Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [93]
rather than at the Bunam and those huge swelled nude women and the generaless in her antiquated garrison cap. The rest of them were looking at me, too. They had not come to the king, but to me. The black-leather angel-fellow, the man who had risen out of the ground with his crooked stick and sent Romilayu and me into ambush, was especially there, standing beside the Bunam. And these people had turned on me all the darkness, all the expectancy, all the wildness, all the power, of their eyes. Myself, I had remained stripped, half naked, cooling off after the labor I had performed and still panting. And under all this scrutiny of black eyes I began to worry. The king had tried to warn me that there might be consequences to my tangling with Mummah. But I had not failed. No, I was brilliant, a success. "What do they want of me?" I said to Dahfu. When you got right down to it he was a savage, too. He still dangled a skull (of perhaps his father) by the long smooth ribbon and wore human teeth sewed to his large-brimmed hat. Why should I expect any mercy from him when he himself, the moment he should weaken, would be doomed? I mean, if he didn't happen to be inspired by good motives, there was no reason to think that he wouldn't let evil happen to an intruding stranger. No, he might allow all hell to break loose over me. But under the velvet shade of this softly folded crownlike hat he parted his high swelled lips and said, "Now, Mr. Henderson. We have news for you. The man who moves Mummah occupies, in consequence, a position of rain king of the Wariri. The title of this post is the Sungo. You are now the Sungo, Mr. Henderson, and that is why they are here." So I said, vigilant and mistrustful, "Give it to me in plain English. What does it mean?" And I began to say to myself, "This is a fine way to repay me for moving their goddess." "Today you are the Sungo." "Well that may or may not be okay. Frankly, there's something about it that begins to make me uneasy. These guys look as if they meant business. What business? Now listen, Your Highness, don't sell me down the river. You know what I mean? I thought you liked me." He moved a little closer to me from his swaying position in the hammock, pushing from the ground with his fingers, and said, "I do like you. Every circumstance thus far have increased my fond feeling. Why do you worry? You are the Sungo for them. They require you to go along." I don't know why it was, but I couldn't at this moment wholly bring myself to trust the guy. "Just promise me one thing," I said, "if anything bad is going to happen, I would like a chance to send a message to my wife. Just along general lines saying good-by with love, and she has been a good woman to me basically. That's all. And don't hurt Romilayu. He hasn't done anything." I could just hear people back home saying, as at a party for instance, _"That big Henderson finally got his. What, didn't you hear? He went to Africa and disappeared in the interior. He probably bullied some natives and they stabbed him. Good riddance to bad rubbish. They say the estate is worth three million bucks. I guess he knew he was a lunatic and despised people for letting him get away with murder. Well, he was rotten to the heart." "Rotten to the heart yourselves, you bastards." "He was full of excess." "Listen, you guys, my great excess was I wanted to live. Maybe I did treat everything in the world as though it was a medicine--okay! What's the matter with you guys? Don't you understand anything? Don't you believe in regeneration? You think a fellow is just supposed to go down the drain?"__ "Oh, Henderson," said the king, "such suspicion. What have made you think harm is imminent for you or your man?" "Then why are they looking at me like that?" The Bunam and the leathery-looking herdsman and the barbarous Negro women. "You do not have a solitary item to fear," said Dahfu. "It is innocuous. No, no," said this strange prince of Africa, "they require your attendance to cleanse ponds and wells. They say you were sent for this purpose. Ha, ha, Mr. Henderson, you