_ CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. QUERY: KING SOLOMON?
"Well, Dan," said Mark, as he and his cousin came upon their handy man, "did you give the poor old fellow the soup?"
"No, sir."
"What! Then why didn't you?"
"Couldn't find him, sir."
"Didn't you go up to the old cavern?"
"Yes, sir. I went right in to where there was that snug sort of place where Bob Bacon found he had been lying--where we left him, sir."
"Well, do you mean to say he wasn't there?"
"No, sir; that he wasn't."
"Oh, how could you be so stupid! The doctor trusted you to fetch the soup because he thought you were a man he could depend upon."
"Well, that's right, sir."
"And because you didn't see him directly, the poor creature never got the soup."
"That's right, sir, too," said Dan, smiling.
"There's nothing to laugh at in it, sir," cried Mark, angrily. "Did you ever know anything so stupid, Dean?"
"No," cried Dean, taking up his cousin's tone. "You might have been sure, Dan, that as soon as we had gone the poor old fellow would have crawled right in as far as he could go."
"Yes, sir; that's what I did think, sir."
"You went right in?" cried Mark. "Yes, sir; right to the very end, and he warn't there."
"Where was he, then?"
"Oh, I don't know, sir."
"Did you look about well?"
"Yes, sir, as far as there was anywhere to look about."
"As far as there was anywhere to look about?"
"Yes, sir. Don't you remember you could only go right on into the hole or come back again? You couldn't climb up the sides without somebody had gone up there first with a rope and let it down to you."
"Yes, that's right, Mark," said Dean. "Yes, I suppose so," replied Mark, "but I wanted that poor old fellow to have the soup. It might have been the means of saving his life."
Dan shook his head solemnly. Mark made no observation about that, but went on: "Look here, Dan, somebody must have been there and helped him."
Dan shook his head again solemnly. "Did you try to tell Mak about it?"
"Yes, sir, as well as I could."
"But do you think you made him understand you?"
"Yes, sir; I think he did."
"And what did he say?"
"Nothing, sir. Only shook his head, just like that."
"Bother! Don't get wagging your head in that way," cried Mark angrily, "or you will have it come loose. Well, what did you do with the soup?"
"Ate it, sir."
"What!" cried Mark sharply.
"Well, sir, I couldn't drink it, it was that thick and strong. It was some of my best."
"And so you ate it?"
"Yes, sir; I was so precious hungry."
"Did you ever hear such impudence, Dean?"
"Well, I thought it a pity to waste it, sir, and I have always got plenty more on the way."
"Bah!" cried Mark. "You couldn't have half looked."
"No, sir; I put my back into it and did it thorough. But he was gone;" and Dan shook his head again.
"What do you mean by that?" said Dean.
"Same as black Mak did, sir."
"And what did black Mak mean?" cried Mark.
"Seems to me as he thought the poor old chap had dried up like and gone."
"What nonsense!"
"Well, sir, it may be nonsense, but I had a good look at the poor old chap when we had him out. Why, you see him, sir. Look what his face was like. Walnut shell was nothing to his skin. I have been thinking about it a deal, sir, and I have heard what you gentlemen have said about this 'ere place as we have found. I have been about a deal, sir, all round the world, and seen and heerd much more than you would think."
"Oh, of course you would see and hear a good deal, being aboard ship."
"Yes, gentlemen, and it set me thinking a deal, both as I was going up and as I was coming back again with the empty tin. I thought a deal, Mr Mark, sir."
"Perhaps it was the soup made you think so much, Dan," said Mark sarcastically.
"Very like, sir," said the man with an innocent look.
"Well, what did you think?" asked Mark.
"I thought about that old fellow being so awful old, and that he must have had to do with the building up of them stones."
"Nonsense! It must be two or three thousand years since those walls were built."
"Daresay, sir, and he's been there ever since."
"Oh, that's impossible," said Dean.
"Ah, that's what you say, sir, but nothing is impossible out in a place like this. Why, just look at him. Why, if you got him out in the sunshine where you could see what a way inside his eyes were, you would have found that he was always looking right backwards. He was a regular old 'un, he was--lots older than he knew hisself. You heard what the doctor said the other day about this being the place where King Solomon sent his ships to find gold?"
"Yes, and it's quite possible," said Mark.
"Oh, you own to that, sir?"
"To be sure I do. He had ships built, and sent them round by Africa, or else south down by the Red Sea."
"Yes, sir, that's right enough, sir. I have pretty well been both ways myself, and seen plenty of big stones there. Up in North Africa and in Egypt. I should say, sir, that that old chap will like as not been one of them as dug out and melted the gold. He don't look a bit like the regular natives, do he? He was hook-nosed, wasn't he, sir?"
"Yes, Dan."
"Not a bit like one of the regular natives, sir?"
"Not a bit."
"A lot of them seem as if their mothers used to sit upon their faces when they was kids, to keep them warm and flatten their noses out."
"Well, yes. They are of another race, though--the regular niggers. These Zulu sort of chaps like Mak are quite different."
"That's so, sir; and this old fellow, he was a regular hooked beaked 'un. Put me in mind of one of them big tortoises as you see in the islands up by Mauritius."
"Never seen them, Dan."
"Well, you take my word for it, then, sir; they look as old as if they had come out of the Ark. Now then, sir, just you tell me this. What was King Solomon?"
"King of Israel, of course."
"I don't mean that, sir. Warn't he a Jew?"
"Of course: a descendant of Abraham."
"Well, that's what that old chap is, sir."
"Stuff!" said Dean.
"Ah, you may call it stuff, sir; but see where we found him, in this old cave. He's been there for ages and ages, and he got so old at last that he crawled in there to die, but found he couldn't die a bit. He's been going on keeping just alive for nobody knows how long; and when an old man gets as old as that he has got past wanting to eat and drink. He just goes on living; and it's my belief, as I said afore, that he's one of them as set up those walls and dug the gold and melted it for King Solomon's ships to take away. Did you ever hear of the wandering Jew, sir?"
"Yes, Dan. Of course."
"Well, sir, that's 'im."
"We did find a curiosity, then," said Mark merrily.
"Oh, bother!" said Dean. "Here, Dan, you had better leave history alone. I shouldn't be at all surprised, though, if the animated fossil has lived as long as old Parr."
"Old Parr, sir? You mean him as made the Life Pills?"
"No, he doesn't," said Mark, laughing. "He was an old fellow who lived to about a hundred and fifty."
"A hundred and fifty, sir! Why, that's nothing! Why, look at 'Thusalem; he lived close upon a thousand years. Well, if a man could live to one thousand years, why couldn't he live to three or four, or five, if you come to that? I don't say as this 'ere old fellow is quite so old, but he's the oldest chap I ever see except the mummies, and that's what this chap might be, only he's just got life enough in him to move, and they arn't."
"Well, that will do, Dan," said Mark. "But I am sorry you didn't find the poor old fellow after all."
The boys related their conversation with Dan to Sir James and the doctor, the former laughing heartily at the little sailor's belief.
"I suppose," said Sir James, "the poor old fellow must have summoned up strength enough to crawl away."
"I don't think that was possible," said the doctor. "He could not have stirred without help."
"But he had no help," said Sir James.
"I don't know," said the doctor quietly.
"What do you mean?" said Sir James; and the boys listened in surprise.
"I mean this, sir," said the doctor. "We have found that these ruins were well known to Mak and the pigmy."
"Of course."
"And we have found too this poor old fellow in his sort of cell."
"Exactly," said Sir James.
"Well, we know that, however old, no man could exist without nutriment. Consequently we have just had proof that a tribe of the natives must have regular communication with this place."
"Yes, I suppose that must be the explanation," said Sir James.
"And I am disappointed," said the doctor, "because I was in hopes that we had the place all to ourselves so that we could go on with our interesting researches."
"Well, it would have been better," said Sir James. "But so long as they don't interfere with us it will not matter."
"And very likely," put in Mark, "if they come and find us here they will keep away."
"That's what I hope," said the doctor.
"And you think," said Dean, "that some of these people have been and carried that old fellow away?"
"Yes, my boy; that's exactly what I do think."
"Well," said Mark musing, "I suppose we shall soon know. But we certainly don't want them here." _