Read Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Burton & Swinburne) for Free Online Page A

expedition had never been commissioned?”
    He received a weak nod of understanding. “Yes,” came the whispered response. “You can't possibly allow Palmerston that kind of power. By God, he could manipulate the whole world!”
    “Just as Darwin and Galton and their cronies would have done.”
    Monckton Milnes gazed at his friend a moment. “By James, I wouldn't be in your shoes for anything, Richard. What are you going to do?”
    Burton shrugged. “I have to retrieve the stone if only to prevent it from falling into Prussian hands. I feel certain that my erstwhile partner is going after it, with Bismarck's sponsorship. As to what I'll do with it once I have it—I don't know. There's a further complication: it was the African Eye that Rasputin employed in 1914 to probe into the past. So I already know I'm fated to find it, and, after I do, it will somehow, eventually, be transported to Russia.”
    They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Burton muttered, “I feel like a bloody pawn in a game of chess.”
    Monckton Milnes roused himself from the reverie he'd fallen into. “I have every faith in you, Richard,” he said. “Go to Africa. Do whatever you must. You'll find an answer, of that I'm certain.”
    Burton sighed and gave a slight jerk of his head. He became conscious of the buzz of conversation and merriment that filled Fryston. He looked down at himself, then at his friend, and suddenly chuckled. “Bismillah! King Shahryār of A Thousand Nights and a Night discussing fantastic notions with Harlequin! What a confounded joke!”
    Monckton Milnes smiled. “Go back to the party. Relax. Enjoy yourself. I'll join you in a few minutes. I want to sit here a little longer.”
    Burton rose and crossed to the door. He looked back and said, “If Palmerston learns that we had this conversation, I'll be thrown into the Tower.”
    “Bedlam, more like,” Monckton Milnes murmured.
    “No. The government keeps secret rooms, including prison cells, beneath the Tower of London.”
    His friend held up his hands as if to ward off the king's agent. “Have mercy! No more, I beg of you!” he cried. “My capacity for revelations is all used up!”
    Burton unlocked the door and left the room. He made his way back across the entrance hall, through the parlour, and into the smoking room.
    “I say, Captain,” Humpty Dumpty called as he entered. “Where's that wonderful housekeeper of yours?”
    Burton turned to the rotund fairy-tale figure. “Is that you in there, Trounce?”
    “Yes, and I feel an absolute ass, but it was Mrs. Trounce's idea and I thought it wise not to kick up a fuss, seeing as I'm abandoning her for the next few months. It's blasted awkward, I can tell you. I'm having dashed difficulty in steering food and wine lipwards, so to speak.”
    “I shouldn't complain. It looks like you could stand to lose a pound or two.”
    “That's quite enough of that, if you don't mind! You know full well that my current circumference is all padding!”
    “If you say so. Who has the esteemed Mrs. Trounce come as?”
    “Old Mother Hubbard, which, admittedly, didn't require much by way of dressing up. She's eager for a gossip with Mrs. Angell but what with all these fancy getups she can't locate the dear lady. So where is she and who, or what, has she come as?”
    “She's a rather too matronly Queen Boadicea, and is off doing your wife's job, I think.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She's gone to give a dog a bone.”
    “Eh?”
    “She's down in the kitchen procuring a morsel for Fidget, though I suspect she's actually seeking refuge from all these lords and ladies. She feels a little out of place, but I insisted upon her attendance. She deserves a taste of the high life after all I've put her through recently.”
    “You brought your confounded basset hound as well?”
    “She made him a part of her costume—harnessed him to a toy war chariot and had him trotting along beside her. He was most indignant about it.”
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