The Priests Tale - Père Etienne | Page 8

to be put off by that.

Below the smearing of the old man's time might be a layer of earth
thrown in to hide something. I glanced round. 'May I borrow a spear?' I
asked.
"He nodded, and I selected one from the corner with a long thin blade.
Then I went into the inner room, and he came and stood again to watch
me with his peering old eyes. Under his scrutiny, I began in the apse
and thrust downward as far as I could. The blade sank to its hilt fairly
easily, and that was all.
"Thus I stabbed until I came to the string of the apse, and then, almost
at once, I made a discovery. The point of the blade struck a stone. A
foot to the left, it touched again, and a foot more. In a few minutes I
was all but certain that a stone slab was buried there. You may imagine
my excitement.
"Mwezi called his sons and sent one for a native hoe. When he returned,
we all gathered about the place while he slowly dug up the trampled
mud. In a few minutes a stone slab was being exposed to view, and
with my spear I got to work scraping off the earth while he dug free the
other end. Suddenly, as I scraped, I made out a cross, and to cut the
story short, we laid bare at length what had undoubtedly been an
altar-stone. Every one of the five crosses were plainly visible, and left
no room for question.
"We stopped out of breath, and I explained something of its use. At that
Mwezi spoke suddenly, calling our attention to him. 'Lift it, lift it,' he
cried. 'Lift it at once.'
"The old man was a striking spectacle. His withered face was simply
alive with emotion. He was kneeling on hands and knees, and his thin
fingers worked at the edge of the slab. Something in his voice
compelled us, and we got at once to work. After all it was an easy task,
for it was soon apparent that the stone was fitted into brick, with which
the whole place was paved, and with spade and spear we levered it up a
little. Then two of Mwezi's sons got their fingers under it, and without
any great effort raised it completely. They staggered aside with it and
the rest of us peered within. For a second we looked, and then Mwezi

gave a great cry.
"'My father, my father! Lo, I have come to thee, as thou didst bid.
These many years have I waited, for my spirit spoke true, bidding me
rest above thee. Now will I pass on whither thou art passed, and as thou
hadst understanding, so it shall befall. Lo, I come to thee, seeking
peace!'
"His voice hesitated, and failed, and he fell forward very gently and
slowly till his head rested on his hands on the edge of the tomb. None
of us dared to move for a few seconds, for Mwezi's voice rang so truly
and convincingly. Great awe fell on us all, for he had spoken as one
who certainly saw. Then I stretched out my hand and touched him, but
he had gone, as he said. And on his face was peace.
"That is all there is to tell in a way. For inside the grave, if grave it
were, there was nothing at all that it was given to our eyes to see--not a
bone, not a shred of a habit, nor book nor beads. If ever a body or
treasures of any sort had been there, the receptacle had been rifled long
before, and entirely forgotten. So there is literally no more to tell. Of
course the affair made great excitement. The chief and all his people
came to see, and came once again the day after when I lowered Mwezi
into the grave and replaced the altar stone. After that the door and the
windows were blocked up at my request, against the day of the coming
of the Faith once more to Mtaka-tifuni. For that, the space about the
sanctuary is to be kept clear of undergrowth, by order of the chief. For
that old Mwezi waits beneath the altar, and maybe he whom he saw
waits also."
The dinner bugle had sounded a few moments before Père Etienne had
finished, and now we rose to go. We stood a second, and I gazed over
the side at the star-shine on the water, for the night was fine. When I
looked up, Père Etienne was staring out into the darkness, a far-away
look on his face, but he must have felt my eyes on him, for he turned
quickly and smiled. Possibly he read a question I