousand, nearly all modern languages being spoken by them.

Such a thing as money was not used in African Utopia. All hands worked, and the results of their different labors were freely exchanged, thus making everything of value equal to money.

When a man became too lazy to work for his living, he was thrown to a hungry lion as a warning to any who might chance to follow in his footsteps.

The people governed the beautiful place by electing a set of officers every year, and everything went on like clockwork.

The finest of silks and morocco were produced here, and the architects and builders were equal to any in the world.

Of course, our friends were much astonished when they learned all this, but they were forced to believe it when they looked at their surroundings.

They were at the breakfast table nearly two hours, and when they at length arose their host, who gave his name as Poppet, told them to follow him and they would see something worth looking at.

They were all glad to get outside, and when they did so they could no longer wonder why it was that none who came to the place ever left.

The air was balmy and soft, and as our friends breathed it they felt exhilarated and refreshed.

"By Jove!" exclaimed Dr. Pestle, "I'll bet that such a thing as lung troubles are unknown here. Never in my life before have I breathed such pure air."

After ten minutes' walk their host halted before a pit, which had a strong iron railing around it.

"Look down there!" said he.