A MYSTERIOUS TOMB
One member of the Braddock household was not included in the general staff, being a mere appendage of the Professor himself.
This was a dwarfish, misshapen Kanaka, a pigmy in height, but a giant in breadth, with short, thick legs, and long, powerful arms. He had a large head, and a somewhat handsome face, with melancholy black eyes and a fine set of white teeth. Like most Polynesians, his skin was of a pale bronze and elaborately tattooed, even the cheeks and chin being scored with curves and straight lines of mystical import. But the most noticeable thing about him was his huge mop of frizzled hair, which, by some process, known only to himself, he usually dyed a vivid yellow.
The flaring locks streaming from his head made him resemble a Peruvian image of the sun, and it was this peculiar coiffure which had procured for him the odd name of Cockatoo. The fact that this grotesque creature invariably wore a white drill suit, emphasized still more the suggestion of his likeness to an Australian parrot.
Cockatoo had come from the Solomon Islands in his teens to the colony of Queensland, to work on the plantations, and there the Professor had picked him up as his body servant. When Braddock returned to marry Mrs. Kendal, the boy had refused to leave him, although it was represented to the young savage that he was somewhat too barbaric for sober England. Finally, the Professor had consented to bring him over seas, and had never regretted doing so, for Cockatoo, finding his scientific master a true friend, worshipped him as a visible god. Having been captured when young by Pacific black-birders, he talked excellent English, and from contact with the necessary restraints of civilization was, on the whole, extremely well behaved. Occasionally, when teased by the villagers and his fellow-servants, he would break into childish rages, which bordered on the dangerous. But a word from Braddock always quieted him, and when penitent he would crawl like a whipped dog to the feet of his divinity. For the most part he lived entirely in the museum, looking after the collection and guarding it from harm. Lucy - who had a horror of the creature's uncanny looks - objected to Cockatoo waiting at the table, and it was only on rare occasions that he was permitted to assist the harassed parlormaid. On this night the Kanaka acted excellently as a butler, and crept softly round the table, attending to the needs of the diners. He was an admirable servant, deft and handy, but his blue-lined face and squat figure together with the obtrusively golden halo, rather worried Mrs.
Jasher. And, indeed, in spite of custom, Lucy also felt uncomfortable when this gnome hovered at her elbow. It looked as though one of the fantastical idols from the museum below had come to haunt the living.
"I do not like that Golliwog," breathed Mrs. Jasher to her host, when Cockatoo was at the sideboard. "He gives me the creeps.""Imagination, my dear lady, pure imagination. Why should we not have a picturesque animal to wait upon us?""He would wait picturesquely enough at a cannibal feast,"suggested Archie, with a laugh.
"Don't!" murmured Lucy, with a shiver. "I shall not be able to eat my dinner if you talk so.""Odd that Hope should say what he has said," observed Braddock confidently to the widow. "Cockatoo comes from a cannibal island, and doubtless has seen the consumption of human flesh.
No, no, my dear lady, do not look so alarmed. I don't think he has eaten any, as he was taken to Queensland long before he could participate in such banquets. He is a very decent animal.""A very dangerous one, I fancy," retorted Mrs. Jasher, who looked pale.
"Only when he loses his temper, and I'm always able to suppress that when it is at its worst. You are not eating your meat, my dear lady.""Can you wonder at it, and you talk of cannibals?""Let us change the conversation to cereals," suggested Hope, whose appetite was of the best - "wheat, for instance. In this queer little village I notice the houses are divided by a field of wheat. It seems wrong somehow for corn to be bunched up with houses.""That's old Farmer Jenkins," said Lucy vivaciously; "he owns three or four acres near the public-house and will not allow them to be built over, although he has been offered a lot of money. Inoticed myself, Archie, the oddity of finding a cornfield surrounded by cottages. It's like Alice in Wonderland.""But fancy any one offering money for land here," observed Hope, toying with his claret glass, which had just been refilled , by the attentive Cockatoo, "at the Back-of-Beyond, as it were. Ishouldn't care to live here - the neighborhood is so desolate.""All the same you do live here!" interposed Mrs. Jasher smartly, and with a roguish glance at Lucy.
Archie caught the glance and saw the blush on Miss Kendal's face.
