The Keepers of the People

CHAPTER IX

ALTHEA’S TIGER

1146The next day Althea wore a weary air; she was not yet strong enough to endure such scenes as that of the night before; and she had slept ill. Prince Ralph saw it, and said, “Last night was too much for you. It was a bad business.”

1147“I am tired to-day: and I haven’t been tired for months. But I don’t understand last night. How came they to invent such horrors? And the people: many of them were not Varandals. They had different faces, uglier faces, and more savage,” said Althea.

1148“In those north-western villages many of the people have a touch of negro blood in them. In that district dwell the descendants of the big fighting negroes my grandfather brought with him; and that explains the madness of the crowd, and the rites they were celebrating. That African taint broke out in an African savagery; and the rites were a legacy from their black ancestors, Obeah, or Voodoo, or some such devilry.”

1149“Devilry is the exact word” said Althea. “But then, many of the crowd were plainly pure Varandals — the girl and her brother. How came they to be mixed up in it?”

1150“A crowd, the blood, and the religious frenzy: such things are catching. The wonder is that they were not all in it,” said Prince Ralph. “But we have stamped it out for a long time, at least any open show of it. It will go on secretly till the negro blood is diluted very much more. You won’t see such a scene again for many years. By that time I should think you will be harder to bear it.”

1151“Oh, I’m all right now,” said Althea: “but I dreamt some horrible dreams.” She left him, and thinking that Latchimi’s laughter would be good for her, made her way to the Pavilion of Wonderful Delights. Latchimi welcomed her with joy; and they played and laughed like the two children they were. Althea fell soon into the way of going often to the Pavilion of Wonderful Delights; and after a while they could talk in a mixed tongue, part English, part Hill, and part Varandal. Latchimi taught her to throw the knife with a skill equal with her own; and when she had learned that, taught her curious wrestling tricks that bade fair to render her as supple as she was strong. But neither of them told Prince Ralph of their friendship: some instinct sealed their lips. When he heard of it from Vashti, who was a little jealous that Althea should be friends with another girl, he considered the matter, and made up his mind that Latchimi could not harm Althea, while her laughter was good for her. He said to her only, “The Golden Lily must be told nothing — nothing.”