Empire of Ivory Page 0,128

of the Disaster, which has certainly encompassed the Wreck of several of our foremost citizens, for the destruction of many of their Interests, and left us to mourn without certain knowledge the likely Fate of our brave Adventurers and our noble Missionaries. Despite the territorial Questions, associated with the War with France, which lately made us Enemies, the deepest Sympathies must be extended now across the Channel to those bereaved Families, in the Kingdom of Holland, who in the Settlers at the Cape Colony have lost in some cases all their nearest Relations. All voices must be united in lamenting the most hideous and unprovoked Assault imaginable, by a Horde of violent and savage Beasts, egged on by the Jealousy of the native Tribesmen, resentful of the rewards of honest Christian labor...

LAURENCE FOLDED THE paper, from Bristol, and threw it beside the coffee-pot, with the caricature facing downwards: a bloated and snaggle-toothed creature labeled Africa, evidently meant to be a dragon, and several unclothed natives of grinning black visage prodding with spears a small knot of women and children into its open maw, while the pitiful victims uplifted their hands in prayer and cried O Have You No Pity in a long banner issuing from their mouths.

"I must go see Jane," he said. "I expect we will be bound for London, this afternoon; if you are not too tired."

Temeraire was still toying with his last bullock, not quite sure if he wanted it or not; he had taken three, greedy after the short commons of their voyage. "I do not mind going," he said, "and perhaps we may go a little early, and see our pavilion; there can be no reason not to go near the quarantine-grounds now, surely."

If they did not bring the first intelligence of the wholesale disaster in Africa, having been preceded in their flight by many a swifter vessel, certainly they carried the best: before their arrival, no-one in England had any notion of the identity of the mysterious and implacable foe who had so comprehensively swept clean the African coast. Laurence and Harcourt and Chenery had of course written dispatches, describing their experiences, and handed them on to a frigate which had passed them off Sierra Leone, and to another in Madeira; but in the end, these had only anticipated their arrival by a few days. In any case, formal dispatches, even the lengthy ones produced over the leisure of a month at sea, were by no means calculated to satisfy the clamoring demands of Government for information on so comprehensive a disaster.

Jane at least did not waste their time with a recounting of the facts. "I am sure you will have enough of that before their Lordships," she said. "You will both have to come, and Chenery also; although perhaps I can beg you off, Harcourt, if you like: under the circumstances."

"No, sir, thank you," Catherine said, flushing. "I should prefer no special treatment."

"Oh, I will take all the special treatment we can get, with both hands," Jane said. "At least it will make them give us chairs, I expect; you look wretched."

Jane herself was much improved, from when Laurence had left her; her hair was shot more thoroughly with silver, but her face, better fleshed, showed all the effects of cares lightened and a return to flying: a healthier wind-burnt color in the cheek, and lips a little chapped. She frowned at Catherine, who despite a perpetual lobsterish color from the sun managed still to look faintly bluish under the eyes, and pallid. "Are you still being taken ill?"

"Not very often," Catherine said, without perfect candor; Laurence - indeed, all the ship's company - had been witness to her regular visits to the rail, aboard ship. "And I am sure that I will be better now we are not at sea."

Jane shook her head disapprovingly. "At seven months I was as well as ever I have been in my life. You have not put on nearly enough weight. It is an engagement like any other, Harcourt, and we must be sure you are up to the mark."

"Tom wishes me to see a physician, in London," Catherine said.

"Nonsense," Jane said. "A sensible midwife is what you need; I think my own is still in harness, here in Dover. I will find her direction for you. I was damned glad of her, I will tell you. Twenty-nine hours' labor," she added, with the same dreadful reminiscent satisfaction as a veteran of the wars.

"Oh," Catherine said.

"Tell