The Ivory Trail

Excerpt

THE NJO HAPA* SONG

  Green, ah greener than emeralds are, tree-tops beckon the
        dhows to land,
  White, oh whiter than diamonds are, blue waves burst on the
        amber sand,
  And nothing is fairer than Zanzibar from the Isles o' the West
        to the Marquesand.

        I was old when the world was wild with youth
        (All love was lawless then!)
        Since 'Venture's birth from ends of earth
        I ha' called the sons of men,
        And their women have wept the ages out
        In travail sore to know
        What lure of opiate art can leach
        Along bare seas from reef to beach
        Until from port and river reach
        The fever'd captains go.

  Red, oh redder than red lips are, my flowers nod in the blazing
        noon,
  Blue, oh bluer than maidens' eyes, are the breasts o' my waves
        in the young monsoon,
  And there are cloves to smell, and musk, and lemon trees, and
        cinnamon.

————-
*The words "Njo hapa" in the Kiswahili tongue are the equivalent of
"come hither!"
————-

Estimates of ease and affluence vary with the point of view. While his older brother lived, Monty had continued in his element, a cavalry officer, his combined income and pay ample for all that the Bombay side of India might require of an English gentleman. They say that a finer polo player, a steadier shot on foot at a tiger, or a bolder squadron leader never lived.

But to Monty's infinite disgust his brother died childless. It is divulging no secret that the income that passed with the title varied between five and seven thousand pounds a year, according as coal was high, and tenants prosperous or not—a mere miserable pittance, of course, for the Earl of Montdidier and Kirkudbrightshire; so that all his ventures, and therefore ours, had one avowed end—shekels enough to lift the mortgages from his estates.

Five generations of soldiers had blazed the Montdidier fame on battle-grounds, to a nation's (and why not the whole earth's) benefit, without replenishing the family funds, and Monty (himself a confirmed and convinced bachelor) was minded when his own time should come to pass the title along to the next in line together with sufficient funds to support its dignity.

To us—even to Yerkes, familiar with United States merchant kings—he seemed with his thirty thousand dollars a year already a gilded Croesus. He had ample to travel on, and finance prospecting trips. We never lacked for working capital, but the quest (and, including Yerkes, we were as keen as he) led us into strange places.

So behold him—a privy councilor of England if you please—lounging in the lazaretto of Zanzibar, clothed only in slippers, underwear and a long blue dressing-gown. We three others were dressed the same, and because it smacked of official restraint we objected noisily; but Monty did not seem to mind much....