Читать книгу A King by Night онлайн

8 страница из 100

The girl was staring at the doctor, bewildered.

"The King of Bonginda?" she repeated. "Is there such a place?"

He walked to the bookshelf, took down a volume, and, moving back to the table, opened and turned the leaves.

"There is only one Bonginda," he said, pointing. "It is a small town situated on a tributary of the Congo River—in Central Africa."

There was a dead silence, which the doctor broke.

"This is the first you have heard of Bonginda?"

She nodded.

"I hadn't heard of it," said the doctor, "until your uncle called on me one day. He was a stranger to me, and had apparently been sent by the hotel doctor, who knew that I had some success with neurasthenic cases. I saw him three times in all, and I felt he was improving under my treatment. But on the third and last visit a strange thing happened. Just as he was leaving this very room, he turned.

"'Good-bye, doctor,' he said. 'I am going to resume my place in the Councils of Bonginda.'

"I thought for a moment that he was referring to some society conducted on masonic lines, but his next words removed that impression.