Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [154]
their secret. And how much grun-tu-molani do you have? You want to live, kid?" He had no time to answer then, as Horko came to pay us a visit. He smiled, but his behavior was somewhat more formal than before. He called me Yassi and showed his fat red tongue, which he might have done to cool himself after his long walk through the heat of the bush; however, I thought it signified respect. "How do you do, Mr. Horko?" Greatly satisfied, he bowed from the waist while he kept his forefinger above his head. The upper part of him was always much crowded by the tight sheath, his court dress of red, and he was congested in the face. The red jewels in his ears dragged them down, and as he grinned I looked at him, but not openly, with hatred. As there was nothing I could do, however. I converted all this hatred into wiliness, and when he said, "You now king. Roi Henderson. Yassi Henderson," I answered, "Yes, Horko. Very sorry about Dahfu, aren't we?" "Oh, very sorry. Dommage," he said, for he loved to use the phrases he had picked up in Lamu. Humankind is still fooling around with hypocrisy, I thought. They don't realize that it's too late even for that. "No more Sungo. You Yassi." "Yes, indeed," I said. I instructed Romilayu, "Tell the gentleman I am glad to be Yassi, and it's a great honor. When do we start?" We had to wait, said Romilayu, interpreting, until the worm came from the king's mouth. And then the worm would become a tiny lion, and this cub, the little lion, would become the Yassi. "If pigs were in this, I'd become an emperor, not just a bush-league king," I said, and took a bitter relish in my own remark. I wished Dahfu had been alive to hear it. "But tell Mr. Horko" (he inclined his thick face, smiling, while the ear-stones dropped again like sinkers; I could have twisted his head and pulled it off with great satisfaction) "it's a terrific honor. Though the late king was a bigger and better man than I am, I will do the best job I can. I think we have a great future. I ran away from home in the first place because I didn't have enough to do in my own country, and this is the type of opportunity I have hoped for." This was how I spoke, and I glowered, but made the glowers seem sincere. "How long do we have to stay in this death house?" "Him say just three, fo' days, sah." "Okay?" said Horko. "Not long. You marry toutes les leddy." He started to throw his fingers to show by tens how many there were. Sixty-seven. "Don't worry about a thing," I said to him. And when he had left, with ceremony, showing that he felt I was indeed in the bag, I said to Romilayu, "We're going out of here tonight." Romilayu looked up at me in silence, his upper lip growing very long with despair. "Tonight," I repeated. "We have the moon. Last night it was bright enough to read the telephone directory by. Have we been in this town a full month?" "Yes, sah--Whut we do?" "You'll start yelling in the night. You'll say I've been bitten by a snake, or something. That leather fellow will come with the two amazons to see what's wrong. If he doesn't open the door we'll have to try another scheme. But suppose the door _is__ opened. Then take this stone--you understand?--and jam it in by the hinge so the door won't close. That's all we need. Now where's your knife?" "Me keep knife, sah." "I don't need it. Yes, you keep the knife. All right, do you follow me? You'll holler that the Sungo Yassi, or whatever I am to these murderers, is bitten by a snake. My leg is swelling fast. And you must stand by the door ready to jam it." I showed him exactly what I wanted done. So when night began, I sat plotting, concentrating my ideas and trying to protect their clarity from my fever, which increased every afternoon and rose far into the night. I had to fight against delirium, as my condition was aggravated by the suffocation of the tomb and the hours of vigil I spent at the chink in the wall straining one eye at a time toward the dead figure of the king. Sometimes I imagined that I could see some of the features under the flap of the cowl. But this was more mental