The Peerless Peer by Philip Jose Farmer

Author:Philip Jose Farmer [Watson, John H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857685407
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2011-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Great Scott!” I said. “A British woman parading around naked before those savages!”

Greystoke shrugged and said, “It’s their custom.”

“We must rescue her and get her back to the home of her ancestors!” I cried.

“Be quiet, Watson, or you’ll have the whole pack howling for our blood,” Holmes growled. “She seems quite contented with her lot. Or could it be,” he added, looking hard at me, “that you have once again fallen into love?”

He made it sound as if the grand passion were an open privy. Blushing, I said, “I must admit that there is a certain feeling...”

“Well, the fair sex is your department,” he said. “But really, Watson, at your age!”

(“The Americans have a proverb,” I said. “The older the buck, the stiffer the horn.”)15

“Be quiet, both of you,” the duke said. “I permitted the Zu-Vendis to capture you because I knew you’d be safe for a while. I had to get on up-country to check out a rumour that a white woman was being held captive by a tribe of blacks. Though I am positive that my wife is dead, still there is always hope. Mr. Holmes suggested that the Germans might have played a trick on me by substituting the charred body of a native girl. That had occurred to me previously. That I wear only a loincloth doesn’t mean that I am naked of intelligence.16

“I found the white girl, an Englishwoman, but she was not my wife...”

“Good heavens!” I said. “Where is she? Have you hidden her out there?”

“She’s still with the sultan of the tribe,” he said sourly. “I went to much trouble to rescue her, had to kill a dozen or so tribesmen getting to her, and a dozen on the way out. And then the woman told me she was perfectly happy with the sultan and would I please return her. I told her to find her own way back. I detest violence which can be avoided. If only she had told me beforehand.... Well, that’s all over.”

I did not comment. I thought it indiscreet to point out that the woman could not have told him how she felt until after he had fought his way in. And I doubted that she had an opportunity to voice her opposition on the way out.

“I drove the Germans this way because I expected that they would, like you, be picked up by the Zu-Vendis. Tomorrow night, all four of you prisoners are scheduled to be sacrificed on the temple altar. I got back an hour ago to get you two out.”

“That was cutting it close, wasn’t it?” Holmes said.

“You mean to leave Von Bork and Reich here?” I said. “To be slaughtered like sheep? And what about the woman, Nylepthah? What kind of life is that, being confined from birth to death in that house, being denied the love and companionship of a husband, forced to murder poor devils of captives?”

“Yes,” said Holmes. “Reich is a very decent fellow and should be treated like a prisoner of war.

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