CHAPTER I.

THE KING OF THE NARUGAS.

“Well, young man, I think we can tell you where Miller has gone and that is about all the good it’ll do us or you either!”

“If I know where he is I can get him!”

“That’s what you Yankees call a bluff, isn’t it?”

“I’ll show my cards if you call my hand!” was the dry response.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I see that you have never played poker, chief. If you did you’d understand the meaning of the word bluff.

“I’m simply telling you if you think I’m bluffing all you’ve got to do is to give me a chance to show whether I mean what I say or not; and to make it perfectly plain I’ll say again that if you know where Miller is I shall be able to go and get him.”

Trim was in police headquarters at Kimberley, South Africa.

He was talking with the chief of police and the subject of their conversation was a plan that Trim had proposed for the capture of a dangerous criminal who was wanted, not only by the police of Kimberley, but of Cape Town also.

Trim had had two experiences with this criminal, whose name was Jemmy Miller.

In the first instance Miller, who was a steeple climber by trade, had attempted to murder Trim, and failing, had escaped capture at the time by the exercise of his wonderful skill in climbing.

An account of this matter has been published in “Trim in Cape Town,” No. 9 NEW NICK CARTER WEEKLY.

Detective business had brought Trim to Kimberley, where he had exposed a gang of robbers who had obtained possession of a vast quantity of diamonds.

During the investigation of this matter he had again come across Miller and it was certain that the steeple climber was connected with the diamond thieves.

He had given them warning of Trim’s approach and while the young detective and the old sailor, who was his companion in Africa, were busy with other members of the gang, Miller had made good his escape.

After all the other members of the gang had been captured Trim had made up his mind that for his own satisfaction he would undertake to put Miller behind the bars.

When he returned from an all-night chase after the last of the robbers, he told the chief of police that if his local detectives would make an effort to find in which direction Miller had gone he, Trim, would undertake to give chase and bring the fellow to justice.

The chief had willingly consented to this plan and on the following morning Trim called at headquarters to learn what progress had been made.

After a long sleep the boy felt as fresh and active as ever and eager to begin work. It therefore made him impatient when the chief sneered at his confidence in his ability to catch Miller.

“I’ve heard of the great American game of poker,” remarked the chief, “but I have never played it, so I won’t try to talk about bluffing again.

“What I mean to say is that while we all admire your courage and shrewdness and while we are willing to admit that you’ve done the colony a great service I must say that you are now undertaking something that is beyond your powers.

“It would be a more sensible thing for you to drop it entirely. Miller won’t trouble us again and besides that——”

The chief paused and Trim said:

“Speak up, chief, you needn’t be afraid of hurting my feelings.”

“Well, then, you Americans think that you’re about as smart a nation as there is in the world, and that you can do everything.

“I’d have you understand that we are no spring chickens down here in Africa, and what you’re trying to do we have tried and given up.

“It would be just as well for your reputation and for us, if you would drop the matter.

“Amuse yourself in Kimberley as long as you like for you will always be welcome, and admit that there’s one detective problem that you can’t solve.”

“You make me dead crazy to get to work,” retorted Trim. “What is this problem that you fellows haven’t been able to solve? I thought that Miller was comparatively a new criminal to you.”

“So he is. We never heard of him until he skipped up from Cape Town to escape you.

“The problem existed long before we ever heard of Miller, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“I wish you would, for you have stirred up my curiosity.”

“All right, then, it’s not a long story. It begins back about ten years ago.

“This town was more of a frontier settlement then than it is now, and it was not such an easy thing to preserve order. I had been on the police force for some time and had gained the rank of sergeant.

“There was always plenty to do in those days, for the diamond diggings attracted desperate characters from all parts of the world.”

“Just like any mining camp in that respect,” remarked Trim.

“Undoubtedly, although I’ve never had experience in any other.

“Well, we were doing our best to shape things into some kind of order and we thought we were getting along pretty well, when there was a series of the most outrageous and terrifying crimes.

“It seemed as if a perfect fiend had broken loose and taken up his residence in Kimberley. You’ve heard about Jack the Ripper, I suppose?”

“Certainly!” answered Trim.

“This fellow was not a Jack the Ripper, but I speak of that famous criminal simply because our fiend and Jack were alike in two respects.

“Each was bloodthirsty, and each was wonderfully successful in escaping capture.

“The victims of our fiend were all men, however, so that there was no other resemblance to the savage who gave London such a scare a few years ago.

“I don’t suppose it is necessary for me to go into the details of the various crimes that startled, bewildered, and exasperated us.

“I will only say that murder was the object in every case and that the crime was committed by strangulation.”

“Did he choke his victims with his fingers?” asked Trim.

The chief shook his head.

“I think not,” he said. “There were marks upon the victim’s throat that proved strangulation beyond any shadow of doubt, but they were not finger marks.”

“What were they, then?”

“We have always supposed that they were made by a bowstring.”

“That suggests,” said Trim, “that the murderer was a Chinese or a Malay, or some such fellow?”

“No. We thought that for a time, too, and every Chinese in the colony was under suspicion. We learned better. The murderer was a white man——”

“Then you finally got on to him?”

“Oh, yes. We learned a good deal about him and we know now where he is.”

“And you don’t try to capture him?”

“No.”

“Well, that is interesting. Excuse my interruptions and go on.”

The chief smiled.

“I thought you’d see before long,” he remarked, “that we have a very pretty problem here in Kimberley and that it takes more than a young American’s pluck and shrewdness to solve it.

“It would take too long to tell how, after seven or eight murders had been committed within the space of as many months and all without doubt by the same man, how we finally got on the right track.

“So let it pass for the present that we did get started and that we found the murderer to be a man named Mulvey.

“Mulvey was an ex-convict. He had been a soldier and I think also a sailor, for it is certain that he had knocked about the world much more than most men.

“His object in committing murder in such a wholesale manner may have been partly robbery, but I’m inclined to think that it was more a mania for killing.

“The important thing is, however, that Mulvey discovered that he was suspected just about as soon as we began to think that he was our man.

“Then he disappeared. Of course we took that fact as positive proof that he was the man we were after.

“We telegraphed to all parts of the southern continent where the telegraph reached, to have the police look out for him.

“The authorities of neighboring countries like the Orange Free State and the Dutch Republic gladly united with us in an effort to run him down.

“If he had gone from Kimberley to any civilized town we certainly should have known it, for we had his picture and description complete. He could not have escaped us.

“After some weeks of vain looking for him in the white settlements we were forced to conclude that Mulvey had either become a solitary wanderer or hermit, or that he had joined a tribe of savages.

“Meantime we had been looking up his past record as far as possible, and from that we came to the conclusion that he had joined the savages rather than become a solitary wanderer.”

“What was his record?” asked Trim.

“As I said, he had been a soldier and a convict but previously to his turning up in Kimberley we learned that he had been living in Central Africa, and that he was on mighty good terms to say the least, with the Narugas.

“The Narugas are a small tribe who live in Gordonia in the western part of Bechuanaland.

“Gordonia is several hundred miles from here and to reach it one has to travel across an unsettled country and cross the lands of several uncivilized tribes.

“Most of the natives there are peaceful enough now, for they have had their fill of resisting John Bull’s soldiers.

“I speak of that because if you wish to travel to Gordonia there is no very great difficulty in your way.

“I don’t think that any of the tribes would resist your progress, although it is possible always that some of them should be up to mischief.

“I’m getting ahead of my story and will return to the time when we came to the conclusion that Mulvey had joined a native tribe.

“We learned, as I say, that he had been on good terms with the Narugas.

“His crimes had been so horrible and many that it was determined to make every effort to capture him.

“Accordingly, a squad of police was organized for the purpose of going to the Narugas to learn whether Mulvey was there and to bring him back.

“We went. It was a long, tiresome journey and we came back empty-handed.”

“Did the Narugas show fight?”

“Not exactly. They were too shrewd for that.

“They knew that fight meant war and that war meant the overrunning of their territory by the British army. They avoided that but they pursued a policy of retreat and hiding in such a way that we could never come up to more than two or three of them at a time.

“They live in an extremely mountainous district where it is very difficult to make one’s way through the forest.

“Naturally they know every foot of the ground and can get about much easier than white men. We had our knapsacks and other baggage to lug along. They had none.

“We were so satisfied that Mulvey was with them somewhere that we made prisoners of two or three and kept them with us trying to induce them to tell the truth.

“We didn’t succeed, but we became more and more satisfied that Mulvey was one of them.

“They referred to their chief as Malva and it is our belief that that is their way of pronouncing Mulvey.

“After we had scoured the mountains as well as we could we came back to Kimberley.

“The authorities here were not altogether satisfied with what we had done and sent out another expedition. I was with the second expedition, also.

“We went so far as to capture two or three of the tribe’s men and start back to Kimberley with them, intending to use them as hostages.

“We let it be understood among the Narugas that if they wanted their men back again they must surrender Mulvey.

“This, you must understand, was only after another thorough campaign among the hills in which, as before, we would learn of the existence of a village only to go there and find it deserted.

“We could never come across more than two or three natives at one time.

“We had started back to Kimberley, taking our prisoners with us. After being on the march about three days a messenger overtook us.

“He gave us a note written on the bark of a tree in very bad English, but if you had seen it your skill as a detective would have told you that the bad English was merely a disguise.

“The man who wrote it understood English as well as we do. It was an attempt on his part to pretend that he was a savage chief who had learned a little of our language from missionaries.

“We had not then, and I have not now, the slightest doubt that Mulvey wrote that note.”

“What did it say?” asked Trim.

“It was to the effect that if we didn’t release his men he would see to it that the bowstring should be applied in Kimberley and that more than one man would come to the town for the purpose of committing murder.

“It was quite a long note. It contained a promise that if the tribe were let alone Mulvey would give us no more trouble.

“If we persisted in bothering the tribe the savages would send every year several of its members to Kimberley for the purpose of committing secret murder.

“Well, we thought it over and continued on to Kimberley with our prisoners, telling the messenger that we would send him word after we had seen the great chiefs of the city.

“The great chiefs thought it over. It was certain beyond a doubt that Mulvey had joined the Narugas. That was one thing.

“There wasn’t much doubt that he would put his scheme of revenge into operation if we persisted in pursuing them.

“The Narugas live, as I have told you, at a distance of several hundred miles. We had their promise that the crimes with which we had been troubled should cease entirely.

“That promise might not amount to anything, but as we had already spent a great deal of money and energy in trying to get hold of Mulvey, it was decided that it would be worth while to test that promise.

“If the crimes ceased altogether and Mulvey never returned to civilization we would be so much the gainer.

“He was as harmless to us out there as if we had hanged him in the prison yard.

“On the other hand if there should be so much as one more crime of that character that could be traced to Mulvey or his tribe we would then be justified in asking the military authorities to take action and simply wipe the Narugas off the earth.

“On the whole, as I have said, it seemed better to give this white chief a chance to keep his promise, so we sent our captives back to Gordonia with a message to their chief telling him our decision.

“The promise has been kept.”

“And haven’t you had any further trouble with Mulvey?” asked Trim.

“Not a particle; but there is one thing in the case that we don’t like.”

“What is that?”

“Mulvey’s little kingdom has become the refuge of some of the worst criminals in this part of the country.

“When a murderer, for example, finds that the officers are after him so sharply that he can’t escape them by any other means, he lights out for Gordonia.

“When he gets there I suppose that he is received by King Mulvey and made a member of the tribe. At any rate we never hear of him again.

“Up to date we have not felt much like disturbing the Narugas on this account because it would mean a war of extermination, and as it was with Mulvey so it is with every other criminal who goes there.

“Once he gets among the Narugas we have no further trouble with him, so perhaps the city is just as well off as if we caught and hanged every murderer that we tried to.

“At the same time, if it could be done without calling out the military forces, we should all be very glad to have Mulvey and his white companions brought back.”

“How many whites are there with him?” asked Trim.

“There are four desperate men whom we know of that we suppose are now among the Narugas with him. Miller will make the fifth.”

“Ah! Then he has started for Gordonia, has he?”

“Without the shadow of a doubt! We have traced his steps to the extent that we are satisfied that he has gone there.

“He had twenty-four hours’ start. If we should send a hundred horsemen out after him and scatter them over a big extent of territory we might perhaps overtake him, but it strikes me that the most sensible thing is to let him go.

“Once he gets started toward Gordonia, as our experience shows, we shall have no further trouble with him.”

“But you say that you’d like to have Mulvey and Miller and the other whites brought to justice?”

“Well, if it could be done without a war it would make things look better. Yes, we should like it.”

“Then,” said Trim, rising, “I’m going to take an excursion to the Narugas and see what I can do.”