SERGEANT QUICK HAS A PRESENTIMENT
From this time forward all of us, and especially Oliver,
were guarded night and day by picked men who it was
believed could not be corrupted. As a consequence,
the Tsar of Russia scarcely leads a life more irksome
than ours became at Mur. Of privacy there was
none left to us, since sentries and detectives lurked
at every corner, while tasters were obliged to eat
of each dish and drink from each cup before it touched
our lips, lest our fate should be that of Pharaoh,
whose loss we mourned as much as though the poor dog
had been some beloved human being.
Most of all was it irksome, I think, to Oliver and
Maqueda, whose opportunities of meeting were much
curtailed by the exigencies of this rigid espionage.
Who can murmur sweet nothings to his adored when two
soldiers armed to the teeth have been instructed never
to let him out of their sight? Particularly is
this so if the adored happens to be the ruler of those
soldiers to whom the person guarded has no right to
be making himself agreeable. For when off duty
even the most faithful guardians are apt to talk.
Of course, the result was that the pair took risks
which did not escape observation. Indeed, their
intimate relations became a matter of gossip throughout
the land.
Still, annoying as they might be, these precautions
succeeded, for none of us were poisoned or got our
throats cut, although we were constantly the victims
of mysterious accidents. Thus, a heavy rock rolled
down upon us when we sat together one evening upon
the hill-side, and a flight of arrows passed between
us while we were riding along the edge of a thicket,
by one of which Higgs’s horse was killed.
Only when the mountain and the thicket were searched
no one could be found. Moreover, a great plot
against us was discovered in which some of the lords
and priests were implicated, but such was the state
of feeling in the country that, beyond warning them
privately that their machinations were known, Maqueda
did not dare to take proceedings against these men.
A little later on things mended so far as we were
concerned, for the following reason: One day
two shepherds arrived at the palace with some of their
companions, saying that they had news to communicate.
On being questioned, these peasants averred that while
they were herding their goats upon the western cliffs
many miles away, suddenly on the top of the hills
appeared a body of fifteen Fung, who bound and blindfolded
them, telling them in mocking language to take a message
to the Council and to the white men.
This was the message: That they had better make
haste to destroy the god Harmac, since otherwise his
head would move to Mur according to the prophecy,
and that when it did so, the Fung would follow as they
knew how to do. Then they set the two men on
a rock where they could be seen, and on the following
morning were in fact found by some of their fellows,
those who accompanied them to the Court and corroborated
this story.
