I stiffened a bit, although it wasn’t that I was afraid. Right then I felt that I could lick all the monkey-men in the world, either one at a time or all together.
Kk-Kk was frightened. I could feel the shivers runnin’ up an’ down her arms, an’ she made little scared noises with her lips.
But the monkey-man didn’t say anything. When he saw that we knew he was watchin’, he reached up his great arms, caught the branch of a tree above him, swung off into space, caught another limb with his great feet, an’ swirled off into the forest. All that was left was the twilight an’ the chatterin’ of a bunch of monkeys, an’ the whimperin’ noises Kk-Kk was makin’.
I patted the girl on the shoulder. Let the monkey-man storm around through the treetops. A lot of good that would do him. He wasn’t in a position to buy the hand of Kk-Kk, an’ he wasn’t likely to be in the position. I had a big chunk of pure gold stored up. I didn’t think it’d be any trick at all to complete the purchase.
By next day, though, I knew I was up against a funny problem. I had all the gold I could carry, but gold wasn’t any good. I had enough of it to purchase a whole tannery full of choice skins, but I couldn’t trade the gold for skins. The tribe I was with didn’t care anything for the gold except as somethin’ to trade to the Fanti boys. An’ all the tradin’ was done by the chief. The tribal custom prohibited the others from doin’ any tradin’, even from havin’ any of the gold.
I commenced to see it wasn’t as simple as I’d thought it was goin’ to be.
An’ all the while I got more an’ more in love with Kk-Kk. She was just the sort of a woman a real adventurin’ man wants. She’d keep her head in any emergency. She was strong an’ tender. There wasn’t an ache nor a pain in her system. When she moved she walked like it wasn’t any effort at all. If the trees looked easier than the trail she’d swing up in them an’ go from branch to branch, light as a feather driftin’ down wind.
I’m tellin’ you she was strong as an ox an’ as graceful as a panther. A woman like that’d go with a man anywhere. An’ she was sweet an’ tender. When she thought I was blue for the white race an’ home an’ all that, she’d draw my head down against her breast an’ croon to me as soft an’ low as the wind sighin’ through the tops of the jungle trees.
I wanted to take her away with me. Any one could see the tribe was doomed. The very gold that gave them their tradin’ power was their curse. The Fantis desired that gold. They might get beat in one battle, might get beat in a thousand, but as long as the ledge was there, there’d be invaders fightin’ to get possession of it.
It’d be only a question of time until the tribe was wiped out, defeated, captured, an’ the women turned into slaves. They couldn’t stand the climate in the interior. Four or five miles back from the ocean was their limit. The Fantis wanted that gold ledge. Every so often there’d be a battle, an’ when it was over there’d be dead an’ wounded. There was always plenty more of the enemy, but there was a few less of our boys after every fight.
If I could get away an’ take Kk-Kk with me, an’ a pack load of gold, what I could carry an’ what Kk-Kk could carry, we’d be fixed for life. We could go out into the cities an’ hold up our heads with any of ’em.
But I knew I was goin’ to have trouble gettin’ Kk-Kk to see things that way. I might get her to leave with me, but she’d been brought up with the idea that her obligation to the tribe was sacred. She wouldn’t take any of the gold. You see she hadn’t ever had to deal with money, an’ she did what she thought was right, not what she thought would make the most money for her.
While I was thinkin’ things over, the monkey-man comes swingin’ into the council an’ tells ’em he’s goin’ to buy the hand of Kk-Kk at the next full moon. That was all he said. He wouldn’t tell ’em where he was goin’ to get the stuff or anything.
But it was enough to get me worried. An’ it bothered Kk-Kk.
There was lots o’ wild rumors goin’ along in those days. There was a report that the Ashantis an’ the Fantis were gettin’ together for a joint attack. They was determined to get that gold ledge.
I tried to get Kk-Kk to advise the tribe to leave the thing. Without that gold they’d be safe from attack, an’ the gold didn’t mean so much to ’em anyhow.
But they were just like the rest of the nations, if a man could compare a savage tribe with a nation. They wanted their gold, even when it wasn’t doin’ the rank an’ file of ’em any good. They were goin’ to fight for it, lay down their lives for it if they had to, an’ all the time only the ruler had any right to use the gold to trade with.
They knew they could have peace by goin’ away. They must have seen they couldn’t last long stayin’ there. Every battle left ’em a little weaker. But no, they must stay an’ die for their ledge of gold, an’ they didn’t even know the value of it. It’s funny about gold that way.
There was another rumor goin’ around that made me do a lot of thinkin’, an’ that was of a white man that was camped a couple of days’ march away. He had a big outfit with him, an’ he was shootin’ big game an’ prospectin’ around in general.
A wild idea got into my head that if I could sneak away an’ get to him with fifty or sixty pounds of gold I could trade it for mirrors, guns, blankets an’ what not that would look like a million dollars to the old chief. Then I could buy Kk-Kk an’ maybe I could talk her into goin’ away with me.
I really had enough gold, but I was gettin’ a little hoggish. I wanted more. The love of a woman like Kk-Kk had ought to make a man richer than the richest king in the world, but I was a white man, an’ I’d been taught to worship gold along with God.
In fact, I’d only had that God worship idea taught me on Sundays when I was a kid. On week days the god was gold. My folks had been rated as bein’ pretty religious as common folks go. But even they hadn’t tried to carry religion past Sunday. Gold was the god six days of the week, an’ I’d been brought up with the white man’s idea.
So I had to get me a little more gold. I wanted it so I could go to the white man’s camp with all the gold I could carry an’ still have as much left behind, hidden in the ground, waitin’ for me to come back.
The next mornin’ I decided to take a chance an’ scoop out a big lot o’ quartz. I got out with the food for the ants all right; I hadn’t even thought about trouble with them for a long while. They’d quit bein’ one of my worries. I walked over to the ledge and dug into the quartz.
An’ then somethin’ funny struck me. It was a feelin’ like somethin’ was borin’ into my back. I whirled around an’ there was the monkey-man sittin’ on a limb, watchin’ me.
He was up in a tree, squatted on the limb, his hands holdin’ a bow with one of them poison arrows on the string an’ it was then I noticed the way his toes came around the under side of the limb an’ held him firm. Funny how a fellow’ll notice things like that when he’s figurin’ he has an appointment in eternity right away.
Chapter 5
The Monkey-Man
I stared into the monkey-man’s eyes, an’ he stared back. I’d read somewhere that a white man always has the advantage over the other races because there’s some kind of a racial inferiority that the other fellows develop in a pinch.
Maybe it’s true, an’ maybe it ain’t. I only know I stared at the monkey-man, an’ he fidgeted his fingers around on the bow string.
I was caught red-handed. One of those poison arrows would almost drop me in my tracks. I wouldn’t have a chance to get outside of the deadline.