I inscribe this book of adventure to my son ARTHUR JOHN RIDERHAGGARD in the hope that in days to come he, and many otherboys whom I shall never know, may, in the acts and thoughts ofAllan Quatermain and his companions, as herein recorded, find something to help him and them to reach to what, with SirHenry Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank whereto we canattain -- the state and dignity of English gentlemen. 

CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTIONI THE CONSUL'S YARNII THE BLACK HANDIII THE MISSION STATIONIV ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTEV UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISEVI THE NIGHT WEARS ONVII A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREATVIII ALPHONSE EXPLAINSIX INTO THE UNKNOWNX THE ROSE OF FIREXI THE FROWNING CITYXII THE SISTER QUEENSXIII ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLEXIV THE FLOWER TEMPLEXV SORAIS' SONGXVI BEFORE THE STATUEXVII THE STORM BREAKSXVIII WAR! RED WAR!XIX A STRANGE WEDDINGXX THE BATTLE OF THE PASSXXI AWAY! AWAY!XXII HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIRXXIII I HAVE SPOKEN

INTRODUCTION

December 23

'I have just buried my boy, my poor handsome boy of whom I wasso proud, and my heart is broken. It is very hard having onlyone son to lose him thus, but God's will be done. Who am I thatI should complain? The great wheel of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut, and crushes us all in turn, some soon, some late -- it does notmatter when, in the end, it crushes us all. We do not prostrateourselves before it like the poor Indians; we fly hither andthither -- we cry for mercy; but it is of no use, the black Fatethunders on and in its season reduces us to powder. 

'Poor Harry to go so soon! just when his life was opening tohim. He was doing so well at the hospital, he had passed hislast examination with honours, and I was proud of them, muchprouder than he was, I think. And then he must needs go to thatsmallpox hospital. He wrote to me that he was not afraid ofsmallpox and wanted to gain the experience; and now the diseasehas killed him, and I, old and grey and withered, am left tomourn over him, without a chick or child to comfort me. I mighthave saved him, too -- I have money enough for both of us, andmuch more than enough -- King Solomon's Mines provided me withthat; but I said, "No, let the boy earn his living, let him labourthat he may enjoy rest. " But the rest has come to him beforethe labour. Oh, my boy, my boy!

'I am like the man in the Bible who laid up much goods and buildedbarns -- goods for my boy and barns for him to store them in;and now his soul has been required of him, and I am left desolate. I would that it had been my soul and not my boy's!

'We buried him this afternoon under the shadow of the grey andancient tower of the church of this village where my house is. It was a dreary December afternoon, and the sky was heavy withsnow, but not much was falling. The coffin was put down by thegrave, and a few big flakes lit upon it. They looked very whiteupon the black cloth! There was a little hitch about gettingthe coffin down into the grave -- the necessary ropes had beenforgotten: so we drew back from it, and waited in silence watchingthe big flakes fall gently one by one like heavenly benedictions, and melt in tears on Harry's pall. But that was not all. Arobin redbreast came as bold as could be and lit upon the coffinand began to sing. And then I am afraid that I broke down, andso did Sir Henry Curtis, strong man though he is; and as forCaptain Good, I saw him turn away too; even in my own distressI could not help noticing it. '

The above, signed 'Allan Quatermain', is an extract from my diarywritten two years and more ago. I copy it down here becauseit seems to me that it is the fittest beginning to the historythat I am about to write, if it please God to spare me to finishit. If not, well it does not matter. That extract was pennedseven thousand miles or so from the spot where I now lie painfullyand slowly writing this, with a pretty girl standing by my sidefanning the flies from my august countenance. Harry is thereand I am here, and yet somehow I cannot help feeling that I amnot far off Harry. 

When I was in England I used to live in a very fine house --at least I call it a fine house, speaking comparatively, andjudging from the standard of the houses I have been accustomedto all my life in Africa -- not five hundred yards from the oldchurch where Harry is asleep, and thither I went after the funeraland ate some food; for it is no good starving even if one hasjust buried all one's earthly hopes. But I could not eat much, and soon I took to walking, or rather limping -- being permanentlylame from the bite of a lion -- up and down, up and down theoak-panelled vestibule; for there is a vestibule in my housein England. On all the four walls of this vestibule were placedpairs of horns -- about a hundred pairs altogether, all of whichI had shot myself. They are beautiful specimens, as I neverkeep any horns which are not in every way perfect, unless itmay be now and again on account of the associations connectedwith them. In the centre of the room, however, over the widefireplace, there was a clear space left on which I had fixedup all my rifles. Some of them I have had for forty years, oldmuzzle-loaders that nobody would look at nowadays. One was anelephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green hide, lashed roundthe stock and locks, such as used to be owned by the Dutchmen-- a 'roer' they call it. That gun, the Boer I bought it frommany years ago told me, had been used by his father at the battleof the Blood River, just after Dingaan swept into Natal and slaughteredsix hundred men, women, and children, so that the Boers namedthe place where they died 'Weenen', or the 'Place of Weeping';and so it is called to this day, and always will be called. And many an elephant have I shot with that old gun. She alwaystook a handful of black powder and a three-ounce ball, and kickedlike the very deuce. 

Well, up and down I walked, staring at the guns and the hornswhich the guns had brought low; and as I did so there rose upin me a great craving: -- I would go away from this place whereI lived idly and at ease, back again to the wild land where Ihad spent my life, where I met my dear wife and poor Harry wasborn, and so many things, good, bad, and indifferent, had happenedto me. The thirst for the wilderness was on me; I could toleratethis place no more; I would go and die as I had lived, amongthe wild game and the savages. Yes, as I walked, I began tolong to see the moonlight gleaming silvery white over the wideveldt and mysterious sea of bush, and watch the lines of gametravelling down the ridges to the water. The ruling passionis strong in death, they say, and my heart was dead that night. But, independently of my trouble, no man who has for forty yearslived the life I have, can with impunity go coop himself in thisprim English country, with its trim hedgerows and cultivatedfields, its stiff formal manners, and its well-dressed crowds. He begins to long -- ah, how he longs! -- for the keen breathof the desert air; he dreams of the sight of Zulu impis breakingon their foes like surf upon the rocks, and his heart rises upin rebellion against the strict limits of the civilized life. 

Ah! this civilization, what does it all come to? For forty yearsand more I lived among savages, and studied them and their ways;and now for several years I have lived here in England, and havein my own stupid manner done my best to learn the ways of thechildren of light; and what have I found? A great gulf fixed?No, only a very little one, that a plain man's thought may springacross. I say that as the savage is, so is the white man, onlythe latter is more inventive, and possesses the faculty of combination;save and except also that the savage, as I have known him, isto a large extent free from the greed of money, which eats likea cancer into the heart of the white man. It is a depressingconclusion, but in all essentials the savage and the child ofcivilization are identical. I dare say that the highly civilizedlady reading this will smile at an old fool of a hunter's simplicitywhen she thinks of her black bead-bedecked sister; and so willthe superfine cultured idler scientifically eating a dinner athis club, the cost of which would keep a starving family fora week. And yet, my dear young lady, what are those pretty thingsround your own neck? -- they have a strong family resemblance, especially when you wear that _very_ low dress, to the savage woman'sbeads. Your habit of turning round and round to the sound ofhorns and tom-toms, your fondness for pigments and powders, theway in which you love to subjugate yourself to the rich warriorwho has captured you in marriage, and the quickness with whichyour taste in feathered head-dresses varies -- all these thingssuggest touches of kinship; and you remember that in the fundamentalprinciples of your nature you are quite identical. As for you, sir, who also laugh, let some man come and strike you in theface whilst you are enjoying that marvellous-looking dish, andwe shall soon see how much of the savage there is in _you_. 

There, I might go on for ever, but what is the good? Civilizationis only savagery silver-gilt. A vainglory is it, and like anorthern light, comes but to fade and leave the sky more dark. Out of the soil of barbarism it has grown like a tree, and, as I believe, into the soil like a tree it will once more, sooneror later, fall again, as the Egyptian civilization fell, as theHellenic civilization fell, and as the Roman civilization andmany others of which the world has now lost count, fell also. Do not let me, however, be understood as decrying our moderninstitutions, representing as they do the gathered experienceof humanity applied for the good of all. Of course they havegreat advantages -- hospitals for instance; but then, remember, we breed the sickly people who fill them. In a savage land theydo not exist. Besides, the question will arise: How many ofthese blessings are due to Christianity as distinct from civilization?And so the balance sways and the story runs -- here a gain, there a loss, and Nature's great average struck across the two, whereof the sum total forms one of the factors in that mightyequation in which the result will equal the unknown quantityof her purpose. 

I make no apology for this digression, especially as this isan introduction which all young people and those who never liketo think (and it is a bad habit) will naturally skip. It seemsto me very desirable that we should sometimes try to understandthe limitations of our nature, so that we may not be carriedaway by the pride of knowledge. Man's cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an elastic band, but human nature is likean iron ring. You can go round and round it, you can polishit highly, you can even flatten it a little on one side, wherebyyou will make it bulge out the other, but you will _never_, whilethe world endures and man is man, increase its total circumference. It is the one fixed unchangeable thing -- fixed as the stars, more enduring than the mountains, as unalterable as the way ofthe Eternal. Human nature is God's kaleidoscope, and the littlebits of coloured glass which represent our passions, hopes, fears, joys, aspirations towards good and evil and what not, are turnedin His mighty hand as surely and as certainly as it turns thestars, and continually fall into new patterns and combinations. But the composing elements remain the same, nor will there beone more bit of coloured glass nor one less for ever and ever. 

This being so, supposing for the sake of argument we divide ourselvesinto twenty parts, nineteen savage and one civilized, we mustlook to the nineteen savage portions of our nature, if we wouldreally understand ourselves, and not to the twentieth, which, though so insignificant in reality, is spread all over the othernineteen, making them appear quite different from what they reallyare, as the blacking does a boot, or the veneer a table. Itis on the nineteen rough serviceable savage portions that wefall back on emergencies, not on the polished but unsubstantialtwentieth. Civilization should wipe away our tears, and yetwe weep and cannot be comforted. Warfare is abhorrent to her, and yet we strike out for hearth and home, for honour and fairfame, and can glory in the blow. And so on, through everything. 

So, when the heart is stricken, and the head is humbled in thedust, civilization fails us utterly. Back, back, we creep, andlay us like little children on the great breast of Nature, shethat perchance may soothe us and make us forget, or at leastrid remembrance of its sting. Who has not in his great grieffelt a longing to look upon the outward features of the universalMother; to lie on the mountains and watch the clouds drive acrossthe sky and hear the rollers break in thunder on the shore, tolet his poor struggling life mingle for a while in her life;to feel the slow beat of her eternal heart, and to forget hiswoes, and let his identity be swallowed in the vast imperceptiblymoving energy of her of whom we are, from whom we came, and withwhom we shall again be mingled, who gave us birth, and will ina day to come give us our burial also. 

And so in my trouble, as I walked up and down the oak-panelledvestibule of my house there in Yorkshire, I longed once moreto throw myself into the arms of Nature. Not the Nature whichyou know, the Nature that waves in well-kept woods and smilesout in corn-fields, but Nature as she was in the age when creationwas complete, undefiled as yet by any human sinks of swelteringhumanity. I would go again where the wild game was, back tothe land whereof none know the history, back to the savages, whom I love, although some of them are almost as merciless asPolitical Economy. There, perhaps, I should be able to learnto think of poor Harry lying in the churchyard, without feelingas though my heart would break in two. 

And now there is an end of this egotistical talk, and there shallbe no more of it. But if you whose eyes may perchance one dayfall upon my written thoughts have got so far as this, I askyou to persevere, since what I have to tell you is not withoutits interest, and it has never been told before, nor will again. 

CHAPTER I

THE CONSUL'S YARN

A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, andone evening I was in my room walking up and down and thinking, when there was a ring at the outer door. Going down the stepsI opened it myself, and in came my old friends Sir Henry Curtisand Captain John Good, RN. They entered the vestibule and satthemselves down before the wide hearth, where, I remember, aparticularly good fire of logs was burning. 

'It is very kind of you to come round, ' I said by way of makinga remark; 'it must have been heavy walking in the snow. '

They said nothing, but Sir Henry slowly filled his pipe and litit with a burning ember. As he leant forward to do so the firegot hold of a gassy bit of pine and flared up brightly, throwingthe whole scene into strong relief, and I thought, What a splendid-lookingman he is! Calm, powerful face, clear-cut features, large greyeyes, yellow beard and hair -- altogether a magnificent specimenof the higher type of humanity. Nor did his form belie his face. I have never seen wider shoulders or a deeper chest. Indeed, Sir Henry's girth is so great that, though he is six feet twohigh, he does not strike one as a tall man. As I looked at himI could not help thinking what a curious contrast my little dried-upself presented to his grand face and form. Imagine to yourselfa small, withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three, with thinhands, large brown eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short andstanding up like a half-worn scrubbing-brush -- total weightin my clothes, nine stone six -- and you will get a very fairidea of Allan Quatermain, commonly called Hunter Quatermain, or by the natives 'Macumazahn' -- Anglic/CHAR: e grave/, he whokeeps a bright look-out at night, or, in vulgar English, a sharpfellow who is not to be taken in. 

Then there was Good, who is not like either of us, being short, dark, stout -- _very_ stout -- with twinkling black eyes, in oneof which an eyeglass is everlastingly fixed. I say stout, butit is a mild term; I regret to state that of late years Goodhas been running to fat in a most disgraceful way. Sir Henrytells him that it comes from idleness and over-feeding, andGood does not like it at all, though he cannot deny it. 

We sat for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp thatstood ready on the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary, as it is apt to do when one has a short week ago buried the hopeof one's life. Next, I opened a cupboard in the wainscotingand got a bottle of whisky and some tumblers and water. I alwayslike to do these things for myself: it is irritating to me tohave somebody continually at my elbow, as though I were aneighteen-month-old baby. All this while Curtis and Good hadbeen silent, feeling, I suppose, that they had nothing to saythat could do me any good, and content to give me the comfortof their presence and unspoken sympathy; for it was only theirsecond visit since the funeral. And it is, by the way, fromthe _presence_ of others that we really derive support in our darkhours of grief, and not from their talk, which often only servesto irritate us. Before a bad storm the game always herd together, but they cease their calling. 

They sat and smoked and drank whisky and water, and I stood bythe fire also smoking and looking at them. 

At last I spoke. 'Old friends, ' I said, 'how long is it sincewe got back from Kukuanaland?'

'Three years, ' said Good. 'Why do you ask?'

'I ask because I think that I have had a long enough spell ofcivilization. I am going back to the veldt. '

Sir Henry laid his head back in his arm-chair and laughed oneof his deep laughs. 'How very odd, ' he said, 'eh, Good?'

Good beamed at me mysteriously through his eyeglass and murmured, 'Yes, odd -- very odd. '

'I don't quite understand, ' said I, looking from one to the other, for I dislike mysteries. 

'Don't you, old fellow?' said Sir Henry; 'then I will explain. As Good and I were walking up here we had a talk. '

'If Good was there you probably did, ' I put in sarcastically, for Good is a great hand at talking. 'And what may it have been about?'

'What do you think?' asked Sir Henry. 

I shook my head. It was not likely that I should know what Goodmight be talking about. He talks about so many things. 

'Well, it was about a little plan that I have formed -- namely, that if you were willing we should pack up our traps and go offto Africa on another expedition. '

I fairly jumped at his words. 'You don't say so!' I said. 

'Yes I do, though, and so does Good; don't you, Good?'

'Rather, ' said that gentleman. 

'Listen, old fellow, ' went on Sir Henry, with considerable animationof manner. 'I'm tired of it too, dead-tired of doing nothingmore except play the squire in a country that is sick of squires. For a year or more I have been getting as restless as an oldelephant who scents danger. I am always dreaming of Kukuanalandand Gagool and King Solomon's Mines. I can assure you I havebecome the victim of an almost unaccountable craving. I am sickof shooting pheasants and partridges, and want to have a go atsome large game again. There, you know the feeling -- when onehas once tasted brandy and water, milk becomes insipid to thepalate. That year we spent together up in Kukuanaland seemsto me worth all the other years of my life put together. I daresay that I am a fool for my pains, but I can't help it; I longto go, and, what is more, I mean to go. ' He paused, and thenwent on again. 'And, after all, why should I not go? I haveno wife or parent, no chick or child to keep me. If anythinghappens to me the baronetcy will go to my brother George andhis boy, as it would ultimately do in any case. I am of no importanceto any one. '

'Ah!' I said, 'I thought you would come to that sooner or later. And now, Good, what is your reason for wanting to trek; haveyou got one?'

'I have, ' said Good, solemnly. 'I never do anything withouta reason; and it isn't a lady -- at least, if it is, it's several. '

I looked at him again. Good is so overpoweringly frivolous. 'What is it?' I said. 

'Well, if you really want to know, though I'd rather not speakof a delicate and strictly personal matter, I'll tell you: I'mgetting too fat. '

'Shut up, Good!' said Sir Henry. 'And now, Quatermain, tellus, where do you propose going to?'

I lit my pipe, which had gone out, before answering. 

'Have you people ever heard of Mt Kenia?' I asked. 

'Don't know the place, ' said Good. 

'Did you ever hear of the Island of Lamu?' I asked again. 

'No. Stop, though -- isn't it a place about 300 miles north of Zanzibar?'

'Yes. Now listen. What I have to propose is this. That wego to Lamu and thence make our way about 250 miles inland toMt Kenia; from Mt Kenia on inland to Mt Lekakisera, another 200miles, or thereabouts, beyond which no white man has to the bestof my belief ever been; and then, if we get so far, right oninto the unknown interior. What do you say to that, my hearties?'

'It's a big order, ' said Sir Henry, reflectively. 

'You are right, ' I answered, 'it is; but I take it that we areall three of us in search of a big order. We want a change ofscene, and we are likely to get one -- a thorough change. Allmy life I have longed to visit those parts, and I mean to doit before I die. My poor boy's death has broken the last linkbetween me and civilization, and I'm off to my native wilds. And now I'll tell you another thing, and that is, that for yearsand years I have heard rumours of a great white race which issupposed to have its home somewhere up in this direction, andI have a mind to see if there is any truth in them. If you fellowslike to come, well and good; if not, I'll go alone. '

'I'm your man, though I don't believe in your white race, ' saidSir Henry Curtis, rising and placing his arm upon my shoulder. 

'Ditto, ' remarked Good. 'I'll go into training at once. Byall means let's go to Mt Kenia and the other place with anunpronounceable name, and look for a white race that does not exist. It's all one to me. '

'When do you propose to start?' asked Sir Henry. 

'This day month, ' I answered, 'by the British India steamboat;and don't you be so certain that things have no existence becauseyou do not happen to have heard of them. Remember King Solomon's mines!'

Some fourteen weeks or so had passed since the date of this conversation, and this history goes on its way in very different surroundings. 

After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusionthat our best starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhoodof the mouth of the Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a placeover 100 miles nearer Zanzibar. This conclusion we arrived atfrom information given to us by a German trader whom we met uponthe steamer at Aden. I think that he was the dirtiest GermanI ever knew; but he was a good fellow, and gave us a great dealof valuable information. 'Lamu, ' said he, 'you goes to Lamu-- oh ze beautiful place!' and he turned up his fat face andbeamed with mild rapture. 'One year and a half I live thereand never change my shirt -- never at all. '

And so it came to pass that on arriving at the island we disembarkedwith all our goods and chattels, and, not knowing where to go, marched boldly up to the house of Her Majesty's Consul, wherewe were most hospitably received. 

Lamu is a very curious place, but the things which stand outmost clearly in my memory in connection with it are its exceedingdirtiness and its smells. These last are simply awful. Justbelow the Consulate is the beach, or rather a mud bank that iscalled a beach. It is left quite bare at low tide, and servesas a repository for all the filth, offal, and refuse of the town. Here it is, too, that the women come to bury coconuts in themud, leaving them there till the outer husk is quite rotten, when they dig them up again and use the fibres to make mats with, and for various other purposes. As this process has been goingon for generations, the condition of the shore can be betterimagined than described. I have smelt many evil odours in thecourse of my life, but the concentrated essence of stench whicharose from that beach at Lamu as we sat in the moonlit night-- not under, but _on_ our friend the Consul's hospitable roof-- and sniffed it, makes the remembrance of them very poor andfaint. No wonder people get fever at Lamu. And yet the placewas not without a certain quaintness and charm of its own, thoughpossibly -- indeed probably -- it was one which would quicklypall. 

'Well, where are you gentlemen steering for?' asked our friendthe hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner. 

'We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera, 'answered Sir Henry. 'Quatermain has got hold of some yarn aboutthere being a white race up in the unknown territories beyond. '

The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heardsomething of that, too. 

'What have you heard?' I asked. 

'Oh, not much. All I know about it is that a year or so agoI got a letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station, "The Highlands", is placed at the highest navigable point ofthe Tana River, in which he said something about it. '

'Have you the letter?' I asked. 

'No, I destroyed it; but I remember that he said that a man hadarrived at his station who declared that two months' journeybeyond Mt Lekakisera, which no white man has yet visited -- atleast, so far as I know -- he found a lake called Laga, and thatthen he went off to the north-east, a month's journey, over desertand thorn veldt and great mountains, till he came to a countrywhere the people are white and live in stone houses. Here hewas hospitably entertained for a while, till at last the priestsof the country set it about that he was a devil, and the peopledrove him away, and he journeyed for eight months and reachedMackenzie's place, as I heard, dying. That's all I know; andif you ask me, I believe that it is a lie; but if you want tofind out more about it, you had better go up the Tana to Mackenzie'splace and ask him for information. '

Sir Henry and I looked at each other. Here was something tangible. 

'I think that we will go to Mr Mackenzie's, ' I said. 

'Well, ' answered the Consul, 'that is your best way, but I warnyou that you are likely to have a rough journey, for I hear thatthe Masai are about, and, as you know, they are not pleasantcustomers. Your best plan will be to choose a few picked menfor personal servants and hunters, and to hire bearers from villageto village. It will give you an infinity of trouble, but perhapson the whole it will prove a cheaper and more advantageous coursethan engaging a caravan, and you will be less liable to desertion. '

Fortunately there were at Lamu at this time a party of WakwafiAskari (soldiers). The Wakwafi, who are a cross between theMasai and the Wataveta, are a fine manly race, possessing manyof the good qualities of the Zulu, and a great capacity for civilization. They are also great hunters. As it happened, these particularmen had recently been on a long trip with an Englishman namedJutson, who had started from Mombasa, a port about 150 milesbelow Lamu, and journeyed right round Kilimanjaro, one of thehighest known mountains in Africa. Poor fellow, he had diedof fever when on his return journey, and within a day's marchof Mombasa. It does seem hard that he should have gone off thuswhen within a few hours of safety, and after having survivedso many perils, but so it was. His hunters buried him, and thencame on to Lamu in a dhow. Our friend the Consul suggested tous that we had better try and hire these men, and accordinglyon the following morning we started to interview the party, accompanied by an interpreter. 

In due course we found them in a mud hut on the outskirts ofthe town. Three of the men were sitting outside the hut, andfine frank-looking fellows they were, having a more or less civilizedappearance. To them we cautiously opened the object of our visit, at first with very scant success. They declared that they couldnot entertain any such idea, that they were worn and weary withlong travelling, and that their hearts were sore at the lossof their master. They meant to go back to their homes and restawhile. This did not sound very promising, so by way of effectinga diversion I asked where the remainder of them were. I wastold there were six, and I saw but three. One of the men saidthey slept in the hut, and were yet resting after their labours-- 'sleep weighed down their eyelids, and sorrow made their heartsas lead: it was best to sleep, for with sleep came forgetfulness. But the men should be awakened. '

Presently they came out of the hut, yawning -- the first twomen being evidently of the same race and style as those alreadybefore us; but the appearance of the third and last nearly mademe jump out of my skin. He was a very tall, broad man, quitesix foot three, I should say, but gaunt, with lean, wiry-lookinglimbs. My first glance at him told me that he was no Wakwafi:he was a pure bred Zulu. He came out with his thin aristocratic-lookinghand placed before his face to hide a yawn, so I could only seethat he was a 'Keshla' or ringed man {Endnote 1}, and that hehad a great three-cornered hole in his forehead. In anothersecond he removed his hand, revealing a powerful-looking Zuluface, with a humorous mouth, a short woolly beard, tinged withgrey, and a pair of brown eyes keen as a hawk's. I knew my manat once, although I had not seen him for twelve years. 'Howdo you do, Umslopogaas?' I said quietly in Zulu. 

The tall man (who among his own people was commonly known asthe 'Woodpecker', and also as the 'Slaughterer') started, andalmost let the long-handled battleaxe he held in his hand fallin his astonishment. Next second he had recognized me, and wassaluting me in an outburst of sonorous language which made hiscompanions the Wakwafi stare. 

'Koos' (chief), he began, 'Koos-y-Pagete! Koos-y-umcool! (Chieffrom of old -- mighty chief) Koos! Baba! (father) Macumazahn, old hunter, slayer of elephants, eater up of lions, clever one!watchful one! brave one! quick one! whose shot never misses, who strikes straight home, who grasps a hand and holds it tothe death (i. E. Is a true friend) Koos! Baba! Wise is the voiceof our people that says, "Mountain never meets with mountain, but at daybreak or at even man shall meet again with man. " Behold!a messenger came up from Natal, "Macumazahn is dead!" cried he. "The land knows Macumazahn no more. " That is years ago. Andnow, behold, now in this strange place of stinks I find Macumazahn, my friend. There is no room for doubt. The brush of the oldjackal has gone a little grey; but is not his eye as keen, andare not his teeth as sharp? Ha! ha! Macumazahn, mindest thouhow thou didst plant the ball in the eye of the charging buffalo-- mindest thou --'

I had let him run on thus because I saw that his enthusiasm wasproducing a marked effect upon the minds of the five Wakwafi, who appeared to understand something of his talk; but now I thoughtit time to put a stop to it, for there is nothing that I hateso much as this Zulu system of extravagant praising -- 'bongering'as they call it. 'Silence!' I said. 'Has all thy noisy talkbeen stopped up since last I saw thee that it breaks out thus, and sweeps us away? What doest thou here with these men -- thouwhom I left a chief in Zululand? How is it that thou art farfrom thine own place, and gathered together with strangers?'

Umslopogaas leant himself upon the head of his long battleaxe(which was nothing else but a pole-axe, with a beautiful handleof rhinoceros horn), and his grim face grew sad. 

'My Father, ' he answered, 'I have a word to tell thee, but Icannot speak it before these low people (umfagozana), ' and heglanced at the Wakwafi Askari; 'it is for thine own ear. MyFather, this will I say, ' and here his face grew stern again, 'a woman betrayed me to the death, and covered my name with shame-- ay, my own wife, a round-faced girl, betrayed me; but I escapedfrom death; ay, I broke from the very hands of those who cameto slay me. I struck but three blows with this mine axe Inkosikaas-- surely my Father will remember it -- one to the right, oneto the left, and one in front, and yet I left three men dead. And then I fled, and, as my Father knows, even now that I amold my feet are as the feet of the Sassaby {Endnote 2}, and therebreathes not the man who, by running, can touch me again whenonce I have bounded from his side. On I sped, and after me camethe messengers of death, and their voice was as the voice ofdogs that hunt. From my own kraal I flew, and, as I passed, she who had betrayed me was drawing water from the spring. Ifleeted by her like the shadow of Death, and as I went I smotewith mine axe, and lo! her head fell: it fell into the waterpan. Then I fled north. Day after day I journeyed on; for threemoons I journeyed, resting not, stopping not, but running ontowards forgetfulness, till I met the party of the white hunterwho is now dead, and am come hither with his servants. And noughthave I brought with me. I who was high-born, ay, of the bloodof Chaka, the great king -- a chief, and a captain of the regimentof the Nkomabakosi -- am a wanderer in strange places, a manwithout a kraal. Nought have I brought save this mine axe; ofall my belongings this remains alone. They have divided my cattle;they have taken my wives; and my children know my face no more. Yet with this axe' -- and he swung the formidable weapon roundhis head, making the air hiss as he clove it -- 'will I cut anotherpath to fortune. I have spoken. '

I shook my head at him. 'Umslopogaas, ' I said, 'I know theefrom of old. Ever ambitious, ever plotting to be great, I fearme that thou hast overreached thyself at last. Years ago, whenthou wouldst have plotted against Cetywayo, son of Panda, I warnedthee, and thou didst listen. But now, when I was not by theeto stay thy hand, thou hast dug a pit for thine own feet to fallin. Is it not so? But what is done is done. Who can make thedead tree green, or gaze again upon last year's light? Who canrecall the spoken word, or bring back the spirit of the fallen?That which Time swallows comes not up again. Let it be forgotten!

'And now, behold, Umslopogaas, I know thee for a great warriorand a brave man, faithful to the death. Even in Zululand, whereall the men are brave, they called thee the "Slaughterer", andat night told stories round the fire of thy strength and deeds. Hear me now. Thou seest this great man, my friend' -- and Ipointed to Sir Henry; 'he also is a warrior as great as thou, and, strong as thou art, he could throw thee over his shoulder. Incubu is his name. And thou seest this one also; him withthe round stomach, the shining eye, and the pleasant face. Bougwan(glass eye) is his name, and a good man is he and a true, beingof a curious tribe who pass their life upon the water, and livein floating kraals. 

'Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past DongoEgere, the great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into theunknown beyond. We know not what we shall find there; we goto hunt and seek adventures, and new places, being tired of sittingstill, with the same old things around us. Wilt thou come withus? To thee shall be given command of all our servants; butwhat shall befall thee, that I know not. Once before we threejourneyed thus, in search of adventure, and we took with us aman such as thou -- one Umbopa; and, behold, we left him theking of a great country, with twenty Impis (regiments), eachof 3, 000 plumed warriors, waiting on his word. How it shallgo with thee, I know not; mayhap death awaits thee and us. Wilt thou throw thyself to Fortune and come, or fearest thou, Umslopogaas?'

The great man smiled. 'Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn, 'he said; 'I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambitionthat led me to my fall; but, shame on me that I should have tosay it, a fair woman's face. Let it pass. So we are going tosee something like the old times again, Macumazahn, when we foughtand hunted in Zululand? Ay, I will come. Come life, come death, what care I, so that the blows fall fast and the blood runs red?I grow old, I grow old, and I have not fought enough! And yetam I a warrior among warriors; see my scars' -- and he pointedto countless cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the skinof his chest and legs and arms. 'See the hole in my head; thebrains gushed out therefrom, yet did I slay him who smote, andlive. Knowest thou how many men I have slain, in fair hand-to-handcombat, Macumazahn? See, here is the tale of them' -- and hepointed to long rows of notches cut in the rhinoceros-horn handleof his axe. 'Number them, Macumazahn -- one hundred and three-- and I have never counted but those whom I have ripped open{Endnote 3}, nor have I reckoned those whom another man had struck. '

'Be silent, ' I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-feveron him; 'be silent; well art thou called the "Slaughterer". We would not hear of thy deeds of blood. Remember, if thou comestwith us, we fight not save in self-defence. Listen, we needservants. These men, ' and I pointed to the Wakwafi, who hadretired a little way during our 'indaba' (talk), 'say they will not come. '

'Will not come!' shouted Umslopogaas; 'where is the dog who sayshe will not come when my Father orders? Here, thou' -- and witha single bound he sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had firstspoken, and, seizing him by the arm, dragged him towards us. 'Thou dog!' he said, giving the terrified man a shake, 'didstthou say that thou wouldst not go with my Father? Say it oncemore and I will choke thee' -- and his long fingers closed roundhis throat as he said it -- 'thee, and those with thee. Hastthou forgotten how I served thy brother?'

'Nay, we will come with the white man, ' gasped the man. 

'White man!' went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which avery little provocation would have made real enough; 'of whomspeakest thou, insolent dog?'

'Nay, we will go with the great chief. '

'So!' said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly releasedhis hold, so that the man fell backward. 'I thought you would. '

'That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendencyover his companions, ' Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully. 

CHAPTER IITHE BLACK HAND

In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we foundourselves at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, havinggone through many adventures which need not be recorded here. Amongst other things we visited a ruined city, of which thereare many on this coast, and which must once, to judge from theirextent and the numerous remains of mosques and stone houses, have been very populous places. These ruined cities are immeasurablyancient, having, I believe, been places of wealth and importanceas far back as the Old Testament times, when they were centresof trade with India and elsewhere. But their glory has departednow -- the slave trade has finished them -- and where wealthymerchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood andbargained in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his courtat night, and instead of the chattering of slaves and the eagervoices of the bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruinedcorridors. At this particular place we discovered on a mound, covered up with rank growth and rubbish, two of the most beautifulstone doorways that it is possible to conceive. The carvingon them was simply exquisite, and I only regret that we had nomeans of getting them away. No doubt they had once been theentrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces were nowto be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising mound. 

Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go. Like thenobles and the ladies who lived within their gates, these citieshave had their day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh, and as London and Paris will one day be. Nothing may endure. That is the inexorable law. Men and women, empires and cities, thrones, principalities, and powers, mountains, rivers, and unfathomedseas, worlds, spaces, and universes, all have their day, andall must go. In this ruined and forgotten place the moralistmay behold a symbol of the universal destiny. For this systemof ours allows no room for standing still -- nothing can loiteron the road and check the progress of things upwards towardsLife, or the rush of things downwards towards Death. The sternpoliceman Fate moves us and them on, on, uphill and downhilland across the level; there is no resting-place for the wearyfeet, till at last the abyss swallows us, and from the shoresof the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of the Eternal. 

At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearerswe had hired to go as far as this, and who now wished to extortlarge extra payment from us. In the result he threatened toset the Masai -- about whom more anon -- on to us. That nighthe, with all our hired bearers, ran away, stealing most of thegoods which had been entrusted to them to carry. Luckily, however, they had not happened to steal our rifles, ammunition, and personaleffects; not because of any delicacy of feeling on their part, but owing to the fact that they chanced to be in the charge ofthe five Wakwafis. After that, it was clear to us that we hadhad enough of caravans and of bearers. Indeed, we had not muchleft for a caravan to carry. And yet, how were we to get on?

It was Good who solved the question. 'Here is water, ' he said, pointing to the Tana River; 'and yesterday I saw a party of nativeshunting hippopotami in canoes. I understand that Mr Mackenzie'smission station is on the Tana River. Why not get into canoesand paddle up to it?'

This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received withacclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoesfrom the surrounding natives. I succeeded after a delay of threedays in obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a singlelog of some light wood, and capable of holding six people andbaggage. For these two canoes we had to pay nearly all ourremaining cloth, and also many other articles. 

On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effecteda start. In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and threeof our Wakwafi followers; in the second myself, Umslopogaas, and the other two Wakwafis. As our course lay upstream, we hadto keep four paddles at work in each canoe, which meant thatthe whole lot of us, except Good, had to row away like galley-slaves;and very exhausting work it was. I say, except Good, for, ofcourse, the moment that Good got into a boat his foot was onhis native heath, and he took command of the party. And certainlyhe worked us. On shore Good is a gentle, mild-mannered man, and given to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good ina boat was a perfect demon. To begin with, he knew all aboutit, and we didn't. On all nautical subjects, from the torpedofittings of a man-of-war down to the best way of handling thepaddle of an African canoe, he was a perfect mine of information, which, to say the least of it, we were not. Also his ideas ofdiscipline were of the sternest, and, in short, he came the royalnaval officer over us pretty considerably, and paid us out amplyfor all the chaff we were wont to treat him to on land; but, on the other hand, I am bound to say that he managed the boats admirably. 

After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of some clothand a couple of poles, in rigging up a sail in each canoe, whichlightened our labours not a little. But the current ran verystrong against us, and at the best we were not able to make morethan twenty miles a day. Our plan was to start at dawn, andpaddle along till about half-past ten, by which time the sungot too hot to allow of further exertion. Then we moored ourcanoes to the bank, and ate our frugal meal; after which we ateor otherwise amused ourselves till about three o'clock, whenwe again started, and rowed till within an hour of sundown, whenwe called a halt for the night. On landing in the evening, Goodwould at once set to work, with the help of the Askari, to builda little 'scherm', or small enclosure, fenced with thorn bushes, and to light a fire. I, with Sir Henry and Umslopogaas, wouldgo out to shoot something for the pot. Generally this was aneasy task, for all sorts of game abounded on the banks of theTana. One night Sir Henry shot a young cow-giraffe, of whichthe marrow-bones were excellent; on another I got a couple ofwaterbuck right and left; and once, to his own intense satisfaction, Umslopogaas (who, like most Zulus, was a vile shot with a rifle)managed to kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I had lent him. Sometimes we varied our food by shooting some guinea-fowl, orbush-bustard (paau) -- both of which were numerous -- with ashot-gun, or by catching a supply of beautiful yellow fish, withwhich the waters of the Tana swarmed, and which form, I believe, one of the chief food-supplies of the crocodiles. 

Three days after our start an ominous incident occurred. Wewere just drawing in to the bank to make our camp as usual forthe night, when we caught sight of a figure standing on a littleknoll not forty yards away, and intensely watching our approach. One glance was sufficient -- although I was personally unacquaintedwith the tribe -- to tell me that he was a Masai Elmoran, oryoung warrior. Indeed, had I had any doubts, they would havequickly been dispelled by the terrified ejaculation of '_Masai_!'that burst simultaneously from the lips of our Wakwafi followers, who are, as I think I have said, themselves bastard Masai. 

And what a figure he presented as he stood there in his savagewar-gear! Accustomed as I have been to savages all my life, I do not think that I have ever before seen anything quite soferocious or awe-inspiring. To begin with, the man was enormouslytall, quite as tall as Umslopogaas, I should say, and beautifully, though somewhat slightly, shaped; but with the face of a devil. In his right hand he held a spear about five and a half feetlong, the blade being two and a half feet in length, by nearlythree inches in width, and having an iron spike at the end ofthe handle that measured more than a foot. On his left arm wasa large and well-made elliptical shield of buffalo hide, on whichwere painted strange heraldic-looking devices. On his shoulderswas a huge cape of hawk's feathers, and round his neck was a'naibere', or strip of cotton, about seventeen feet long, byone and a half broad, with a stripe of colour running down themiddle of it. The tanned goatskin robe, which formed his ordinaryattire in times of peace, was tied lightly round his waist, soas to serve the purposes of a belt, and through it were stuck, on the right and left sides respectively, his short pear-shapedsime, or sword, which is made of a single piece of steel, andcarried in a wooden sheath, and an enormous knobkerrie. Butperhaps the most remarkable feature of his attire consisted ofa headdress of ostrich-feathers, which was fixed on the chin, and passed in front of the ears to the forehead, and, being shapedlike an ellipse, completely framed the face, so that the diabolicalcountenance appeared to project from a sort of feather fire-screen. Round the ankles he wore black fringes of hair, and, projectingfrom the upper portion of the calves, to which they were attached, were long spurs like spikes, from which flowed down tufts ofthe beautiful black and waving hair of the Colobus monkey. Suchwas the elaborate array of the Masai Elmoran who stood watchingthe approach of our two canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated, must be seen; only those who see it do not often live to describeit. Of course I could not make out all these details of hisfull dress on the occasion of this my first introduction, being, indeed, amply taken up with the consideration of the generaleffect, but I had plenty of subsequent opportunities of becomingacquainted with the items that went to make it up. 

Whilst we were hesitating what to do, the Masai warrior drewhimself up in a dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us, and, turning, vanished on the further side of the slope. 

'Hulloa!' holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; 'our friendthe caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set theMasai after us. Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?'

I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand, we had no means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that wecould eat raw, so it was difficult to know what to do. At lastUmslopogaas simplified matters by volunteering to go and reconnoitre, which he did, creeping off into the bush like a snake, whilewe hung off in the stream waiting for him. In half an hour hereturned, and told us that there was not a Masai to be seen anywhereabout, but that he had discovered a spot where they had recentlybeen encamped, and that from various indications he judged thatthey must have moved on an hour or so before; the man we sawhaving, no doubt, been left to report upon our movements. 

Thereupon we landed; and, having posted a sentry, proceeded tocook and eat our evening meal. This done, we took the situationinto our serious consideration. Of course, it was possible thatthe apparition of the Masai warrior had nothing to do with us, that he was merely one of a band bent upon some marauding andmurdering expedition against another tribe. But when we recalledthe threat of the caravan leader, and reflected on the ominousway in which the warrior had shaken his spear at us, this didnot appear very probable. On the contrary, what did seem probablewas that the party was after us and awaiting a favourable opportunityto attack us. This being so, there were two things that we coulddo -- one of which was to go on, and the other to go back. Thelatter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obviousthat we should encounter as many dangers in retreat as in advance;and, besides, we had made up our minds to journey onwards atany price. Under these circumstances, however, we did not considerit safe to sleep ashore, so we got into our canoes, and, paddlingout into the middle of the stream, which was not very wide here, managed to anchor them by means of big stones fastened to ropesmade of coconut-fibre, of which there were several fathoms ineach canoe. 

Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combinedwith anxiety as to our position, effectually prevented me fromsleeping as the others were doing, notwithstanding the attacksof the aforesaid Tana mosquitoes. And so I lay awake, smokingand reflecting on many things, but, being of a practical turnof mind, chiefly on how we were to give those Masai villainsthe slip. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and, notwithstandingthe mosquitoes, and the great risk we were running from feverfrom sleeping in such a spot, and forgetting that I had the crampvery badly in my right leg from squatting in a constrained positionin the canoe, and that the Wakwafi who was sleeping beside mesmelt horribly, I really began to enjoy myself. The moonbeamsplayed upon the surface of the running water that speeded unceasinglypast us towards the sea, like men's lives towards the grave, till it glittered like a wide sheet of silver, that is in theopen where the trees threw no shadows. Near the banks, however, it was very dark, and the night wind sighed sadly in the reeds. To our left, on the further side of the river, was a littlesandy bay which was clear of trees, and here I could make outthe forms of numerous antelopes advancing to the water, tillsuddenly there came an ominous roar, whereupon they all madeoff hurriedly. Then after a pause I caught sight of the massiveform of His Majesty the Lion, coming down to drink his fill aftermeat. Presently he moved on, then came a crashing of the reedsabout fifty yards above us, and a few minutes later a huge blackmass rose out of the water, about twenty yards from me, and snorted. It was the head of a hippopotamus. Down it went without a sound, only to rise again within five yards of where I sat. This wasdecidedly too near to be comfortable, more especially as thehippopotamus was evidently animated by intense curiosity to knowwhat on earth our canoes were. He opened his great mouth, toyawn, I suppose, and gave me an excellent view of his ivories;and I could not help reflecting how easily he could crunch upour frail canoe with a single bite. Indeed, I had half a mindto give him a ball from my eight-bore, but on reflection determinedto let him alone unless he actually charged the boat. Presentlyhe sank again as noiselessly as before, and I saw no more ofhim. Just then, on looking towards the bank on our right, Ifancied that I caught sight of a dark figure flitting betweenthe tree trunks. I have very keen sight, and I was almost surethat I saw something, but whether it was bird, beast, or manI could not say. At the moment, however, a dark cloud passedover the moon, and I saw no more of it. Just then, too, althoughall the other sounds of the forest had ceased, a species of hornedowl with which I was well acquainted began to hoot with greatpersistency. After that, save for the rustling of trees andreeds when the wind caught them, there was complete silence. 

But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly becomenervous. There was no particular reason why I should be, beyondthe ordinary reasons which surround the Central African traveller, and yet I undoubtedly was. If there is one thing more than anotherof which I have the most complete and entire scorn and disbelief, it is of presentiments, and yet here I was all of a sudden filledwith and possessed by a most undoubted presentiment of approachingevil. I would not give way to it, however, although I felt thecold perspiration stand out upon my forehead. I would not arousethe others. Worse and worse I grew, my pulse fluttered likea dying man's, my nerves thrilled with the horrible sense ofimpotent terror which anybody who is subject to nightmare willbe familiar with, but still my will triumphed over my fears, and I lay quiet (for I was half sitting, half lying, in the bowof the canoe), only turning my face so as to command a view ofUmslopogaas and the two Wakwafi who were sleeping alongside ofand beyond me. 

In the distance I heard a hippopotamus splash faintly, then theowl hooted again in a kind of unnatural screaming note {Endnote 4}, and the wind began to moan plaintively through the trees, making a heart-chilling music. Above was the black bosom ofthe cloud, and beneath me swept the black flood of the water, and I felt as though I and Death were utterly alone between them. It was very desolate. 

Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and my heartto stand still. Was it fancy, or were we moving? I turned myeyes to look for the other canoe which should be alongside ofus. I could not see it, but instead I saw a lean and clutchingblack hand lifting itself above the gunwale of the little boat. Surely it was a nightmare! At the same instant a dim butdevilish-looking face appeared to rise out of the water, andthen came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife, andan awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by my side (thesame poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and somethingwarm spurted into my face. In an instant the spell was broken;I knew that it was no nightmare, but that we were attacked byswimming Masai. Snatching at the first weapon that came to hand, which happened to be Umslopogaas' battleaxe, I struck with allmy force in the direction in which I had seen the flash of theknife. The blow fell upon a man's arm, and, catching it againstthe thick wooden gunwale of the canoe, completely severed itfrom the body just above the wrist. As for its owner, he utteredno sound or cry. Like a ghost he came, and like a ghost he went, leaving behind him a bloody hand still gripping a great knife, or rather a short sword, that was buried in the heart of ourpoor servant. 

Instantly there arose a hubbub and confusion, and I fancied, rightly or wrongly, that I made out several dark heads glidingaway towards the right-hand bank, whither we were rapidly drifting, for the rope by which we were moored had been severed with aknife. As soon as I had realized this fact, I also realizedthat the scheme had been to cut the boat loose so that it shoulddrift on to the right bank (as it would have done with the naturalswing of the current), where no doubt a party of Masai were waitingto dig their shovel-headed spears into us. Seizing one paddlemyself, I told Umslopogaas to take another (for the remainingAskari was too frightened and bewildered to be of any use), andtogether we rowed vigorously out towards the middle of the stream;and not an instant too soon, for in another minute we shouldhave been aground, and then there would have been an end of us. 

As soon as we were well out, we set to work to paddle the canoeupstream again to where the other was moored; and very hard anddangerous work it was in the dark, and with nothing but the notesof Good's stentorian shouts, which he kept firing off at intervalslike a fog-horn, to guide us. But at last we fetched up, andwere thankful to find that they had not been molested at all. No doubt the owner of the same hand that severed our rope shouldhave severed theirs also, but was led away from his purpose byan irresistible inclination to murder when he got the chance, which, while it cost us a man and him his hand, undoubtedly savedall the rest of us from massacre. Had it not been for that ghastlyapparition over the side of the boat -- an apparition that Ishall never forget till my dying hour -- the canoe would undoubtedlyhave drifted ashore before I realized what had happened, andthis history would never have been written by me. 

CHAPTER IIITHE MISSION STATION

We made the remains of our rope fast to the other canoe, andsat waiting for the dawn and congratulating ourselves upon ourmerciful escape, which really seemed to result more from thespecial favour of Providence than from our own care or prowess. At last it came, and I have not often been more grateful tosee the light, though so far as my canoe was concerned it revealeda ghastly sight. There in the bottom of the little boat laythe unfortunate Askari, the sime, or sword, in his bosom, andthe severed hand gripping the handle. I could not bear the sight, so hauling up the stone which had served as an anchor to theother canoe, we made it fast to the murdered man and droppedhim overboard, and down he went to the bottom, leaving nothingbut a train of bubbles behind him. Alas! when our time comes, most of us like him leave nothing but bubbles behind, to showthat we have been, and the bubbles soon burst. The hand of hismurderer we threw into the stream, where it slowly sank. Thesword, of which the handle was ivory, inlaid with gold (evidentlyArab work), I kept and used as a hunting-knife, and very usefulit proved. 

Then, a man having been transferred to my canoe, we once morestarted on in very low spirits and not feeling at all comfortableas to the future, but fondly hoping to arrive at the 'Highlands'station by night. To make matters worse, within an hour of sunriseit came on to rain in torrents, wetting us to the skin, and evennecessitating the occasional baling of the canoes, and as therain beat down the wind we could not use the sails, and had toget along as best as we could with our paddles. 

At eleven o'clock we halted on an open piece of ground on theleft bank of the river, and, the rain abating a little, managedto make a fire and catch and broil some fish. We did not dareto wander about to search for game. At two o'clock we got offagain, taking a supply of broiled fish with us, and shortly afterwardsthe rain came on harder than ever. Also the river began to getexceedingly difficult to navigate on account of the numerousrocks, reaches of shallow water, and the increased force of thecurrent; so that it soon became clear to us that we should notreach the Rev. Mackenzie's hospitable roof that night -- a prospectthat did not tend to enliven us. Toil as we would, we couldnot make more than an average of a mile an hour, and at fiveo'clock in the afternoon (by which time we were all utterly wornout) we reckoned that we were still quite ten miles below thestation. This being so, we set to work to make the best arrangementswe could for the night. After our recent experience, we simplydid not dare to land, more especially as the banks of the Tanawere clothed with dense bush that would have given cover to fivethousand Masai, and at first I thought that we were going tohave another night of it in the canoes. Fortunately, however, we espied a little rocky islet, not more than fifteen miles orso square, situated nearly in the middle of the river. For thiswe paddled, and, making fast the canoes, landed and made ourselvesas comfortable as circumstances would permit, which was veryuncomfortable indeed. As for the weather, it continued to besimply vile, the rain coming down in sheets till we were chilledto the marrow, and utterly preventing us from lighting a fire. There was, however, one consoling circumstance about this rain;our Askari declared that nothing would induce the Masai to makean attack in it, as they intensely disliked moving about in thewet, perhaps, as Good suggested, because they hate the idea ofwashing. We ate some insipid and sodden cold fish -- that is, with the exception of Umslopogaas, who, like most Zulus, cannotbear fish -- and took a pull of brandy, of which we fortunatelyhad a few bottles left, and then began what, with one exception-- when we same three white men nearly perished of cold on thesnow of Sheba's Breast in the course of our journey to Kukuanaland-- was, I think, the most trying night I ever experienced. Itseemed absolutely endless, and once or twice I feared that twoof the Askari would have died of the wet, cold, and exposure. Indeed, had it not been for timely doses of brandy I am surethat they would have died, for no African people can stand muchexposure, which first paralyses and then kills them. I couldsee that even that iron old warrior Umslopogaas felt it keenly;though, in strange contrast to the Wakwafis, who groaned andbemoaned their fate unceasingly, he never uttered a single complaint. To make matters worse, about one in the morning we again heardthe owl's ominous hooting, and had at once to prepare ourselvesfor another attack; though, if it had been attempted, I do notthink that we could have offered a very effective resistance. But either the owl was a real one this time, or else the Masaiwere themselves too miserable to think of offensive operations, which, indeed, they rarely, if ever, undertake in bush veldt. At any rate, we saw nothing of them. 

At last the dawn came gliding across the water, wrapped in wreathsof ghostly mist, and, with the daylight, the rain ceased; andthen, out came the glorious sun, sucking up the mists and warmingthe chill air. Benumbed, and utterly exhausted, we dragged ourselvesto our feet, and went and stood in the bright rays, and werethankful for them. I can quite understand how it is that primitivepeople become sun worshippers, especially if their conditionsof life render them liable to exposure. 

In half an hour more we were once again making fair progresswith the help of a good wind. Our spirits had returned withthe sunshine, and we were ready to laugh at difficulties anddangers that had been almost crushing on the previous day. 

And so we went on cheerily till about eleven o'clock. Just aswe were thinking of halting as usual, to rest and try to shootsomething to eat, a sudden bend in the river brought us in sightof a substantial-looking European house with a veranda roundit, splendidly situated upon a hill, and surrounded by a highstone wall with a ditch on the outer side. Right against andovershadowing the house was an enormous pine, the tope of whichwe had seen through a glass for the last two days, but of coursewithout knowing that it marked the site of the mission station. I was the first to see the house, and could not restrain myselffrom giving a hearty cheer, in which the others, including thenatives, joined lustily. There was no thought of halting now. On we laboured, for, unfortunately, though the house seemedquite near, it was still a long way off by river, until at last, by one o'clock, we found ourselves at the bottom of the slopeon which the building stood. Running the canoes to the bank, we disembarked, and were just hauling them up on to the shore, when we perceived three figures, dressed in ordinary English-lookingclothes, hurrying down through a grove of trees to meet us. 

'A gentleman, a lady, and a little girl, ' ejaculated Good, aftersurveying the trio through his eyeglass, 'walking in a civilizedfashion, through a civilized garden, to meet us in this place. Hang me, if this isn't the most curious thing we have seen yet!'

Good was right: it certainly did seem odd and out of place --more like a scene out of a dream or an Italian opera than a realtangible fact; and the sense of unreality was not lessened whenwe heard ourselves addressed in good broad Scotch, which, however, I cannot reproduce. 

'How do you do, sirs, ' said Mr Mackenzie, a grey-haired, angularman, with a kindly face and red cheeks; 'I hope I see you verywell. My natives told me an hour ago they spied two canoes withwhite men in them coming up the river; so we have just come downto meet you. '

'And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, letme tell you, ' put in the lady -- a charming and refined-lookingperson. 

We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduceourselves. 

'And now, ' said Mr Mackenzie, 'you must all be hungry and weary;so come on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to seeyou. The last white who visited us was Alphonse -- you willsee Alphonse presently -- and that was a year ago. '

Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lowerportion of which was fenced off, sometimes with quince fencesand sometimes with rough stone walls, into Kaffir gardens, justnow full of crops of mealies, pumpkins, potatoes, etc. In thecorners of these gardens were groups of neat mushroom-shapedhuts, occupied by Mr Mackenzie's mission natives, whose womenand children came pouring out to meet us as we walked. Throughthe centre of the gardens ran the roadway up which we were walking. It was bordered on each side by a line of orange trees, which, although they had only been planted ten years, had in the lovelyclimate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of which is about5, 000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to imposingproportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit. Aftera stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so -- for the hillsidewas steep -- we came to a splendid quince fence, also coveredwith fruit, which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space ofabout four acres of ground that contained his private garden, house, church, and outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop. And what a garden it was! I have always loved a good garden, and I could have thrown up my hands for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie's. First there were rows upon rows of standard European fruit-trees, all grafted; for on top of this hill the climate was so temperatethat nearly all the English vegetables, trees, and flowers flourishedluxuriantly, even including several varieties of the apple, which, generally, runs to wood in a warm climate and obstinately refusesto fruit. Then there were strawberries and tomatoes (such tomatoes!), and melons and cucumbers, and, indeed, every sort of vegetableand fruit. 

'Well, you have something like a garden!' I said, overpoweredwith admiration not untouched by envy. 

'Yes, ' answered the missionary, 'it is a very good garden, andhas well repaid my labour; but it is the climate that I haveto thank. If you stick a peach-stone into the ground it willbear fruit the fourth year, and a rose-cutting will bloom ina year. It is a lovely clime. '

Just then we came to a ditch about ten feet wide, and full ofwater, on the other side of which was a loopholed stone walleight feet high, and with sharp flints plentifully set in mortaron the coping. 

'There, ' said Mr Mackenzie, pointing to the ditch and wall, 'thisis my magnum opus; at least, this and the church, which is theother side of the house. It took me and twenty natives two yearsto dig the ditch and build the wall, but I never felt safe tillit was done; and now I can defy all the savages in Africa, forthe spring that fills the ditch is inside the wall, and bubblesout at the top of the hill winter and summer alike, and I alwayskeep a store of four months' provision in the house. '

Crossing over a plank and through a very narrow opening in thewall, we entered into what Mrs Mackenzie called _her_ domain --namely, the flower garden, the beauty of which is really beyondmy power to describe. I do not think I ever saw such roses, gardenias, or camellias (all reared from seeds or cuttings sentfrom England); and there was also a patch given up to a collectionof bulbous roots mostly collected by Miss Flossie, Mr Mackenzie'slittle daughter, from the surrounding country, some of whichwere surpassingly beautiful. In the middle of this garden, andexactly opposite the veranda, a beautiful fountain of clear waterbubbled up from the ground, and fell into a stone-work basinwhich had been carefully built to receive it, whence the overflowfound its way by means of a drain to the moat round the outerwall, this moat in its turn serving as a reservoir, whence anunfailing supply of water was available to irrigate all the gardensbelow. The house itself, a massively built single-storied building, was roofed with slabs of stone, and had a handsome veranda infront. It was built on three sides of a square, the fourth sidebeing taken up by the kitchens, which stood separate from thehouse -- a very good plan in a hot country. In the centre ofthis square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable objectthat we had yet seen in this charming place, and that was a singletree of the conifer tribe, varieties of which grow freely onthe highlands of this part of Africa. This splendid tree, whichMr Mackenzie informed us was a landmark for fifty miles round, and which we had ourselves seen for the last forty miles of ourjourney, must have been nearly three hundred feet in height, the trunk measuring about sixteen feet in diameter at a yardfrom the ground. For some seventy feet it rose a beautiful taperingbrown pillar without a single branch, but at that height splendiddark green boughs, which, looked at from below, had the appearanceof gigantic fern-leaves, sprang out horizontally from the trunk, projecting right over the house and flower-garden, to both ofwhich they furnished a grateful proportion of shade, without-- being so high up -- offering any impediment to the passageof light and air. 

'What a beautiful tree!' exclaimed Sir Henry. 

'Yes, you are right; it is a beautiful tree. There is not anotherlike it in all the country round, that I know of, ' answered MrMackenzie. 'I call it my watch tower. As you see, I have arope ladder fixed to the lowest bough; and if I want to see anythingthat is going on within fifteen miles or so, all I have to dois to run up it with a spyglass. But you must be hungry, andI am sure the dinner is cooked. Come in, my friends; it is buta rough place, but well enough for these savage parts; and Ican tell you what, we have got -- a French cook. ' And he ledthe way on to the veranda. 

As I was following him, and wondering what on earth he couldmean by this, there suddenly appeared, through the door thatopened on to the veranda from the house, a dapper little man, dressed in a neat blue cotton suit, with shoes made of tannedhide, and remarkable for a bustling air and most enormous blackmustachios, shaped into an upward curve, and coming to a pointfor all the world like a pair of buffalo-horns. 

'Madame bids me for to say that dinnar is sarved. Messieurs, my compliments;' then suddenly perceiving Umslopogaas, who wasloitering along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threwup his hands in astonishment. 'Ah, mais quel homme!' he ejaculatedin French, 'quel sauvage affreux! Take but note of his hugechoppare and the great pit in his head. '

'Ay, ' said Mr Mackenzie; 'what are you talking about, Alphonse?'

'Talking about!' replied the little Frenchman, his eyes stillfixed upon Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinatehim; 'why I talk of him' -- and he rudely pointed -- 'of ce monsieur noir. '

At this everybody began to laugh, and Umslopogaas, perceivingthat he was the object of remark, frowned ferociously, for hehad a most lordly dislike of anything like a personal liberty. 

'Parbleu!' said Alphonse, 'he is angered -- he makes the grimace. I like not his air. I vanish. ' And he did with considerable rapidity. 

Mr Mackenzie joined heartily in the shout of laughter which weindulged in. 'He is a queer character -- Alphonse, ' he said. 'By and by I will tell you his history; in the meanwhile letus try his cooking. '

'Might I ask, ' said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellentdinner, 'how you came to have a French cook in these wilds?'

'Oh, ' answered Mrs Mackenzie, 'he arrived here of his own accordabout a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service. He had got into some trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an application had been made by the French Governmentfor his extradition. Whereupon he rushed off up-country, andfell in, when nearly starved, with our caravan of men, who werebringing us our annual supply of goods, and was brought on here. You should get him to tell you the story. '

When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceededto give our host a description of our journey up here, over whichhe looked very grave. 

'It is evident to me, ' he said, 'that those rascally Masai arefollowing you, and I am very thankful that you have reached thishouse in safety. I do not think that they will dare to attackyou here. It is unfortunate, though, that nearly all my menhave gone down to the coast with ivory and goods. There aretwo hundred of them in the caravan, and the consequence is thatI have not more than twenty men available for defensive purposesin case they should attack us. But, still, I will just givea few orders;' and, calling a black man who was loitering aboutoutside in the garden, he went to the window, and addressed himin a Swahili dialect. The man listened, and then saluted anddeparted. 

'I am sure I devoutly hope that we shall bring no such calamityupon you, ' said I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again. 'Rather than bring those bloodthirsty villains about your ears, we will move on and take our chance. '

'You will do nothing of the sort. If the Masai come, they come, and there is an end on it; and I think we can give them a prettywarm greeting. I would not show any man the door for all theMasai in the world. '

'That reminds me, ' I said, 'the Consul at Lamu told me that hehad had a letter from you, in which you said that a man had arrivedhere who reported that he had come across a white people in theinterior. Do you think that there was any truth in his story?I ask, because I have once or twice in my life heard rumoursfrom natives who have come down from the far north of the existenceof such a race. '

Mr Mackenzie, by way of answer, went out of the room and returned, bringing with him a most curious sword. It was long, and allthe blade, which was very thick and heavy, was to within a quarterof an inch of the cutting edge worked into an ornamental patternexactly as we work soft wood with a fret-saw, the steel, however, being invariably pierced in such a way as not to interfere withthe strength of the sword. This in itself was sufficiently curious, but what was still more so was that all the edges of the hollowspaces cut through the substance of the blade were most beautifullyinlaid with gold, which was in some way that I cannot understandwelded on to the steel {Endnote 5}. 

'There, ' said Mr Mackenzie, 'did you ever see a sword like that?'

We all examined it and shook our heads. 

'Well, I have got it to show you, because this is what the manwho said he had seen the white people brought with him, and becauseit does more or less give an air of truth to what I should otherwisehave set down as a lie. Look here; I will tell you all thatI know about the matter, which is not much. One afternoon, justbefore sunset, I was sitting on the veranda, when a poor, miserable, starved-looking man came limping up and squatted down beforeme. I asked him where he came from and what he wanted, and thereonhe plunged into a long rambling narrative about how he belongedto a tribe far in the north, and how his tribe was destroyedby another tribe, and he with a few other survivors driven stillfurther north past a lake named Laga. Thence, it appears, hemade his way to another lake that lay up in the mountains, "alake without a bottom" he called it, and here his wife and brotherdied of an infectious sickness -- probably smallpox -- whereonthe people drove him out of their villages into the wilderness, where he wandered miserably over mountains for ten days, afterwhich he got into dense thorn forest, and was one day found thereby some _white men_ who were hunting, and who took him to a placewhere all the people were white and lived in stone houses. Herehe remained a week shut up in a house, till one night a man witha white beard, whom he understood to be a "medicine-man", cameand inspected him, after which he was led off and taken throughthe thorn forest to the confines of the wilderness, and givenfood and this sword (at least so he said), and turned loose. '

'Well, ' said Sir Henry, who had been listening with breathlessinterest, 'and what did he do then?'

'Oh! he seems, according to his account, to have gone throughsufferings and hardships innumerable, and to have lived for weekson roots and berries, and such things as he could catch and kill. But somehow he did live, and at last by slow degrees made hisway south and reached this place. What the details of his journeywere I never learnt, for I told him to return on the morrow, bidding one of my headmen look after him for the night. Theheadman took him away, but the poor man had the itch so badlythat the headman's wife would not have him in the hut for fearof catching it, so he was given a blanket and told to sleep outside. As it happened, we had a lion hanging about here just then, and most unhappily he winded this unfortunate wanderer, and, springing on him, bit his head almost off without the peoplein the hut knowing anything about it, and there was an end ofhim and his story about the white people; and whether or no thereis any truth in it is more than I can tell you. What do youthink, Mr Quatermain?'

I shook my head, and answered, 'I don't know. There are so manyqueer things hidden away in the heart of this great continentthat I should be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it. Anyhow, we mean to try and find out. We intend to journey toLekakisera, and thence, if we live to get so far, to this LakeLaga; and, if there are any white people beyond, we will do ourbest to find them. '

'You are very venturesome people, ' said Mr Mackenzie, with a smile, and the subject dropped. 

CHAPTER IVALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE

After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings andgrounds of the station, which I consider the most successfulas well as the most beautiful place of the sort that I have seenin Africa. We then returned to the veranda, where we found Umslopogaastaking advantage of this favourable opportunity to clean allthe rifles thoroughly. This was the only _work_ that he ever didor was asked to do, for as a Zulu chief it was beneath his dignityto work with his hands; but such as it was he did it very well. It was a curious sight to see the great Zulu sitting there uponthe floor, his battleaxe resting against the wall behind him, whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily employed, delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism ofthe breech-loaders. He had a name for each gun. One -- a doublefour-bore belonging to Sir Henry -- was the Thunderer; another, my 500 Express, which had a peculiarly sharp report, was 'thelittle one who spoke like a whip'; the Winchester repeaters were'the women, who talked so fast that you could not tell one wordfrom another'; the six Martinis were 'the common people'; andso on with them all. It was very curious to hear him addressingeach gun as he cleaned it, as though it were an individual, andin a vein of the quaintest humour. He did the same with hisbattle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate friend, and to which he would at times talk by the hour, going over allhis old adventures with it -- and dreadful enough some of themwere. By a piece of grim humour, he had named this axe 'Inkosi-kaas', which is the Zulu word for chieftainess. For a long while Icould not make out why he gave it such a name, and at last Iasked him, when he informed me that the axe was very evidentlyfeminine, because of her womanly habit of prying very deep intothings, and that she was clearly a chieftainess because all menfell down before her, struck dumb at the sight of her beautyand power. In the same way he would consult 'Inkosi-kaas' ifin any dilemma; and when I asked him why he did so, he informedme it was because she must needs be wise, having 'looked intoso many people's brains'. 

I took up the axe and closely examined this formidable weapon. It was, as I have said, of the nature of a pole-axe. The haft, made out of an enormous rhinoceros horn, was three feet threeinches long, about an inch and a quarter thick, and with a knobat the end as large as a Maltese orange, left there to preventthe hand from slipping. This horn haft, though so massive, wasas flexible as cane, and practically unbreakable; but, to makeassurance doubly sure, it was whipped round at intervals of afew inches with copper wire -- all the parts where the handsgrip being thus treated. Just above where the haft entered thehead were scored a number of little nicks, each nick representinga man killed in battle with the weapon. The axe itself was madeof the most beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture, though Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having takenit from the hand of a chief he had killed in battle many yearsbefore. It was not very heavy, the head weighing two and a halfpounds, as nearly as I could judge. The cutting part was slightlyconcave in shape -- not convex, as it generally the case withsavage battleaxes -- and sharp as a razor, measuring five andthree-quarter inches across the widest part. From the back ofthe axe sprang a stout spike four inches long, for the last twoof which it was hollow, and shaped like a leather punch, withan opening for anything forced into the hollow at the punch endto be pushed out above -- in fact, in this respect it exactlyresembled a butcher's pole-axe. It was with this punch end, as we afterwards discovered, that Umslopogaas usually struckwhen fighting, driving a neat round hole in his adversary's skull, and only using the broad cutting edge for a circular sweep, orsometimes in a melee. I think he considered the punch a neaterand more sportsmanlike tool, and it was from his habit of peckingat his enemy with it that he got his name of 'Woodpecker'. Certainlyin his hands it was a terribly efficient one. 

Such was Umslopogaas' axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable andfatal hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherishedas much as his own life. It scarcely ever left his hand exceptwhen he was eating, and then he always sat with it under hisleg. 

Just as I returned his axe to Umslopogaas, Miss Flossie cameup and took me off to see her collection of flowers, Africanliliums, and blooming shrubs, some of which are very beautiful, many of the varieties being quite unknown to me and also, I believe, to botanical science. I asked her if she had ever seen or heardof the 'Goya' lily, which Central African explorers have toldme they have occasionally met with and whose wonderful lovelinesshas filled them with astonishment. This lily, which the nativessay blooms only once in ten years, flourishes in the most aridsoil. Compared to the size of the bloom, the bulb is small, generally weighing about four pounds. As for the flower itself(which I afterwards saw under circumstances likely to impressits appearance fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describeits beauty and splendour, or the indescribable sweetness of itsperfume. The flower -- for it has only one bloom -- rises fromthe crown of the bulb on a thick fleshy and flat-sided stem, the specimen that I saw measured fourteen inches in diameter, and is somewhat trumpet-shaped like the bloom of an ordinary'longiflorum' set vertically. First there is the green sheath, which in its early stage is not unlike that of a water-lily, but which as the bloom opens splits into four portions and curlsback gracefully towards the stem. Then comes the bloom itself, a single dazzling arch of white enclosing another cup of richestvelvety crimson, from the heart of which rises a golden-colouredpistil. I have never seen anything to equal this bloom in beautyor fragrance, and as I believe it is but little known, I takethe liberty to describe it at length. Looking at it for thefirst time I well remember that I realized how even in a flowerthere dwells something of the majesty of its Maker. To my greatdelight Miss Flossie told me that she knew the flower well andhad tried to grow it in her garden, but without success, adding, however, that as it should be in bloom at this time of the yearshe thought that she could procure me a specimen. 

After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up hereamong all these savage people and without any companions of herown age. 

'Lonely?' she said. 'Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the dayis long, and besides I have my own companions. Why, I shouldhate to be buried in a crowd of white girls all just like myselfso that nobody could tell the difference! Here, ' she said, givingher head a little toss, 'I am I; and every native for miles aroundknows the "Water-lily", -- for that is what they call me -- andis ready to do what I want, but in the books that I have readabout little girls in England it is not like that. Everybodythinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their schoolmistresslikes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage likethat and not to be free -- free as the air. '

'Would you not like to learn?' I asked. 

'So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic. '

'And are you never afraid among all these wild men?'

'Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think theybelieve that I am "Ngai" (of the Divinity) because I am so whiteand have fair hair. And look here, ' and diving her little handinto the bodice of her dress she produced a double-barrellednickel-plated Derringer, 'I always carry that loaded, and ifanybody tried to touch me I should shoot him. Once I shot aleopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along. Itfrightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it felldead, and I have its skin upon my bed. Look there!' she wenton in an altered voice, touching me on the arm and pointing tosome far-away object, 'I said just now that I had companions;there is one of them. '

I looked, and for the first time there burst upon my sight theglory of Mount Kenia. Hitherto the mountain had always beenhidden in mist, but now its radiant beauty was unveiled for manythousand feet, although the base was still wrapped in vapourso that the lofty peak or pillar, towering nearly twenty thousandfeet into the sky, appeared to be a fairy vision, hanging betweenearth and heaven, and based upon the clouds. The solemn majestyand beauty of this white peak are together beyond the power ofmy poor pen to describe. There it rose straight and sheer --a glittering white glory, its crest piercing the very blue ofheaven. As I gazed at it with that little girl I felt my wholeheart lifted up with an indescribable emotion, and for a momentgreat and wonderful thoughts seemed to break upon my mind, evenas the arrows of the setting sun were breaking upon Kenia's snows. Mr Mackenzie's natives call the mountain the 'Finger of God', and to me it did seem eloquent of immortal peace and of the purehigh calm that surely lies above this fevered world. SomewhereI had heard a line of poetry, A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, and now it came into my mind, and for the first time I thoroughlyunderstood what it meant. Base, indeed, would be the man whocould look upon that mighty snow-wreathed pile -- that whiteold tombstone of the years -- and not feel his own utter insignificance, and, by whatever name he calls Him, worship God in his heart. Such sights are like visions of the spirit; they throw widethe windows of the chamber of our small selfishness and let ina breath of that air that rushes round the rolling spheres, andfor a while illumine our darkness with a far-off gleam of thewhite light which beats upon the Throne. 

Yes, such things of beauty are indeed a joy for ever, and I canwell understand what little Flossie meant when she talked ofKenia as her companion. As Umslopogaas, savage old Zulu thathe was, said when I pointed out to him the peak hanging in theglittering air: 'A man might look thereon for a thousand yearsand yet be hungry to see. ' But he gave rather another colourto his poetical idea when he added in a sort of chant, and witha touch of that weird imagination for which the man was remarkable, that when he was dead he should like his spirit to sit upon thatsnow-clad peak for ever, and to rush down the steep white sidesin the breath of the whirlwind, or on the flash of the lightning, and 'slay, and slay, and slay'. 

'Slay what, you old bloodhound?' I asked. 

This rather puzzled him, but at length he answered --

'The other shadows. '

'So thou wouldst continue thy murdering even after death?' I said. 

'I murder not, ' he answered hotly; 'I kill in fair fight. Manis born to kill. He who kills not when his blood is hot is awoman, and no man. The people who kill not are slaves. I sayI kill in fair fight; and when I am "in the shadow", as you whitemen say, I hope to go on killing in fair fight. May my shadowbe accursed and chilled to the bone for ever if it should fallto murdering like a bushman with his poisoned arrows!' And hestalked away with much dignity, and left me laughing. 

Just then the spies whom our host had sent out in the morningto find out if there were any traces of our Masai friends about, returned, and reported that the country had been scoured forfifteen miles round without a single Elmoran being seen, andthat they believed that those gentry had given up the pursuitand returned whence they came. Mr Mackenzie gave a sigh of reliefwhen he heard this, and so indeed did we, for we had had quiteenough of the Masai to last us for some time. Indeed, the generalopinion was that, finding we had reached the mission stationin safety, they had, knowing its strength, given up the pursuitof us as a bad job. How ill-judged that view was the sequelwill show. 

After the spies had gone, and Mrs Mackenzie and Flossie had retiredfor the night, Alphonse, the little Frenchman, came out, andSir Henry, who is a very good French scholar, got him to tellus how he came to visit Central Africa, which he did in a mostextraordinary lingo, that for the most part I shall not attemptto reproduce. 

'My grandfather, ' he began, 'was a soldier of the Guard, andserved under Napoleon. He was in the retreat from Moscow, andlived for ten days on his own leggings and a pair he stole froma comrade. He used to get drunk -- he died drunk, and I rememberplaying at drums on his coffin. My father --'

Here we suggested that he might skip his ancestry and come tothe point. 

'Bien, messieurs!' replied this comical little man, with a politebow. 'I did only wish to demonstrate that the military principleis not hereditary. My grandfather was a splendid man, six feettwo high, broad in proportion, a swallower of fire and gaiters. Also he was remarkable for his moustache. To me there remainsthe moustache and -- nothing more. 

'I am, messieurs, a cook, and I was born at Marseilles. In thatdear town I spent my happy youth. For years and years I washedthe dishes at the Hotel Continental. Ah, those were golden days!'and he sighed. 'I am a Frenchman. Need I say, messieurs, thatI admire beauty? Nay, I adore the fair. Messieurs, we admireall the roses in a garden, but we pluck one. I plucked one, and alas, messieurs, it pricked my finger. She was a chambermaid, her name Annette, her figure ravishing, her face an angel's, her heart -- alas, messieurs, that I should have to own it! --black and slippery as a patent leather boot. I loved to desperation, I adored her to despair. She transported me -- in every sense;she inspired me. Never have I cooked as I cooked (for I hadbeen promoted at the hotel) when Annette, my adored Annette, smiled on me. Never' -- and here his manly voice broke intoa sob -- 'never shall I cook so well again. ' Here he meltedinto tears. 

'Come, cheer up!' said Sir Henry in French, smacking him smartlyon the back. 'There's no knowing what may happen, you know. To judge from your dinner today, I should say you were in afair way to recovery. '

Alphonse stopped weeping, and began to rub his back. 'Monsieur, 'he said, 'doubtless means to console, but his hand is heavy. To continue: we loved, and were happy in each other's love. The birds in their little nest could not be happier than Alphonseand his Annette. Then came the blow -- sapristi! -- when I thinkof it. Messieurs will forgive me if I wipe away a tear. Mine was an evil number; I was drawn for the conscription. Fortunewould be avenged on me for having won the heart of Annette. 

'The evil moment came; I had to go. I tried to run away, butI was caught by brutal soldiers, and they banged me with thebutt-end of muskets till my mustachios curled with pain. I hada cousin a linen-draper, well-to-do, but very ugly. He had drawna good number, and sympathized when they thumped me. "To thee, my cousin, " I said, "to thee, in whose veins flows the blue bloodof our heroic grandparent, to thee I consign Annette. Watchover her whilst I hunt for glory in the bloody field. "

'"Make your mind easy, " said he; "I will. " As the sequel shows, he did!

'I went. I lived in barracks on black soup. I am a refinedman and a poet by nature, and I suffered tortures from the coarsehorror of my surroundings. There was a drill sergeant, and hehad a cane. Ah, that cane, how it curled! Alas, never can Iforget it!

'One morning came the news; my battalion was ordered to Tonquin. The drill sergeant and the other coarse monsters rejoiced. I -- I made enquiries about Tonquin. They were not satisfactory. In Tonquin are savage Chinese who rip you open. My artistictastes -- for I am also an artist -- recoiled from the idea ofbeing ripped open. The great man makes up his mind quickly. I made up my mind. I determined not to be ripped open. I deserted. 

'I reached Marseilles disguised as an old man. I went to thehouse of my cousin -- he in whom runs my grandfather's heroicblood -- and there sat Annette. It was the season of cherries. They took a double stalk. At each end was a cherry. My cousinput one into his mouth, Annette put the other in hers. Thenthey drew the stalks in till their eyes met -- and alas, alasthat I should have to say it! -- they kissed. The game was apretty one, but it filled me with fury. The heroic blood ofmy grandfather boiled up in me. I rushed into the kitchen. I struck my cousin with the old man's crutch. He fell -- I hadslain him. Alas, I believe that I did slay him. Annette screamed. The gendarmes came. I fled. I reached the harbour. I hidaboard a vessel. The vessel put to sea. The captain found meand beat me. He took an opportunity. He posted a letter froma foreign port to the police. He did not put me ashore becauseI cooked so well. I cooked for him all the way to Zanzibar. When I asked for payment he kicked me. The blood of my heroicgrandfather boiled within me, and I shook my fist in his faceand vowed to have my revenge. He kicked me again. At Zanzibarthere was a telegram. I cursed the man who invented telegraphs. Now I curse him again. I was to be arrested for desertion, for murder, and que sais-je? I escaped from the prison. I fled, I starved. I met the men of Monsieur le Cure. They broughtme here. I am full of woe. But I return not to France. Betterto risk my life in these horrible places than to know the Bagne. '

He paused, and we nearly choked with laughter, having to turnour faces away. 

'Ah! you weep, messieurs, ' he said. 'No wonder -- it is a sadstory. '

'Perhaps, ' said Sir Henry, 'the heroic blood of yourgrandparent will triumph after all; perhaps you will still begreat. At any rate we shall see. And now I vote we go to bed. I am dead tired, and we had not much sleep on that confoundedrock last night. '

And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean whitesheets seemed to us after our recent experiences. 

CHAPTER VUMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE

Next morning at breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was. 

'Well, ' said her mother, 'when I got up this morning I founda note put outside my door in which -- But here it is, you canread it for yourself, ' and she gave me the slip of paper on whichthe following was written: --

'Dearest M--, -- It is just dawn, and I am off to the hills toget Mr Q-- a bloom of the lily he wants, so don't expect me tillyou see me. I have taken the white donkey; and nurse and a coupleof boys are coming with me -- also something to eat, as I maybe away all day, for I am determined to get the lily if I haveto go twenty miles for it. -- Flossie. '

'I hope she will be all right, ' I said, a little anxiously;'I never meant her to trouble after the flower. '

'Ah, Flossie can look after herself, ' said her mother; 'she oftengoes off in this way like a true child of the wilderness. ' ButMr Mackenzie, who came in just then and saw the note for thefirst time, looked rather grave, though he said nothing. 

After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked him whetherit would not be possible to send after the girl and get her back, having in view the possibility of there still being some Masaihanging about, at whose hands she might come to harm. 

'I fear it would be of no use, ' he answered. 'She may be fifteenmiles off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she hastaken. There are the hills;' and he pointed to a long rangeof rising ground stretching almost parallel with the course followedby the river Tana, but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-cladplain about five miles short of the house. 

Here I suggested that we might get up the great tree over thehouse and search the country round with a spyglass; and this, after Mr Mackenzie had given some orders to his people to tryand follow Flossie's spoor, we did. 

The ascent of the mighty tree was rather an alarming performance, even with a sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to climb up, at least to a landsman; but Good came up like a lamplighter. 

On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughssprang from the bole, we stepped without any difficulty upona platform made of boards, nailed from one bough to another, and large enough to accommodate a dozen people. As for the view, it was simply glorious. In every direction the bush rolled awayin great billows for miles and miles, as far as the glass wouldshow, only here and there broken by the brighter green of patchesof cultivation, or by the glittering surface of lakes. To thenorthwest, Kenia reared his mighty head, and we could trace theTana river curling like a silver snake almost from his feet, and far away beyond us towards the ocean. It is a glorious country, and only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most productiveone. 

But look as we would, we could see no signs of Flossie and herdonkey, so at last we had to come down disappointed. On reachingthe veranda I found Umslopogaas sitting there, slowly and lightlysharpening his axe with a small whetstone he always carried withhim. 

'What doest thou, Umslopogaas?' I asked. 

'I smell blood, ' was the answer; and I could get no more outof him. 

After dinner we again went up the tree and searched the surroundingcountry with a spyglass, but without result. When we came downUmslopogaas was still sharpening Inkosi-kaas, although she alreadyhad an edge like a razor. Standing in front of him, and regardinghim with a mixture of fear and fascination, was Alphonse. Andcertainly he did seem an alarming object -- sitting there, Zulufashion, on his haunches, a wild look upon his intensely savageand yet intellectual face, sharpening, sharpening, sharpeningat the murderous-looking axe. 

'Oh, the monster, the horrible man!' said the little French cook, lifting his hands in amazement. 'See but the hole in his head;the skin beats on it up and down like a baby's! Who would nursesuch a baby?' and he burst out laughing at the idea. 

For a moment Umslopogaas looked up from his sharpening, and asort of evil light played in his dark eyes. 

'What does the little "buffalo-heifer" [so named by Umslopogaas, on account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say?Let him be careful, or I will cut his horns. Beware, littleman monkey, beware!'

Unfortunately Alphonse, who was getting over his fear of him, went on laughing at 'ce drole d'un monsieur noir'. I was aboutto warn him to desist, when suddenly the huge Zulu bounded offthe veranda on to the open space where Alphonse was standing, his features alive with a sort of malicious enthusiasm, and beganswinging the axe round and round over the Frenchman's head. 

'Stand still, ' I shouted; 'do not move as you value your life-- he will not hurt you;' but I doubt if Alphonse heard me, being, fortunately for himself, almost petrified with horror. 

Then followed the most extraordinary display of sword, or ratherof axemanship, that I ever saw. First of all the axe went flyinground and round over the top of Alphonse's head, with an angrywhirl and such extraordinary swiftness that it looked like acontinuous band of steel, ever getting nearer and yet nearerto that unhappy individual's skull, till at last it grazed itas it flew. Then suddenly the motion was changed, and it seemedto literally flow up and down his body and limbs, never morethan an eighth of an inch from them, and yet never striking them. It was a wonderful sight to see the little man fixed there, having apparently realized that to move would be to run the riskof sudden death, while his black tormentor towered over him, and wrapped him round with the quick flashes of the axe. Fora minute or more this went on, till suddenly I saw the movingbrightness travel down the side of Alphonse's face, and thenoutwards and stop. As it did so a tuft of something black fellto the ground; it was the tip of one of the little Frenchman'scurling mustachios. 

Umslopogaas leant upon the handle of Inkosi-kaas, and broke intoa long, low laugh; and Alphonse, overcome with fear, sank intoa sitting posture on the ground, while we stood astonished atthis exhibition of almost superhuman skill and mastery of a weapon. 'Inkosi-kaas is sharp enough, ' he shouted; 'the blow that clippedthe "buffalo-heifer's" horn would have split a man from the crownto the chin. Few could have struck it but I; none could havestruck it and not taken off the shoulder too. Look, thou littleheifer! Am I a good man to laugh at, thinkest thou? For a spacehast thou stood within a hair's-breadth of death. Laugh notagain, lest the hair's-breadth be wanting. I have spoken. '

'What meanest thou by such mad tricks?' I asked of Umslopogaas, indignantly. 'Surely thou art mad. Twenty times didst thougo near to slaying the man. '

'And yet, Macumazahn, I slew not. Thrice as Inkosi-kaas flewthe spirit entered into me to end him, and send her crashingthrough his skull; but I did not. Nay, it was but a jest; buttell the "heifer" that it is not well to mock at such as I. Now I go to make a shield, for I smell blood, Macumazahn -- ofa truth I smell blood. Before the battle hast thou not seenthe vulture grow of a sudden in the sky? They smell the blood, Macumazahn, and my scent is more keen than theirs. There isa dry ox-hide down yonder; I go to make a shield. '

'That is an uncomfortable retainer of yours, ' said Mr Mackenzie, who had witnessed this extraordinary scene. 'He has frightenedAlphonse out of his wits; look!' and he pointed to the Frenchman, who, with a scared white face and trembling limbs, was makinghis way into the house. 'I don't think that he will ever laughat "le monsieur noir" again. '

'Yes, ' answered I, 'it is ill jesting with such as he. Whenhe is roused he is like a fiend, and yet he has a kind heartin his own fierce way. I remember years ago seeing him nursea sick child for a week. He is a strange character, but trueas steel, and a strong stick to rest on in danger. '

'He says he smells blood, ' said Mr Mackenzie. 'I only trusthe is not right. I am getting very fearful about my little girl. She must have gone far, or she would be home by now. It ishalf-past three o'clock. '

I pointed out that she had taken food with her, and very likelywould not in the ordinary course of events return till nightfall;but I myself felt very anxious, and fear that my anxiety betrayeditself. 

Shortly after this, the people whom Mr Mackenzie had sent outto search for Flossie returned, stating that they had followedthe spoor of the donkey for a couple of miles and had then lostit on some stony ground, nor could they discover it again. Theyhad, however, scoured the country far and wide, but without success. 

After this the afternoon wore drearily on, and towards evening, there still being no signs of Flossie, our anxiety grew verykeen. As for the poor mother, she was quite prostrated by herfears, and no wonder, but the father kept his head wonderfullywell. Everything that could be done was done: people were sentout in all directions, shots were fired, and a continuous outlookkept from the great tree, but without avail. 

And then it grew dark, and still no sign of fair-haired littleFlossie. 

At eight o'clock we had supper. It was but a sorrowful meal, and Mrs Mackenzie did not appear at it. We three also were verysilent, for in addition to our natural anxiety as to the fateof the child, we were weighed down by the sense that we had broughtthis trouble on the head of our kind host. When supper was nearlyat an end I made an excuse to leave the table. I wanted to getoutside and think the situation over. I went on to the verandaand, having lit my pipe, sat down on a seat about a dozen feetfrom the right-hand end of the structure, which was, as the readermay remember, exactly opposite one of the narrow doors of theprotecting wall that enclosed the house and flower garden. Ihad been sitting there perhaps six or seven minutes when I thoughtI heard the door move. I looked in that direction and I listened, but, being unable to make out anything, concluded that I musthave been mistaken. It was a darkish night, the moon not havingyet risen. 

Another minute passed, when suddenly something round fell witha soft but heavy thud upon the stone flooring of the veranda, and came bounding and rolling along past me. For a moment Idid not rise, but sat wondering what it could be. Finally, Iconcluded it must have been an animal. Just then, however, anotheridea struck me, and I got up quick enough. The thing lay quitestill a few feet beyond me. I put down my hand towards it andit did not move: clearly it was not an animal. My hand touchedit. It was soft and warm and heavy. Hurriedly I lifted it andheld it up against the faint starlight. 

_It was a newly severed human head!_

I am an old hand and not easily upset, but I own that that ghastlysight made me feel sick. How had the thing come there? Whosewas it? I put it down and ran to the little doorway. I couldsee nothing, hear nobody. I was about to go out into the darknessbeyond, but remembering that to do so was to expose myself tothe risk of being stabbed, I drew back, shut the door, and bolted it. Then I returned to the veranda, and in as careless a voice asI could command called Curtis. I fear, however, that my tonesmust have betrayed me, for not only Sir Henry but also Good andMackenzie rose from the table and came hurrying out. 

'What is it?' said the clergyman, anxiously. 

Then I had to tell them. 

Mr Mackenzie turned pale as death under his red skin. We werestanding opposite the hall door, and there was a light in itso that I could see. He snatched the head up by the hair andheld it against the light. 

'It is the head of one of the men who accompanied Flossie, ' hesaid with a gasp. 'Thank God it is not hers!'

We all stood and stared at each other aghast. What was to be done?

Just then there was a knocking at the door that I had bolted, and a voice cried, 'Open, my father, open!'

The door was unlocked, and in sped a terrified man. He was oneof the spies who had been sent out. 

'My father, ' he cried, 'the Masai are on us! A great body ofthem have passed round the hill and are moving towards the oldstone kraal down by the little stream. My father, make strongthy heart! In the midst of them I saw the white ass, and onit sat the Water-lily [Flossie]. An Elmoran [young warrior]led the ass, and by its side walked the nurse weeping. The menwho went with her in the morning I saw not. '

'Was the child alive?' asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely. 

'She was white as the snow, but well, my father. They passedquite close to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I sawher face against the sky. '

'God help her and us!' groaned the clergyman. 

'How many are there of them?' I asked. 

'More than two hundred -- two hundred and half a hundred. '

Once more we looked one on the other. What was to be done?Just then there rose a loud insistent cry outside the wall. 

'Open the door, white man; open the door! A herald -- a heraldto speak with thee. ' Thus cried the voice. 

Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long armsto the coping, lifted his head above it and gazed over. 

'I see but one man, ' he said. 'He is armed, and carries a basketin his hand. '

'Open the door, ' I said. 'Umslopogaas, take thine axe and standthereby. Let one man pass. If another follows, slay. '

The door was unbarred. In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas, his axe raised above his head to strike. Just then the mooncame out. There was a moment's pause, and then in stalked aMasai Elmoran, clad in the full war panoply that I have alreadydescribed, but bearing a large basket in his hand. The moonlightshone bright upon his great spear as he walked. He was physicallya splendid man, apparently about thirty-five years of age. Indeed, none of the Masai that I saw were under six feet high, thoughmostly quite young. When he got opposite to us he halted, putdown the basket, and stuck the spike of his spear into the ground, so that it stood upright. 

'Let us talk, ' he said. 'The first messenger we sent to youcould not talk;' and he pointed to the head which lay upon thepaving of the stoep -- a ghastly sight in the moonlight; 'butI have words to speak if ye have ears to hear. Also I bringpresents;' and he pointed to the basket and laughed with an airof swaggering insolence that is perfectly indescribable, andyet which one could not but admire, seeing that he was surroundedby enemies. 

'Say on, ' said Mr Mackenzie. 

'I am the "Lygonani" [war captain] of a party of the Masai ofthe Guasa Amboni. I and my men followed these three white men, 'and he pointed to Sir Henry, Good, and myself, 'but they weretoo clever for us, and escaped hither. We have a quarrel withthem, and are going to kill them. '

'Are you, my friend?' said I to myself. 

'In following these men we this morning caught two black men, one black woman, a white donkey, and a white girl. One of theblack men we killed -- there is his head upon the pavement; theother ran away. The black woman, the little white girl, andthe white ass we took and brought with us. In proof thereofhave I brought this basket that she carried. Is it not thydaughter's basket?'

Mr Mackenzie nodded, and the warrior went on. 

'Good! With thee and thy daughter we have no quarrel, nor dowe wish to harm thee, save as to thy cattle, which we have alreadygathered, two hundred and forty head -- a beast for every man'sfather. ' {Endnote 6}

Here Mr Mackenzie gave a groan, as he greatly valued this herdof cattle, which he bred with much care and trouble. 

'So, save for the cattle, thou mayst go free; more especially, 'he added frankly, glancing at the wall, 'as this place wouldbe a difficult one to take. But as to these men it is otherwise;we have followed them for nights and days, and must kill them. Were we to return to our kraal without having done so, all thegirls would make a mock of us. So, however troublesome itmay be, they must die. 

'Now I have a proposition for thee. We would not harm thelittle girl; she is too fair to harm, and has besides a brave spirit. Give us one of these three men -- a life for a life -- and wewill let her go, and throw in the black woman with her also. This is a fair offer, white man. We ask but for one, not forthe three; we must take another opportunity to kill the othertwo. I do not even pick my man, though I should prefer the bigone, ' pointing to Sir Henry; 'he looks strong, and would diemore slowly. '

'And if I say I will not yield the man?' said Mr Mackenzie. 

'Nay, say not so, white man, ' answered the Masai, 'for then thydaughter dies at dawn, and the woman with her says thou hastno other child. Were she older I would take her for a servant;but as she is so young I will slay her with my own hand -- ay, with this very spear. Thou canst come and see, an' thou wilt. I give thee a safe conduct;' and the fiend laughed aloud ashis brutal jest. 

Meanwhile I had been thinking rapidly, as one does in emergencies, and had come to the conclusion that I would exchange myself againstFlossie. I scarcely like to mention the matter for fear it shouldbe misunderstood. Pray do not let any one be misled into thinkingthat there was anything heroic about this, or any such nonsense. It was merely a matter of common sense and common justice. My life was an old and worthless one, hers was young and valuable. Her death would pretty well kill her father and mother also, whilst nobody would be much the worse for mine; indeed, severalcharitable institutions would have cause to rejoice thereat. It was indirectly through me that the dear little girl was inher present position. Lastly, a man was better fitted to meetdeath in such a peculiarly awful form than a sweet young girl. Not, however, that I meant to let these gentry torture me todeath -- I am far too much of a coward to allow that, being naturallya timid man; my plan was to see the girl safely exchanged andthen to shoot myself, trusting that the Almighty would take thepeculiar circumstances of the case into consideration and pardonthe act. All this and more went through my mind in very fewseconds. 

'All right, Mackenzie, ' I said, 'you can tell the man that Iwill exchange myself against Flossie, only I stipulate that sheshall be safely in this house before they kill me. '

'Eh?' said Sir Henry and Good simultaneously. 'That you don't. '

'No, no, ' said Mr Mackenzie. 'I will have no man's blood uponmy hands. If it please God that my daughter should die thisawful death, His will be done. You are a brave man (which Iam not by any means) and a noble man, Quatermain, but you shallnot go. '

'If nothing else turns up I shall go, ' I said decidedly. 

'This is an important matter, ' said Mackenzie, addressing theLygonani, 'and we must think it over. You shall have our answerat dawn. '

'Very well, white man, ' answered the savage indifferently; 'onlyremember if thy answer is late thy little white bud will nevergrow into a flower, that is all, for I shall cut it with this, 'and he touched the spear. 'I should have thought that thou wouldstplay a trick and attack us at night, but I know from the womanwith the girl that your men are down at the coast, and that thouhast but twenty men here. It is not wise, white man, ' he addedwith a laugh, 'to keep so small a garrison for your "boma" [kraal]. Well, good night, and good night to you also, other white men, whose eyelids I shall soon close once and for all. At dawn thouwilt bring me word. If not, remember it shall be as I have said. 'Then turning to Umslopogaas, who had all the while been standingbehind him and shepherding him as it were, 'Open the door forme, fellow, quick now. '

This was too much for the old chief's patience. For the lastten minutes his lips had been, figuratively speaking, positivelywatering over the Masai Lygonani, and this he could not stand. Placing his long hand on the Elmoran's shoulder he gripped itand gave him such a twist as brought him face to face with himself. Then, thrusting his fierce countenance to within a few inchesof the Masai's evil feather-framed features, he said in a lowgrowling voice: --

'Seest thou me?'

'Ay, fellow, I see thee. '

'And seest thou this?' and he held Inkosi-kaas before his eyes. 

'Ay, fellow, I see the toy; what of it?'

'Thou Masai dog, thou boasting windbag, thou capturer of littlegirls, with this "toy" will I hew thee limb from limb. Wellfor thee that thou art a herald, or even now would I strew thymembers about the grass. '

The Masai shook his great spear and laughed loud and long ashe answered, 'I would that thou stoodst against me man to man, and we would see, ' and again he turned to go still laughing. 

'Thou shalt stand against me man to man, be not afraid, ' repliedUmslopogaas, still in the same ominous voice. 'Thou shalt standface to face with Umslopogaas, of the blood of Chaka, of thepeople of the Amazulu, a captain in the regiment of the Nkomabakosi, as many have done before, and bow thyself to Inkosi-kaas, asmany have done before. Ay, laugh on, laugh on! tomorrow nightshall the jackals laugh as they crunch thy ribs. '

When the Lygonani had gone, one of us thought of opening thebasket he had brought as a proof that Flossie was really theirprisoner. On lifting the lid it was found to contain a mostlovely specimen of both bulb and flower of the Goya lily, whichI have already described, in full bloom and quite uninjured, and what was more a note in Flossie's childish hand written inpencil upon a greasy piece of paper that had been used to wrapup some food in: --

'Dearest Father and Mother, ' ran the note, 'The Masai caughtus when we were coming home with the lily. I tried to escapebut could not. They killed Tom: the other man ran away. Theyhave not hurt nurse and me, but say that they mean to exchangeus against one of Mr Quatermain's party. _I will have nothingof the sort_. Do not let anybody give his life for me. Try andattack them at night; they are going to feast on three bullocksthey have stolen and killed. I have my pistol, and if no helpcomes by dawn I will shoot myself. They shall not kill me. If so, remember me always, dearest father and mother. I am veryfrightened, but I trust in God. I dare not write any more asthey are beginning to notice. Goodbye. -- Flossie. '

Scrawled across the outside of this was 'Love to Mr Quatermain. They are going to take the basket, so he will get the lily. '

When I read those words, written by that brave little girl inan hour of danger sufficiently near and horrible to have turnedthe brain of a strong man, I own I wept, and once more in myheart I vowed that she should not die while my life could begiven to save her. 

Then eagerly, quickly, almost fiercely, we fell to discussingthe situation. Again I said that I would go, and again Mackenzienegatived it, and Curtis and Good, like the true men that theyare, vowed that, if I did, they would go with me, and die backto back with me. 

'It is, ' I said at last, 'absolutely necessary that an effortof some sort should be made before the morning. '

'Then let us attack them with what force we can muster, and takeour chance, ' said Sir Henry. 

'Ay, ay, ' growled Umslopogaas, in Zulu; 'spoken like a man, Incubu. What is there to be afraid of? Two hundred and fifty Masai, forsooth! How many are we? The chief there [Mr Mackenzie] hastwenty men, and thou, Macumazahn, hast five men, and there arealso five white men -- that is, thirty men in all -- enough, enough. Listen now, Macumazahn, thou who art very clever andold in war. What says the maid? These men eat and make merry;let it be their funeral feast. What said the dog whom I hopeto hew down at daybreak? That he feared no attack because wewere so few. Knowest thou the old kraal where the men have camped?I saw it this morning; it is thus:' and he drew an oval on thefloor; 'here is the big entrance, filled up with thorn bushes, and opening on to a steep rise. Why, Incubu, thou and I withaxes will hold it against an hundred men striving to break out!Look, now; thus shall the battle go. Just as the light beginsto glint upon the oxen's horns -- not before, or it will be toodark, and not later, or they will be awakening and perceive us-- let Bougwan creep round with ten men to the top end of thekraal, where the narrow entrance is. Let them silently slaythe sentry there so that he makes no sound, and stand ready. Then, Incubu, let thee and me and one of the Askari -- the onewith the broad chest -- he is a brave man -- creep to the wideentrance that is filled with thorn bushes, and there also slaythe sentry, and armed with battleaxes take our stand also oneon each side of the pathway, and one a few paces beyond to dealwith such as pass the twain at the gate. It is there that therush will come. That will leave sixteen men. Let these menbe divided into two parties, with one of which shalt thou go, Macumazahn, and with one the "praying man" [Mr Mackenzie], and, all armed with rifles, let them make their way one to the rightside of the kraal and one to the left; and when thou, Macumazahn, lowest like an ox, all shall open fire with the guns upon thesleeping men, being very careful not to hit the little maid. Then shall Bougwan at the far end and his ten men raise thewar-cry, and, springing over the wall, put the Masai there tothe sword. And it shall happen that, being yet heavy with foodand sleep, and bewildered by the firing of the guns, the fallingof men, and the spears of Bougwan, the soldiers shall rise andrush like wild game towards the thorn-stopped entrance, and therethe bullets from either side shall plough through them, and thereshall Incubu and the Askari and I wait for those who break across. Such is my plan, Macumazahn; if thou hast a better, name it. '

When he had done, I explained to the others such portions ofhis scheme as they had failed to understand, and they all joinedwith me in expressing the greatest admiration of the acute andskilful programme devised by the old Zulu, who was indeed, inhis own savage fashion, the finest general I ever knew. Aftersome discussion we determined to accept the scheme, as it stood, it being the only one possible under the circumstances, and givingthe best chance of success that such a forlorn hope would admitof -- which, however, considering the enormous odds and the characterof our foe, was not very great. 

'Ah, old lion!' I said to Umslopogaas, 'thou knowest how to liein wait as well as how to bite, where to seize as well as whereto hang on. '

'Ay, ay, Macumazahn, ' he answered. 'For thirty years have Ibeen a warrior, and have seen many things. It will be a good fight. I smell blood -- I tell thee, I smell blood. '

CHAPTER VITHE NIGHT WEARS ON

As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entirepopulation of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside thestout stone wall, and were now to be seen -- men, women, andcountless children -- huddled up together in little groups, andall talking at once in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai mannersand customs, and of the fate that they had to expect if thosebloodthirsty savages succeeded in getting over the stone wall. 

Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our planof action as suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent forfour sharp boys of from twelve to fifteen years of age, and despatchedthem to various points where they could keep an outlook uponthe Masai camp, with others to report from time to time whatwas going on. Other lads and even women were stationed at intervalsalong the wall in order to guard against the possibility of surprise. 

After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fightingforce were summoned by our host into the square formed by thehouse, and there, standing by the bole of the great conifer, he earnestly addressed them and our four Askari. Indeed, itformed a very impressive scene -- one not likely to be forgottenby anybody who witnessed it. Immediately by the tree stood theangular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm outstretched as he talked, and the other resting against the giant bole, his hat off, andhis plain but kindly face clearly betraying the anguish of hismind. Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a chair, had her face hidden in her hand. On the other side of her wasAlphonse, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stoodthe three of us, with Umslopogaas' grim and towering form inthe background, resting, as usual, on his axe. In front stoodand squatted the group of armed men -- some with rifles in theirhands, and others with spears and shields -- following with eagerattention every word that fell from the speaker's lips. Thewhite light of the moon peering in beneath the lofty boughs threwa strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst the melancholysoughing of the night wind passing through the millions of pineneedles overhead added a sadness of its own to what was alreadya sufficiently tragic occasion. 

'Men, ' said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstancesof the case fully and clearly before them, and explained to themthe proposed plan of our forlorn hope -- 'men, for years I havebeen a good friend to you, protecting you, teaching you, guardingyou and yours from harm, and ye have prospered with me. Ye haveseen my child -- the Water-lily, as ye call her -- grow yearby year, from tenderest infancy to tender childhood, and fromchildhood on towards maidenhood. She has been your children'splaymate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have lovedher. '

'We have, ' said a deep voice, 'and we will die to save her. '

'I thank you from my heart -- I thank you. Sure am I that now, in this hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is liketo be cut off by cruel and savage men -- who of a truth "knownot what they do" -- ye will strive your best to save her, andto save me and her mother from broken hearts. Think, too, ofyour own wives and children. If she dies, her death will befollowed by an attack upon us here, and at the best, even ifwe hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, andyour goods and cattle swept away. I am, as ye well know, a manof peace. Never in all these years have I lifted my hand toshed man's blood; but now I say strike, strike, in the name ofGod, Who bade us protect our lives and homes. Swear to me, 'he went on with added fervour -- 'swear to me that whilst a manof you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost with me andwith these brave white men to save the child from a bloody andcruel death. '

'Say no more, my father, ' said the same deep voice, that belongedto a stalwart elder of the Mission; 'we swear it. May we andours die the death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackalsand the kites, if we break the oath! It is a fearful thing todo, my father, so few to strike at so many, yet will we do itor die in the doing. We swear!'

'Ay, thus say we all, ' chimed in the others. 

'Thus say we all, ' said I. 

'It is well, ' went on Mr Mackenzie. 'Ye are true men and notbroken reeds to lean on. And now, friends -- white and blacktogether -- let us kneel and offer up our humble supplicationto the Throne of Power, praying that He in the hollow of Whosehand lie all our lives, Who giveth life and giveth death, maybe pleased to make strong our arms that we may prevail in whatawaits us at the morning's light. '

And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except Umslopogaas, who still stood in the background, grimly leaning on Inkosi-kaas. The fierce old Zulu had no gods and worshipped nought, unlessit were his battleaxe. 

'Oh God of gods!' began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulouswith emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof;'Protector of the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardianof the helpless, hear Thou our prayer! Almighty Father, to Theewe come in supplication. Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, onechild hast Thou given us -- an innocent child, nurtured in Thyknowledge -- and now she lies beneath the shadow of the sword, in danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men. Bewith her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh HeavenlyFather! Oh God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war andour fingers to fight, in Whose strength are hid the destiniesof men, be Thou with us in the hour of strife. When we go forthinto the shadow of death, make Thou us strong to conquer. BreatheThou upon our foes and scatter them; turn Thou their strengthto water, and bring their high-blown pride to nought; compassus about with Thy protection; throw over us the shield of Thypower; forget us not now in the hour of our sore distress; helpus now that the cruel man would dash our little ones againstthe stones! Hear Thou our prayer! And for those of us who, kneeling now on earth in health before Thee, shall at the sunriseadore Thy Presence on the Throne, hear our prayer! Make themclean, oh God; wash away their offences in the blood of the Lamb;and when their spirits pass, oh receive Thou them into the havenof the just. Go forth, oh Father, go forth with us into thebattle, as with the Israelites of old. Oh God of battle, hearThou our prayer!'

He ceased, and after a moment's silence we all rose, and thenbegan our preparations in good earnest. As Umslopogaas said, it was time to stop 'talking' and get to business. The men whowere to form each little party were carefully selected, and stillmore carefully and minutely instructed as to what was to be done. After much consideration it was agreed that the ten men ledby Good, whose duty it was to stampede the camp, were not tocarry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good himself, who had a revolver as well as a short sword -- the Masai 'sime'which I had taken from the body of our poor servant who was murderedin the canoe. We feared that if they had firearms the resultof three cross-fires carried on at once would be that some ofour own people would be shot; besides, it appeared to all ofus that the work they had to do would best be carried out withcold steel -- especially to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a greatadvocate of cold steel. We had with us four Winchester repeatingrifles, besides half a dozen Martinis. I armed myself with oneof the repeaters -- my own; an excellent weapon for this kindof work, where great rapidity of fire is desirable, and fittedwith ordinary flap-sights instead of the cumbersome sliding mechanismwhich they generally have. Mr Mackenzie took another, and thetwo remaining ones were given to two of his men who understoodthe use of them and were noted shots. The Martinis and somerifles of Mr Mackenzie's were served out, together with a plentifulsupply of ammunition, to the other natives who were to form thetwo parties whose duty it was to be to open fire from separatesides of the kraal on the sleeping Masai, and who were fortunatelyall more or less accustomed to the use of a gun. 

As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed -- with an axe. It may be remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest ofthe Askari were to hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraalagainst the anticipated rush of men striving to escape. Of course, for such a purpose as this guns were useless. Therefore SirHenry and the Askari proceeded to arm themselves in like fashion. It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his little store a selectionof the very best and English-made hammer-backed axe-heads. SirHenry selected one of these weighing about two and a half poundsand very broad in the blade, and the Askari took another a sizesmaller. After Umslopogaas had put an extra edge on these twoaxe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which MrMackenzie fortunately had some in stock, made of a light butexceedingly tough native wood, something like English ash, onlymore springy. When two suitable helves had been selected withgreat care and the ends of the hafts notched to prevent the handfrom slipping, the axe-heads were fixed on them as firmly aspossible, and the weapons immersed in a bucket of water for halfan hour. The result of this was to swell the wood in the socketin such a fashion that nothing short of burning would get itout again. When this important matter had been attended to byUmslopogaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a littletin-lined deal case, which contained -- what do you think? --nothing more or less than four mail shirts. 

It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we hadmade in another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirtsof native make, and remembering this, I had suggested beforewe started on our present hazardous expedition that we shouldhave some made to fit us. There was a little difficulty aboutthis, as armour-making is pretty well an extinct art, but theycan do most things in the way of steel work in Birmingham ifthey are put to it and you will pay the price, and the end ofit was that they turned us out the loveliest steel shirts itis possible to see. The workmanship was exceedingly fine, theweb being composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tinyrings of the best steel made. These shirts, or rather steel-sleevedand high-necked jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather, were not bright, but browned like the barrel of a gun; and mineweighed exactly seven pounds and fitted me so well that I foundI could wear it for days next to my skin without being chafed. Sir Henry had two, one of the ordinary make, viz. A jersey withlittle dependent flaps meant to afford some protection to theupper part of the thighs, and another of his own design fashionedon the pattern of the garments advertised as 'combinations' andweighing twelve pounds. This combination shirt, of which theseat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body downto the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as ithad to be laced up at the back and, of course, involved someextra weight. With these shirts were what looked like four browncloth travelling caps with ear pieces. Each of these caps was, however, quilted with steel links so as to afford a most valuableprotection for the head. 

It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these daysof bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; butwhere one has to do with savages, armed with cutting weaponssuch as assegais or battleaxes, they afford the most valuableprotection, being, if well made, quite invulnerable to them. I have often thought that if only the English Government hadin our savage wars, and more especially in the Zulu war, thoughtfit to serve out light steel shirts, there would be many a manalive today who, as it is, is dead and forgotten. 

To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight inbringing these shirts, and also our good luck, in that they hadnot been stolen by our rascally bearers when they ran away withour goods. As Curtis had two, and after considerable deliberation, had made up his mind to wear his combination one himself -- theextra three or four pounds' weight being a matter of no accountto so strong a man, and the protection afforded to the thighsbeing a very important matter to a fighting man not armed witha shield of any kind -- I suggested that he should lend the otherto Umslopogaas, who was to share the danger and the glory ofhis post. He readily consented, and called the Zulu, who camebearing Sir Henry's axe, which he had now fixed up to his satisfaction, with him. When we showed him the steel shirt, and explainedto him that we wanted him to wear it, he at first declined, sayingthat he had fought in his own skin for thirty years, and thathe was not going to begin now to fight in an iron one. ThereuponI took a heavy spear, and, spreading the shirt upon the floor, drove the spear down upon it with all my strength, the weaponrebounding without leaving a mark upon the tempered steel. Thisexhibition half converted him; and when I pointed out to himhow necessary it was that he should not let any old-fashionedprejudices he might possess stand in the way of a precautionwhich might preserve a valuable life at a time when men werescarce, and also that if he wore this shirt he might dispensewith a shield, and so have both hands free, he yielded at once, and proceeded to invest his frame with the 'iron skin'. Andindeed, although made for Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zululike a skin. The two men were almost of a height; and, thoughCurtis looked the bigger man, I am inclined to think that thedifference was more imaginary than real, the fact being that, although he was plumper and rounder, he was not really bigger, except in the arm. Umslopogaas had, comparatively speaking, thin arms, but they were as strong as wire ropes. At any rate, when they both stood, axe in hand, invested in the brown mail, which clung to their mighty forms like a web garment, showingthe swell of every muscle and the curve of every line, they formeda pair that any ten men might shrink from meeting. 

It was now nearly one o'clock in the morning, and the spies reportedthat, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten enormousquantities of meat, the Masai were going to sleep round theirwatchfires; but that sentries had been posted at each openingof the kraal. Flossie, they added, was sitting not far fromthe wall in the centre of the western side of the kraal, andby her were the nurse and the white donkey, which was tetheredto a peg. Her feet were bound with a rope, and warriors werelying about all round her. 

As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done thenwe all took some supper, and went to lie down for a couple ofhours. I could not help admiring the way in which old Umslopogaasflung himself upon the floor, and, unmindful of what was hangingover him, instantly sank into a deep sleep. I do not know howit was with the others, but I could not do as much. Indeed, as is usual with me on these occasions, I am sorry to say thatI felt rather frightened; and, now that some of the enthusiasmhad gone out of me, and I began to calmly contemplate what wehad undertaken to do, truth compels me to add that I did notlike it. We were but thirty men all told, a good many of whomwere no doubt quite unused to fighting, and we were going toengage two hundred and fifty of the fiercest, bravest, and mostformidable savages in Africa, who, to make matters worse, wereprotected by a stone wall. It was, indeed, a mad undertaking, and what made it even madder was the exceeding improbabilityof our being able to take up our positions without attractingthe notice of the sentries. Of course if we once did that --and any slight accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun, might do it -- we were done for, for the whole camp would beup in a second, and our only hope lay in surprise. 

The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable reflectionswas near an open window that looked on to the veranda, throughwhich came an extraordinary sound of groaning and weeping. Fora time I could not make out what it was, but at last I got upand, putting my head out of the window, stared about. PresentlyI saw a dim figure kneeling on the end of the veranda and beatinghis breast -- in which I recognized Alphonse. Not being ableto understand his French talk or what on earth he was at, I calledto him and asked him what he was doing. 

'Ah, monsieur, ' he sighed, 'I do make prayer for the souls ofthose whom I shall slay tonight. '

'Indeed, ' I said, 'then I wish that you would do it a littlemore quietly. '

Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans. And sothe time passed, till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a whisperthrough the window, for of course everything had now to be donein the most absolute silence. 'Three o'clock, ' he said: 'wemust begin to move at half-past. '

I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am boundto say that if it had not been that just then I had not got alaugh anywhere about me, I should have exploded at the sighthe presented armed for battle. To begin with, he had on a clergyman'sblack swallow-tail and a kind of broad-rimmed black felt hat, both of which he had donned on account, he said, of their darkcolour. In his hand was the Winchester repeating rifle we hadlent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing belt, like thoseworn by English boys, were, first, a huge buckhorn-handled carvingknife with a guard to it, and next a long-barrelled Colt's revolver. 

'Ah, my friend, ' he said, seeing me staring at his belt, 'youare looking at my "carver". I thought it might come in handyif we came to close quarters; it is excellent steel, and manyis the pig I have killed with it. '

By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a lightNorfolk jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handyto hold my cartridges, and buckled on my revolver. Good didthe same, but Sir Henry put on nothing except his mail shirt, steel-lined cap, and a pair of 'veldt-schoons' or soft hide shoes, his legs being bare from the knees down. His revolver he strappedon round his middle outside the armoured shirt. 

Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square underthe big tree and going the rounds to see that each was properlyarmed, etc. At the last moment we made one change. Findingthat two of the men who were to have gone with the firing partiesknew little or nothing of guns, but were good spearsmen, we tookaway their rifles, supplied them with shields and long spearsof the Masai pattern, and took them off to join Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the Askari in holding the wide opening; it having becomeclear to us that three men, however brave and strong, were toofew for the work. 

CHAPTER VIIA SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT

Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silentdarkness waiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps, the most trying time of all -- that slow, slow quarter of anhour. The minutes seemed to drag along with leaden feet, andthe quiet, the solemn hush, that brooded over all -- big, asit were, with a coming fate, was most oppressive to the spirits. I once remember having to get up before dawn to see a man hanged, and I then went through a very similar set of sensations, onlyin the present instance my feelings were animated by that morevivid and personal element which naturally appertains ratherto the person to be operated on than to the most sympatheticspectator. The solemn faces of the men, well aware that theshort passage of an hour would mean for some, and perhaps allof them, the last great passage to the unknown or oblivion; thebated whispers in which they spoke; even Sir Henry's continuousand thoughtful examination of his woodcutter's axe and the fidgetyway in which Good kept polishing his eyeglass, all told the sametale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to breaking-point. OnlyUmslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and taking anoccasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly andcompletely unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves. 

The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearerand nearer to the horizon. Now she finally sank and left theworld in darkness save for a faint grey tinge in the easternsky that palely heralded the dawn. 

Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his armand striving to stifle her sobs. 

'Twenty minutes to four, ' he said, 'it ought to be light enoughto attack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had betterbe moving, he will want three or four minutes' start. '

Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in ajocular sort of way -- which I could not help feeling it musthave cost him something to muster up -- and, ever polite, tookoff his steel-lined cap to Mrs Mackenzie and started for hisposition at the head of the kraal, to reach which he had to makea detour by some paths known to the natives. 

Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybodyin the Masai camp, with the exception of the two sentries whowere walking up and down in front of the respective entrances, appeared to be fast asleep. Then the rest of us took the road. First came the guide, then Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the WakwafiAskari, and Mr Mackenzie's two mission natives armed with longspears and shields. I followed immediately after with Alphonseand five natives all armed with guns, and Mr Mackenzie broughtup the rear with the six remaining natives. 

The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the footof the hill on which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, abouteight hundred yards from the Mission buildings. The first fivehundred yards of this distance we traversed quietly indeed, butat a good pace; after that we crept forward as silently as aleopard on his prey, gliding like ghosts from bush to bush andstone to stone. When I had gone a little way I chanced to lookbehind me, and saw the redoubtable Alphonse staggering alongwith white face and trembling knees, and his rifle, which wasat full cock, pointed directly at the small of my back. Havinghalted and carefully put the rifle at 'safety', we started again, and all went well till we were within one hundred yards or soof the kraal, when his teeth began to chatter in the most aggressive way. 

'If you don't stop that I will kill you, ' I whispered savagely;for the idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chatteringcook was too much for me. I began to fear that he would betrayus, and heartily wished we had left him behind. 

'But, monsieur, I cannot help it, ' he answered, 'it is the cold. '

Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In thepocket of the coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag thatI had used some time before to clean a gun with. 'Put this inyour mouth, ' I whispered again, giving him the rag; 'and if Ihear another sound you are a dead man. ' I knew that that wouldstifle the clatter of his teeth. I must have looked as if Imeant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and continuedhis journey in silence. 

Then we crept on again. 

At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between usand it was an open space of sloping grass with only one mimosabush and a couple of tussocks of a sort of thistle for cover. We were still hidden in fairly thick bush. It was beginningto grow light. The stars had paled and a sickly gleam playedabout the east and was reflected on the earth. We could seethe outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could also makeout the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires. We halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted atthe opening. Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walkingidly up and down within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped to catch him napping, but it was not to be. Heseemed particularly wide awake. If we could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were lost. There we crouched and watchedhim. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces ahead of me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go down onhis stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity when thesentry's head was turned, begin to work his way through the grasswithout a sound. 

The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaascrept on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceivedand there waited. Still the sentry walked up and down. Presentlyhe turned and looked over the wall into the camp. Instantlythe human snake who was stalking him glided on ten yards andgot behind one of the tussocks of the thistle-like plant, reachingit as the Elmoran turned again. As he did so his eye fell uponthis patch of thistles, and it seemed to strike him that it didnot look quite right. He advanced a pace towards it -- halted, yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threw itat it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon thearmour shirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us. Luckily, too, the shirt was browned and not bright steel, whichwould certainly have been detected. Apparently satisfied thatthere was nothing wrong, he then gave over his investigationsand contented himself with leaning on his spear and standinggazing idly at the tuft. For at least three minutes did he standthus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, and there we layin the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every moment thatwe should be discovered or that some untoward accident wouldhappen. I could hear Alphonse's teeth going like anything onthe oiled rag, and turning my head round made an awful face athim. But I am bound to state that my own heart was at much thesame game as the Frenchman's castanets, while the perspirationwas pouring from my body, causing the wash-leather-lined shirtto stick to me unpleasantly, and altogether I was in the pitiablestate known by schoolboys as a 'blue fright'. 

At last the ordeal came to an end. The sentry glanced at theeast, and appeared to note with satisfaction that his periodof duty was coming to an end -- as indeed it was, once and forall -- for he rubbed his hands and began to walk again brisklyto warm himself. 

The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided onagain, and reached the other thistle tuft, which was within acouple of paces of his return beat. 

Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterlyunconscious of the presence that was crouching behind it. Hadhe looked down he could scarcely have failed to see, but he didnot do so. 

He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself, and with outstretched hand followed in his tracks. 

A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, thegreat Zulu made a spring, and in the growing light we could seehis long lean hands close round the Masai's throat. Then followeda convulsive twining of the two dark bodies, and in another secondI saw the Masai's head bent back, and heard a sharp crack, somethinglike that of a dry twig snapping, and he fell down upon the ground, his limbs moving spasmodically. 

Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken thewarrior's neck. 

For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throattill he was sure that there was nothing more to fear from him, and then he rose and beckoned to us to advance, which we didon all fours, like a colony of huge apes. On reaching the kraalwe saw that the Masai had still further choked this entrance, which was about ten feet wide -- no doubt in order to guard againstattack -- by dragging four or five tops of mimosa trees up toit. So much the better for us, I reflected; the more obstructionthere was the slower would they be able to come through. Herewe separated; Mackenzie and his party creeping up under the shadowof the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and Umslopogaas tooktheir stations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two spearmenand the Askari lying down in front of it. I and my men crepton up the right side of the kraal, which was about fifty paceslong. 

When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distancesof four paces from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me, however. Then I peeped for the first time over the wall. Itwas getting fairly light now, and the first thing I saw was thewhite donkey, exactly opposite to me, and close by it I couldmake out the pale face of little Flossie, who was sitting asthe lad had described, some ten paces from the wall. Round herlay many warriors, sleeping. At distances all over the surfaceof the kraal were the remains of fires, round each of which sleptsome five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with food. Now and then a man would raise himself, yawn, and look at theeast, which was turning primrose; but none got up. I determinedto wait another five minutes, both to allow the light to increase, so that we could make better shooting, and to give Good and hisparty -- of whom we could see or hear nothing -- every opportunityto make ready. 

The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plainand forest and river -- mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silenceof eternal snows, looked out across the earth -- till presentlya beam from the unrisen sun lit upon his heaven-kissing crestand purpled it with blood; the sky above grew blue, and tenderas a mother's smile; a bird began to pipe his morning song, anda little breeze passing through the bush shook down the dewdropsin millions to refresh the waking world. Everywhere was peaceand the happiness of arising strength, everywhere save in theheart of cruel man!

Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, havingalready selected my man on whom I meant to open fire -- a greatfellow sprawling on the ground within three feet of little Flossie-- Alphonse's teeth began to chatter again like the hoofs ofa galloping giraffe, making a great noise in the silence. Therag had dropped out in the agitation of his mind. Instantlya Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sitting up, gazedabout him, looking for the cause of the sound. Moved beyondmyself, I brought the butt-end of my rifle down on to the pitof the Frenchman's stomach. This stopped his chattering; but, as he doubled up, he managed to let off his gun in such a mannerthat the bullet passed within an inch of my head. 

There was no need for a signal now. From both sides of the kraalbroke out a waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managingwith a snap shot to knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as hewas jumping up. Then from the top end of the kraal there rangan awful yell, in which I rejoiced to recognize Good's piercingnotes rising clear and shrill above the din, and in another secondfollowed such a scene as I have never seen before nor shall again. With an universal howl of terror and fury the brawny crowd ofsavages within the kraal sprang to their feet, many of them tofall again beneath our well-directed hail of lead before theyhad moved a yard. For a moment they stood undecided, and thenhearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly from the topend of the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, theyas by one impulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance. As they went we kept pouring our fire with terrible effect intothe thickening mob as fast as we could load. I had emptied myrepeater of the ten shots it contained and was just beginningto slip in some more when I bethought me of little Flossie. Looking up, I saw that the white donkey was lying kicking, havingbeen knocked over either by one of our bullets or a Masai spear-thrust. There were no living Masai near, but the black nurse was onher feet and with a spear cutting the rope that bound Flossie'sfeet. Next second she ran to the wall of the kraal and beganto climb over it, an example which the little girl followed. But Flossie was evidently very stiff and cramped, and couldonly go slowly, and as she went two Masai flying down the kraalcaught sight of her and rushed towards her to kill her. Thefirst fellow came up just as the poor little girl, after a desperateeffort to climb the wall, fell back into the kraal. Up flashedthe great spear, and as it did so a bullet from my rifle foundits home in the holder's ribs, and over he went like a shot rabbit. But behind him was the other man, and, alas, I had only thatone cartridge in the magazine! Flossie had scrambled to herfeet and was facing the second man, who was advancing with raisedspear. I turned my head aside and felt sick as death. I couldnot bear to see him stab her. Glancing up again, to my surpriseI saw the Masai's spear lying on the ground, while the man himselfwas staggering about with both hands to his head. Suddenly Isaw a puff of smoke proceeding apparently from Flossie, and theman fell down headlong. Then I remembered the Derringer pistolshe carried, and saw that she had fired both barrels of it athim, thereby saving her life. In another instant she had madean effort, and assisted by the nurse, who was lying on the top, had scrambled over the wall, and I knew that she was, comparativelyspeaking, safe. 

All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it tookmore than fifteen seconds to enact. I soon got the magazineof the repeater filled again with cartridges, and once more openedfire, not on the seething black mass which was gathering at theend of the kraal, but on fugitives who bethought them to climbthe wall. I picked off several of these men, moving down towardsthe end of the kraal as I did so, and arriving at the corner, or rather the bend of the oval, in time to see, and by meansof my rifle to assist in, the mighty struggle that took placethere. 

By this time some two hundred Masai -- allowing that we had upto the present accounted for fifty -- had gathered together infront of the thorn-stopped entrance, driven thither by the spearsof Good's men, whom they doubtless supposed were a large forceinstead of being but ten strong. For some reason it never occurredto them to try and rush the wall, which they could have scrambledover with comparative ease; they all made for the fence, whichwas really a strongly interwoven fortification. With a boundthe first warrior went at it, and even before he touched theground on the other side I saw Sir Henry's great axe swing upand fall with awful force upon his feather head-piece, and hesank into the middle of the thorns. Then with a yell and a crashthey began to break through as they might, and ever as they camethe great axe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell deadone by one, each man thus helping to build up a barrier againsthis fellows. Those who escaped the axes of the pair fell atthe hands of the Askari and the two Mission Kaffirs, and thosewho passed scatheless from them were brought low by my own andMackenzie's fire. 

Faster and more furious grew the fighting. Single Masai wouldspring upon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage oneor other of the axemen with their long spears; but, thanks chieflyto the mail shirts, the result was always the same. Presentlythere was a great swing of the axe, a crashing sound, and anotherdead Masai. That is, if the man was engaged with Sir Henry. If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with the result indeedwould be the same, but it would be differently attained. Itwas but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing double-handedstroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap continuallyat his adversary's head, pecking at it with the pole-axe endof the axe as a woodpecker {Endnote 7} pecks at rotten wood. Presently a peck would go home, and his enemy would drop downwith a neat little circular hole in his forehead or skull, exactlysimilar to that which a cheese-scoop makes in a cheese. He neverused the broad blade of the axe except when hard pressed, orwhen striking at a shield. He told me afterwards that he didnot consider it sportsmanlike. 

Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people hadto cease firing into the mass for fear of killing some of them(as it was, one of them was slain in this way). Mad and desperatewith fear, the Masai by a frantic effort burst through the thornfence and piled-up dead, and, sweeping Curtis, Umslopogaas, andthe other three before them, into the open. And now it was thatwe began to lose men fast. Down went our poor Askari who wasarmed with the axe, a great spear standing out a foot behindhis back; and before long the two spearsmen who had stood withhim went down too, dying fighting like tigers; and others ofour party shared their fate. For a moment I feared the fightwas lost -- certainly it trembled in the balance. I shoutedto my men to cast down their rifles, and to take spears and throwthemselves into the melee. They obeyed, their blood being nowthoroughly up, and Mr Mackenzie's people followed their example. 

This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hungin the balance. 

Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon thedark mass of Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain. And ever above the din rose Good's awful yell of encouragementas he plunged to wherever the fight was thickest; and ever, withan almost machine-like regularity, the two axes rose and fell, carrying death and disablement at every stroke. But I couldsee that the strain was beginning to tell upon Sir Henry, whowas bleeding from several flesh wounds: his breath was comingin gasps, and the veins stood out on his forehead like blue andknotted cords. Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that he was, washard pressed. I noticed that he had given up 'woodpecking', and was now using the broad blade of Inkosi-kaas, 'browning'his enemy wherever he could hit him, instead of drilling scientificholes in his head. I myself did not go into the melee, but hoveredoutside like the swift 'back' in a football scrimmage, puttinga bullet through a Masai whenever I got a chance. I was moreuse so. I fired forty-nine cartridges that morning, and I didnot miss many shots. 

Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to riseagainst us. We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectivesleft now, and the Masai had at least fifty. Of course if theyhad kept their heads, and shaken themselves together, they couldsoon have made an end of the matter; but that is just what theydid not do, not having yet recovered from their start, and someof them having actually fled from their sleeping-places withouttheir weapons. Still by now many individuals were fighting withtheir normal courage and discretion, and this alone was sufficientto defeat us. To make matters worse just then, when Mackenzie'srifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a 'sime', or sword, made a rush for him. The clergyman flung down his gun, and drawinghis huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver had droppedout in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle. Presently, locked in a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on theground behind the wall, and for some time I, being amply occupiedwith my own affairs, and in keeping my skin from being pricked, remained in ignorance of his fate or how the duel had ended. 

To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortexof a human whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad forus. Just then, however, a fortunate thing happened. Umslopogaas, either by accident or design, broke out of the ring and engageda warrior at some few paces from it. As he did so, another manran up and struck him with all his force between his shoulderswith his great spear, which, falling on the tough steel shirt, failed to pierce it and rebounded. For a moment the man staredaghast -- protective armour being unknown among these tribes-- and then he yelled out at the top of his voice --

'_They are devils -- bewitched, bewitched!_' And seized by asudden panic, he threw down his spear, and began to fly. I cutshort his career with a bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man, and then the panic spread to the others. 

'_Bewitched, bewitched!_' they cried, and tried to escape in everydirection, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the mostpart even throwing down their shields and spears. 

On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. Itwas a slaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was askedor given. One incident, however, is worth detailing. Just asI was hoping that it was all done with, suddenly from under aheap of slain where he had been hiding, an unwounded warriorsprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying dead like an antelope, sped like the wind up the kraal towards the spot where I wasstanding at the moment. But he was not alone, for Umslopogaascame gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-like motionfor which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized inthe Masai the herald of the previous night. Finding that, runas he would, his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted andturned round to give battle. Umslopogaas also pulled up. 

'Ah, ah, ' he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, 'it is thou whomI talked with last night -- the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturerof little girls -- he who would kill a little girl! And thoudidst hope to stand man to man and face to face with Umslopogaas, an Induna of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of theAmazulu? Behold, thy prayer is granted! And I didst swear tohew thee limb from limb, thou insolent dog. Behold, I will doit even now!'

The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zuluwith his spear. As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside, and swinging Inkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands, brought the broad blade down with such fearful force from behindupon the Masai's shoulder just where the neck is set into theframe, that its razor edge shore right through bone and fleshand muscle, almost severing the head and one arm from the body. 

'_Ou!_' ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of his foe;'I have kept my word. It was a good stroke. '

CHAPTER VIII

ALPHONSE EXPLAINS

And so the fight was ended. On returning from the shocking sceneit suddenly struck me that I had seen nothing of Alphonse sincethe moment, some twenty minutes before -- for though this fighthas taken a long while to describe, it did not take long in reality-- when I had been forced to hit him in the wind with the resultof nearly getting myself shot. Fearing that the poor littleman had perished in the battle, I began to hunt among the deadfor his body, but, not being able either to see or hear anythingof it, I concluded that he must have survived, and walked downthe side of the kraal where we had first taken our stand, callinghim by name. Now some fifteen paces back from the kraal wallstood a very ancient tree of the banyan species. So ancientwas it that all the inside had in the course of ages decayedaway, leaving nothing but a shell of bark. 

'Alphonse, ' I called, as I walked down the wall. 'Alphonse!'

'Oui, monsieur, ' answered a voice. 'Here am I. '

I looked round but could see nobody. 'Where?' I cried. 

'Here am I, monsieur, in the tree. '

I looked, and there, peering out of a hole in the trunk of thebanyan about five feet from the ground, I saw a pale face anda pair of large mustachios, one clipped short and the other aslamentably out of curl as the tail of a newly whipped pug. Then, for the first time, I realized what I had suspected before --namely, that Alphonse was an arrant coward. I walked up to him. 'Come out of that hole, ' I said. 

'Is it finished, monsieur?' he asked anxiously; 'quite finished?Ah, the horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have uttered!'

'Come out, you little wretch, ' I said, for I did not feel amiable;'it is all over. '

'So, monsieur, then my prayers have prevailed? I emerge, 'and he did. 

As we were walking down together to join the others, who weregathered in a group by the wide entrance to the kraal, whichnow resembled a veritable charnel-house, a Masai, who had escapedso far and been hiding under a bush, suddenly sprang up and chargedfuriously at us. Off went Alphonse with a howl of terror, andafter him flew the Masai, bent upon doing some execution beforehe died. He soon overtook the poor little Frenchman, and wouldhave finished him then and there had I not, just as Alphonsemade a last agonized double in the vain hope of avoiding theyard of steel that was flashing in his immediate rear, managedto plant a bullet between the Elmoran's broad shoulders, whichbrought matters to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchmanwas concerned. But just then he tripped and fell flat, and thebody of the Masai fell right on the top of him, moving convulsivelyin the death struggle. Thereupon there arose such a series ofpiercing howls that I concluded that before he died the savagemust have managed to stab poor Alphonse. I ran up in a hurryand pulled the Masai off, and there beneath him lay Alphonsecovered with blood and jerking himself about like a galvanizedfrog. Poor fellow! thought I, he is done for, and kneeling downby him I began to search for his wound as well as his struggleswould allow. 

'Oh, the hole in my back!' he yelled. 'I am murdered. I amdead. Oh, Annette!'

I searched again, but could see no wound. Then the truth dawnedon me -- the man was frightened, not hurt. 

'Get up!' I shouted, 'Get up. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?You are not touched. '

Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse. 'But, monsieur, Ithought I was, ' he said apologetically; 'I did not know thatI had conquered. ' Then, giving the body of the Masai a kick, he ejaculated triumphantly, 'Ah, dog of a black savage, thouart dead; what victory!'

Thoroughly disgusted, I left Alphonse to look after himself, which he did by following me like a shadow, and proceeded tojoin the others by the large entrance. The first thing thatI saw was Mackenzie, seated on a stone with a handkerchief twistedround his thigh, from which he was bleeding freely, having, indeed, received a spear-thrust that passed right through it, and stillholding in his hand his favourite carving knife now bent nearlydouble, from which I gathered that he had been successful inhis rough and tumble with the Elmoran. 

'Ah, Quatermain!' he sang out in a trembling, excited voice, 'so we have conquered; but it is a sorry sight, a sorry sight;'and then breaking into broad Scotch and glancing at the bentknife in his hand, 'It fashes me sair to have bent my best carveron the breastbone of a savage, ' and he laughed hysterically. Poor fellow, what between his wound and the killing excitementhe had undergone his nerves were much shaken, and no wonder!It is hard upon a man of peace and kindly heart to be calledupon to join in such a gruesome business. But there, fate putsus sometimes into very comical positions!

At the kraal entrance the scene was a strange one. The slaughterwas over by now, and the wounded men had been put out of theirpain, for no quarter had been given. The bush-closed entrancewas trampled flat, and in place of bushes it was filled withthe bodies of dead men. Dead men, everywhere dead men -- theylay about in knots, they were flung by ones and twos in everyposition upon the open spaces, for all the world like the peopleon the grass in one of the London parks on a particularly hotSunday in August. In front of this entrance, on a space whichhad been cleared of dead and of the shields and spears whichwere scattered in all directions as they had fallen or been thrownfrom the hands of their owners, stood and lay the survivors ofthe awful struggle, and at their feet were four wounded men. We had gone into the fight thirty strong, and of the thirtybut fifteen remained alive, and five of them (including Mr Mackenzie)were wounded, two mortally. Of those who held the entrance, Curtis and the Zulu alone remained. Good had lost five men killed, I had lost two killed, and Mackenzie no less than five out ofthe six with him. As for the survivors they were, with the exceptionof myself who had never come to close quarters, red from headto foot -- Sir Henry's armour might have been painted that colour-- and utterly exhausted, except Umslopogaas, who, as he grimlystood on a little mound above a heap of dead, leaning as usualupon his axe, did not seem particularly distressed, althoughthe skin over the hole in his head palpitated violently. 

'Ah, Macumazahn!' he said to me as I limped up, feeling verysick, 'I told thee that it would be a good fight, and it has. Never have I seen a better, or one more bravely fought. Asfor this iron shirt, surely it is "tagati" [bewitched]; nothingcould pierce it. Had it not been for the garment I should havebeen _there_, ' and he nodded towards the great pile of dead menbeneath him. 

'I give it thee; thou art a brave man, ' said Sir Henry, briefly. 

'Koos!' answered the Zulu, deeply pleased both at the gift andthe compliment. 'Thou, too, Incubu, didst bear thyself as aman, but I must give thee some lessons with the axe; thou dostwaste thy strength. '

Just then Mackenzie asked about Flossie, and we were all greatlyrelieved when one of the men said he had seen her flying towardsthe house with the nurse. Then bearing such of the wounded ascould be moved at the moment with us, we slowly made our waytowards the Mission-house, spent with toil and bloodshed, butwith the glorious sense of victory against overwhelming oddsglowing in our hearts. We had saved the life of the little maid, and taught the Masai of those parts a lesson that they will notforget for ten years -- but at what a cost!

Painfully we made our way up the hill which, just a little morethan an hour before, we had descended under such different circumstances. At the gate of the wall stood Mrs Mackenzie waiting for us. When her eyes fell upon us, however, she shrieked out, and coveredher face with her hands, crying, 'Horrible, horrible!' Nor wereher fears allayed when she discovered her worthy husband beingborne upon an improvized stretcher; but her doubts as to thenature of his injury were soon set at rest. Then when in a fewbrief words I had told her the upshot of the struggle (of whichFlossie, who had arrived in safety, had been able to explainsomething) she came up to me and solemnly kissed me on the forehead. 

'God bless you all, Mr Quatermain; you have saved my child'slife, ' she said simply. 

Then we went in and got our clothes off and doctored our wounds;I am glad to say I had none, and Sir Henry's and Good's were, thanks to those invaluable chain shirts, of a comparatively harmlessnature, and to be dealt with by means of a few stitches and sticking-plaster. Mackenzie's, however, were serious, though fortunatelythe spear had not severed any large artery. After that we hada bath, and what a luxury it was! And having clad ourselvesin ordinary clothes, proceeded to the dining-room, where breakfastwas set as usual. It was curious sitting down there, drinkingtea and eating toast in an ordinary nineteenth-century sort ofway just as though we had not employed the early hours in a regularprimitive hand-to-hand Middle-Ages kind of struggle. As Goodsaid, the whole thing seemed more as though one had had a badnightmare just before being called, than as a deed done. Whenwe were finishing our breakfast the door opened, and in camelittle Flossie, very pale and tottery, but quite unhurt. Shekissed us all and thanked us. I congratulated her on the presenceof mind she had shown in shooting the Masai with her Derringerpistol, and thereby saving her own life. 

'Oh, don't talk of it!' she said, beginning to cry hysterically;'I shall never forget his face as he went turning round and round, never -- I can see it now. '

I advised her to go to bed and get some sleep, which she did, and awoke in the evening quite recovered, so far as her strengthwas concerned. It struck me as an odd thing that a girl whocould find the nerve to shoot a huge black ruffian rushing tokill her with a spear should have been so affected at the thoughtof it afterwards; but it is, after all, characteristic of thesex. Poor Flossie! I fear that her nerves will not get overthat night in the Masai camp for many a long year. She toldme afterwards that it was the suspense that was so awful, havingto sit there hour after hour through the livelong night utterlyignorant as to whether or not any attempt was to be made to rescueher. She said that on the whole she did not expect it, knowinghow few of us, and how many of the Masai -- who, by the way, came continually to stare at her, most of them never having seena white person before, and handled her arms and hair with theirfilthy paws. She said also that she had made up her mind thatif she saw no signs of succour by the time the first rays ofthe rising sun reached the kraal she would kill herself withthe pistol, for the nurse had heard the Lygonani say that theywere to be tortured to death as soon as the sun was up if oneof the white men did not come in their place. It was an awfulresolution to have to take, but she meant to act on it, and Ihave little doubt but what she would have done so. Althoughshe was at an age when in England girls are in the schoolroomand come down to dessert, this 'child of the wilderness' hadmore courage, discretion, and power of mind than many a womanof mature age nurtured in idleness and luxury, with minds carefullydrilled and educated out of any originality or self-resourcethat nature may have endowed them with. 

When breakfast was over we all turned in and had a good sleep, only getting up in time for dinner; after which meal we oncemore adjourned, together with all the available population --men, women, youths, and girls -- to the scene of the morning'sslaughter, our object being to bury our own dead and get ridof the Masai by flinging them into the Tana River, which ranwithin fifty yards of the kraal. On reaching the spot we disturbedthousands upon thousands of vultures and a sort of brown busheagle, which had been flocking to the feast from miles and milesaway. Often have I watched these great and repulsive birds, and marvelled at the extraordinary speed with which they arriveon a scene of slaughter. A buck falls to your rifle, and withina minute high in the blue ether appears a speck that graduallygrows into a vulture, then another, and another. I have heardmany theories advanced to account for the wonderful power ofperception nature has given these birds. My own, founded ona good deal of observation, is that the vultures, gifted as theyare with powers of sight greater than those given by the mostpowerful glass, quarter out the heavens among themselves, andhanging in mid-air at a vast height -- probably from two to threemiles above the earth -- keep watch, each of them, over an enormousstretch of country. Presently one of them spies food, and instantlybegins to sink towards it. Thereon his next neighbour in theairy heights sailing leisurely through the blue gulf, at a distanceperhaps of some miles, follows his example, knowing that foodhas been sighted. Down he goes, and all the vultures withinsight of him follow after, and so do all those in sight of them. In this way the vultures for twenty miles round can be summonedto the feast in a few minutes. 

We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected toread the Burial Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie, confined to bed), as he was generally allowed to possess thebest voice and most impressive manner. It was melancholy inthe extreme, but, as Good said, it might have been worse, forwe might have had 'to bury ourselves'. I pointed out that thiswould have been a difficult feat, but I knew what he meant. 

Next we set to work to load an ox-wagon which had been broughtround from the Mission with the dead bodies of the Masai, havingfirst collected the spears, shields, and other arms. We loadedthe wagon five times, about fifty bodies to the load, and emptiedit into the Tana. From this it was evident that very few ofthe Masai could have escaped. The crocodiles must have beenwell fed that night. One of the last bodies we picked up wasthat of the sentry at the upper end. I asked Good how he managedto kill him, and he told me that he had crept up much as Umslopogaashad done, and stabbed him with his sword. He groaned a gooddeal, but fortunately nobody heard him. As Good said, it wasa horrible thing to have to do, and most unpleasantly likecold-blooded murder. 

And so with the last body that floated away down the currentof the Tana ended the incident of our attack on the Masai camp. The spears and shields and other arms we took up to the Mission, where they filled an outhouse. One incident, however, I mustnot forget to mention. As we were returning from performingthe obsequies of our Masai friends we passed the hollow treewhere Alphonse had secreted himself in the morning. It so happenedthat the little man himself was with us assisting in our unpleasanttask with a far better will than he had shown where live Masaiwere concerned. Indeed, for each body that he handled he foundan appropriate sarcasm. Alphonse throwing Masai into the Tanawas a very different creature from Alphonse flying for dear lifefrom the spear of a live Masai. He was quite merry and gay, he clapped his hands and warbled snatches of French songs asthe grim dead warriors went 'splash' into the running watersto carry a message of death and defiance to their kindred a hundredmiles below. In short, thinking that he wanted taking down apeg, I suggested holding a court-martial on him for his conductin the morning. 

Accordingly we brought him to the tree where he had hidden, andproceeded to sit in judgment on him, Sir Henry explaining tohim in the very best French the unheard-of cowardice and enormityof his conduct, more especially in letting the oiled rag outof his mouth, whereby he nearly aroused the Masai camp withteeth-chattering and brought about the failure of our plans:ending up with a request for an explanation. 

But if we expected to find Alphonse at a loss and put him toopen shame we were destined to be disappointed. He bowed andscraped and smiled, and acknowledged that his conduct might atfirst blush appear strange, but really it was not, inasmuch ashis teeth were not chattering from fear -- oh, dear no! oh, certainlynot! he marvelled how the 'messieurs' could think of such a thing-- but from the chill air of the morning. As for the rag, ifmonsieur could have but tasted its evil flavour, being compoundedindeed of a mixture of stale paraffin oil, grease, and gunpowder, monsieur himself would have spat it out. But he did nothingof the sort; he determined to keep it there till, alas! his stomach'revolted', and the rag was ejected in an access of involuntarysickness. 

'And what have you to say about getting into the hollow tree?'asked Sir Henry, keeping his countenance with difficulty. 

'But, monsieur, the explanation is easy; oh, most easy! it wasthus: I stood there by the kraal wall, and the little grey monsieurhit me in the stomach so that my rifle exploded, and the battlebegan. I watched whilst recovering myself from monsieur's cruelblow; then, messieurs, I felt the heroic blood of my grandfatherboil up in my veins. The sight made me mad. I ground my teeth!Fire flashed from my eyes! I shouted "En avant!" and longedto slay. Before my eyes there rose a vision of my heroic grandfather!In short, I was mad! I was a warrior indeed! But then in myheart I heard a small voice: "Alphonse, " said the voice, "restrainthyself, Alphonse! Give not way to this evil passion! Thesemen, though black, are brothers! And thou wouldst slay them?Cruel Alphonse!" The voice was right. I knew it; I was aboutto perpetrate the most horrible cruelties: to wound! to massacre!to tear limb from limb! And how restrain myself? I looked round;I saw the tree, I perceived the hole. "Entomb thyself, " saidthe voice, "and hold on tight! Thou wilt thus overcome temptationby main force!" It was bitter, just when the blood of my heroicgrandfather boiled most fiercely; but I obeyed! I dragged myunwilling feet along; I entombed myself! Through the hole Iwatched the battle! I shouted curses and defiance on the foe!I noted them fall with satisfaction! Why not? I had not robbedthem of their lives. Their gore was not upon my head. The bloodof my heroic --'

'Oh, get along with you, you little cur!' broke out Sir Henry, with a shout of laughter, and giving Alphonse a good kick whichsent him flying off with a rueful face. 

In the evening I had an interview with Mr Mackenzie, who wassuffering a good deal from his wounds, which Good, who was askilful though unqualified doctor, was treating him for. Hetold me that this occurrence had taught him a lesson, and that, if he recovered safely, he meant to hand over the Mission toa younger man, who was already on his road to join him in hiswork, and return to England. 

'You see, Quatermain, ' he said, 'I made up my mind to it, thisvery morning, when we were creeping down those benighted savages. "If we live through this and rescue Flossie alive, " I said tomyself, "I will go home to England; I have had enough of savages. "Well, I did not think that we should live through it at thetime; but thanks be to God and you four, we have lived throughit, and I mean to stick to my resolution, lest a worse thingbefall us. Another such time would kill my poor wife. And besides, Quatermain, between you and me, I am well off; it is thirty thousandpounds I am worth today, and every farthing of it made by honesttrade and savings in the bank at Zanzibar, for living here costsme next to nothing. So though it will be hard to leave thisplace, which I have made to blossom like a rose in the wilderness, and harder still to leave the people I have taught, I shall go. '

'I congratulate you on your decision, ' answered I, 'for two reasons. The first is, that you owe a duty to your wife and daughter, and more especially to the latter, who should receive some educationand mix with girls of her own race, otherwise she will grow upwild, shunning her kind. The other is, that as sure as I amstanding here, sooner or later the Masai will try to avenge theslaughter inflicted on them today. Two or three men are sureto have escaped the confusion who will carry the story back totheir people, and the result will be that a great expeditionwill one day be sent against you. It might be delayed for ayear, but sooner or later it will come. Therefore, if only forthat reason, I should go. When once they have learnt that youare no longer here they may perhaps leave the place alone. '{Endnote 8}

'You are quite right, ' answered the clergyman. 'I will turnmy back upon this place in a month. But it will be a wrench, it will be a wrench. '

CHAPTER IXINTO THE UNKNOWN

A week had passed, and we all sat at supper one night in theMission dining-room, feeling very much depressed in spirits, for the reason that we were going to say goodbye to our kindfriends, the Mackenzies, and depart upon our way at dawn on themorrow. Nothing more had been seen or heard of the Masai, andsave for a spear or two which had been overlooked and was rustingin the grass, and a few empty cartridges where we had stood outsidethe wall, it would have been difficult to tell that the old cattlekraal at the foot of the slope had been the scene of so desperatea struggle. Mackenzie was, thanks chiefly to his being so temperatea man, rapidly recovering from his wound, and could get abouton a pair of crutches; and as for the other wounded men, onehad died of gangrene, and the rest were in a fair way to recovery. Mr Mackenzie's caravan of men had also returned from the coast, so that the station was now amply garrisoned. 

Under these circumstances we concluded, warm and pressing aswere the invitations for us to stay, that it was time to moveon, first to Mount Kenia, and thence into the unknown in searchof the mysterious white race which we had set our hearts on discovering. This time we were going to progress by means of the humble butuseful donkey, of which we had collected no less than a dozen, to carry our goods and chattels, and, if necessary, ourselves. We had now but two Wakwafis left for servants, and found itquite impossible to get other natives to venture with us intothe unknown parts we proposed to explore -- and small blame tothem. After all, as Mr Mackenzie said, it was odd that threemen, each of whom possessed many of those things that are supposedto make life worth living -- health, sufficient means, and position, etc. -- should from their own pleasure start out upon a wild-goosechase, from which the chances were they never would return. But then that is what Englishmen are, adventurers to the backbone;and all our magnificent muster-roll of colonies, each of whichwill in time become a great nation, testify to the extraordinaryvalue of the spirit of adventure which at first sight looks likea mild form of lunacy. 'Adventurer' -- he that goes out to meetwhatever may come. Well, that is what we all do in the worldone way or another, and, speaking for myself, I am proud of thetitle, because it implies a brave heart and a trust in Providence. Besides, when many and many a noted Croesus, at whose feet thepeople worship, and many and many a time-serving and word-coiningpolitician are forgotten, the names of those grand-hearted oldadventurers who have made England what she is, will be rememberedand taught with love and pride to little children whose unshapedspirits yet slumber in the womb of centuries to be. Not thatwe three can expect to be numbered with such as these, yet havewe done something -- enough, perhaps, to throw a garment overthe nakedness of our folly. 

That evening, whilst we were sitting on the veranda, smokinga pipe before turning in, who should come up to us but Alphonse, and, with a magnificent bow, announce his wish for an interview. Being requested to 'fire away', he explained at some lengththat he was anxious to attach himself to our party -- a statementthat astonished me not a little, knowing what a coward the littleman was. The reason, however, soon appeared. Mr Mackenzie wasgoing down to the coast, and thence on to England. Now, if hewent down country, Alphonse was persuaded that he would be seized, extradited, sent to France, and to penal servitude. This wasthe idea that haunted him, as King Charles's head haunted MrDick, and he brooded over it till his imagination exaggeratedthe danger ten times. As a matter of fact, the probability isthat his offence against the laws of his country had long agobeen forgotten, and that he would have been allowed to pass unmolestedanywhere except in France; but he could not be got to see this. Constitutional coward as the little man was, he infinitely preferredto face the certain hardships and great risks and dangers ofsuch an expedition as ours, than to expose himself, notwithstandinghis intense longing for his native land, to the possible scrutinyof a police officer -- which is after all only another exemplificationof the truth that, to the majority of men, a far-off foreseendanger, however shadowy, is much more terrible than the mostserious present emergency. After listening to what he had tosay, we consulted among ourselves, and finally agreed, with MrMackenzie's knowledge and consent, to accept his offer. To beginwith, we were very short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick, activefellow, who could turn his hand to anything, and cook -- ah, he _could_ cook! I believe that he would have made a palatabledish of those gaiters of his heroic grandfather which he wasso fond of talking about. Then he was a good-tempered littleman, and merry as a monkey, whilst his pompous, vainglorioustalk was a source of infinite amusement to us; and what is more, he never bore malice. Of course, his being so pronounced a cowardwas a great drawback to him, but now that we knew his weaknesswe could more or less guard against it. So, after warning himof the undoubted risks he was exposing himself to, we told himthat we would accept his offer on condition that he would promiseimplicit obedience to our orders. We also promised to give himwages at the rate of ten pounds a month should he ever returnto a civilized country to receive them. To all of this he agreedwith alacrity, and retired to write a letter to his Annette, which Mr Mackenzie promised to post when he got down country. He read it to us afterwards, Sir Henry translating, and a wonderfulcomposition it was. I am sure the depth of his devotion andthe narration of his sufferings in a barbarous country, 'far, far from thee, Annette, for whose adored sake I endure such sorrow, 'ought to have touched the feelings of the stoniest-hearted chambermaid. 

Well, the morrow came, and by seven o'clock the donkeys wereall loaded, and the time of parting was at hand. It was a melancholybusiness, especially saying goodbye to dear little Flossie. She and I were great friends, and often used to have talks together-- but her nerves had never got over the shock of that awfulnight when she lay in the power of those bloodthirsty Masai. 'Oh, Mr Quatermain, ' she cried, throwing her arms round my neckand bursting into tears, 'I can't bear to say goodbye to you. I wonder when we shall meet again?'

'I don't know, my dear little girl, ' I said, 'I am at one endof life and you are at the other. I have but a short time beforeme at best, and most things lie in the past, but I hope thatfor you there are many long and happy years, and everything liesin the future. By-and-by you will grow into a beautiful woman, Flossie, and all this wild life will be like a far-off dreamto you; but I hope, even if we never do meet again, that youwill think of your old friend and remember what I say to younow. Always try to be good, my dear, and to do what is right, rather than what happens to be pleasant, for in the end, whateversneering people may say, what is good and what is happy are thesame. Be unselfish, and whenever you can, give a helping handto others -- for the world is full of suffering, my dear, andto alleviate it is the noblest end that we can set before us. If you do that you will become a sweet and God-fearing woman, and make many people's lives a little brighter, and then youwill not have lived, as so many of your sex do, in vain. Andnow I have given you a lot of old-fashioned advice, and so Iam going to give you something to sweeten it with. You see thislittle piece of paper. It is what is called a cheque. Whenwe are gone give it to your father with this note -- not before, mind. You will marry one day, my dear little Flossie, and itis to buy you a wedding present which you are to wear, and yourdaughter after you, if you have one, in remembrance of HunterQuatermain. '

Poor little Flossie cried very much, and gave me a lock of herbright hair in return, which I still have. The cheque I gaveher was for a thousand pounds (which being now well off, andhaving no calls upon me except those of charity, I could wellafford), and in the note I directed her father to invest it forher in Government security, and when she married or came of ageto buy her the best diamond necklace he could get for the moneyand accumulated interest. I chose diamonds because I think thatnow that King Solomon's Mines are lost to the world, their pricewill never be much lower than it is at present, so that if inafter-life she should ever be in pecuniary difficulties, shewill be able to turn them into money. 

Well, at last we got off, after much hand-shaking, hat-waving, and also farewell saluting from the natives, Alphonse weepingcopiously (for he has a warm heart) at parting with his masterand mistress; and I was not sorry for it at all, for I hate thosegoodbyes. Perhaps the most affecting thing of all was to witnessUmslopogaas' distress at parting with Flossie, for whom the grimold warrior had conceived a strong affection. He used to saythat she was as sweet to see as the only star on a dark night, and was never tired of loudly congratulating himself on havingkilled the Lygonani who had threatened to murder her. And thatwas the last we saw of the pleasant Mission-house -- a true oasisin the desert -- and of European civilization. But I often thinkof the Mackenzies, and wonder how they got down country, andif they are now safe and well in England, and will ever see thesewords. Dear little Flossie! I wonder how she fares there wherethere are no black folk to do her imperious bidding, and no sky-piercingsnow-clad Kenia for her to look at when she gets up in the morning. And so goodbye to Flossie. 

After leaving the Mission-house we made our way, comparativelyunmolested, past the base of Mount Kenia, which the Masai call'Donyo Egere', or the 'speckled mountain', on account of theblack patches of rock that appear upon its mighty spire, wherethe sides are too precipitous to allow of the snow lying on them;then on past the lonely lake Baringo, where one of our two remainingAskari, having unfortunately trodden on a puff-adder, died ofsnake-bite, in spite of all our efforts to save him. Thencewe proceeded a distance of about a hundred and fifty miles toanother magnificent snow-clad mountain called Lekakisera, whichhas never, to the best of my belief, been visited before by aEuropean, but which I cannot now stop to describe. There werested a fortnight, and then started out into the trackless anduninhabited forest of a vast district called Elgumi. In thisforest alone there are more elephants than I ever met with orheard of before. The mighty mammals literally swarm thereentirely unmolested by man, and only kept down by the naturallaw that prevents any animals increasing beyond the capacityof the country they inhabit to support them. Needless to say, however, we did not shoot many of them, first because we couldnot afford to waste ammunition, of which our stock was gettingperilously low, a donkey loaded with it having been swept awayin fording a flooded river; and secondly, because we could notcarry away the ivory, and did not wish to kill for the mere sakeof slaughter. So we let the great beasts be, only shooting oneor two in self-protection. In this district, the elephants, being unacquainted with the hunter and his tender mercies, wouldallow one to walk up to within twenty yards of them in the open, while they stood, with their great ears cocked for all the worldlike puzzled and gigantic puppy-dogs, and stared at that newand extraordinary phenomenon -- man. Occasionally, when theinspection did not prove satisfactory, the staring ended in atrumpet and a charge, but this did not often happen. When itdid we had to use our rifles. Nor were elephants the only wildbeasts in the great Elgumi forest. All sorts of large game abounded, including lions -- confound them! I have always hated the sightof a lion since one bit my leg and lamed me for life. As a consequence, another thing that abounded was the dreadful tsetse fly, whosebite is death to domestic animals. Donkeys have, together withmen, hitherto been supposed to enjoy a peculiar immunity fromits attacks; but all I have to say, whether it was on accountof their poor condition, or because the tsetse in those partsis more poisonous than usual, I do not know, but ours succumbedto its onslaught. Fortunately, however, that was not till twomonths or so after the bites had been inflicted, when suddenly, after a two days' cold rain, they all died, and on removing theskins of several of them I found the long yellow streaks uponthe flesh which are characteristic of death from bites from thetsetse, marking the spot where the insect had inserted his proboscis. On emerging from the great Elgumi forest, we, still steeringnorthwards, in accordance with the information Mr Mackenzie hadcollected from the unfortunate wanderer who reached him onlyto die so tragically, struck the base in due course of the largelake, called Laga by the natives, which is about fifty mileslong by twenty broad, and of which, it may be remembered, hemade mention. Thence we pushed on nearly a month's journey overgreat rolling uplands, something like those in the Transvaal, but diversified by patches of bush country. 

All this time we were continually ascending at the rate of aboutone hundred feet every ten miles. Indeed the country was ona slope which appeared to terminate at a mass of snow-tippedmountains, for which we were steering, and where we learnt thesecond lake of which the wanderer had spoken as the lake withouta bottom was situated. At length we arrived there, and, havingascertained that there _was_ a large lake on top of the mountains, ascended three thousand feet more till we came to a precipitouscliff or edge, to find a great sheet of water some twenty milessquare lying fifteen hundred feet below us, and evidently occupyingan extinct volcanic crater or craters of vast extent. Perceivingvillages on the border of this lake, we descended with greatdifficulty through forests of pine trees, which now clothed theprecipitous sides of the crater, and were well received by thepeople, a simple, unwarlike folk, who had never seen or evenheard of a white man before, and treated us with great reverenceand kindness, supplying us with as much food and milk as we couldeat and drink. This wonderful and beautiful lake lay, accordingto our aneroid, at a height of no less than 11, 450 feet abovesea-level, and its climate was quite cold, and not at all unlikethat of England. Indeed, for the first three days of our staythere we saw little or nothing of the scenery on account of anunmistakable Scotch mist which prevailed. It was this rain thatset the tsetse poison working in our remaining donkeys, so thatthey all died. 

This disaster left us in a very awkward position, as we had nowno means of transport whatever, though on the other hand we hadnot much to carry. Ammunition, too, was very short, amountingto but one hundred and fifty rounds of rifle cartridges and somefifty shot-gun cartridges. How to get on we did not know; indeedit seemed to us that we had about reached the end of our tether. Even if we had been inclined to abandon the object of our search, which, shadow as it was, was by no means the case, it was ridiculousto think of forcing our way back some seven hundred miles tothe coast in our present plight; so we came to the conclusionthat the only thing to be done was to stop where we were -- thenatives being so well disposed and food plentiful -- for thepresent, and abide events, and try to collect information asto the countries beyond. 

Accordingly, having purchased a capital log canoe, large enoughto hold us all and our baggage, from the headman of the villagewe were staying in, presenting him with three empty cold-drawnbrass cartridges by way of payment, with which he was perfectlydelighted, we set out to make a tour of the lake in order tofind the most favourable place to make a camp. As we did notknow if we should return to this village, we put all our gearinto the canoe, and also a quarter of cooked water-buck, whichwhen young is delicious eating, and off we set, natives havingalready gone before us in light canoes to warn the inhabitantsof the other villages of our approach. 

As we were puddling leisurely along Good remarked upon the extraordinarydeep blue colour of the water, and said that he understood fromthe natives, who were great fishermen -- fish, indeed, beingtheir principal food -- that the lake was supposed to be wonderfullydeep, and to have a hole at the bottom through which the waterescaped and put out some great fire that was raging below. 

I pointed out to him that what he had heard was probably a legendarising from a tradition among the people which dated back tothe time when one of the extinct parasitic volcanic cones wasin activity. We saw several round the borders of the lake whichhad no doubt been working at a period long subsequent to thevolcanic death of the central crater which now formed the bedof the lake itself. When it finally became extinct the peoplewould imagine that the water from the lake had run down and putout the big fire below, more especially as, though it was constantlyfed by streams running from the snow-tipped peaks about, therewas no visible exit to it. 

The farther shore of the lake we found, on approaching it, toconsist of a vast perpendicular wall of rock, which held thewater without any intermediate sloping bank, as elsewhere. Accordinglywe paddled parallel with this precipice, at a distance of abouta hundred paces from it, shaping our course for the end of thelake, where we knew that there was a large village. 

As we went we began to pass a considerable accumulation of floatingrushes, weed, boughs of trees, and other rubbish, brought, Goodsupposed, to this spot by some current, which he was much puzzledto account for. Whilst we were speculating about this, Sir Henrypointed out a flock of large white swans, which were feedingon the drift some little way ahead of us. Now I had alreadynoticed swans flying about this lake, and, having never comeacross them before in Africa, was exceedingly anxious to obtaina specimen. I had questioned the natives about them, and learntthat they came from over the mountain, always arriving at certainperiods of the year in the early morning, when it was very easyto catch them, on account of their exhausted condition. I alsoasked them what country they came from, when they shrugged theirshoulders, and said that on the top of the great black precipicewas stony inhospitable land, and beyond that were mountains withsnow, and full of wild beasts, where no people lived, and beyondthe mountains were hundreds of miles of dense thorn forest, sothick that even the elephants could not get through it, muchless men. Next I asked them if they had ever heard of whitepeople like ourselves living on the farther side of the mountainsand the thorn forest, whereat they laughed. But afterwards avery old woman came and told me that when she was a little girlher grandfather had told her that in his youth _his_ grandfatherhad crossed the desert and the mountains, and pierced the thornforest, and seen a white people who lived in stone kraals beyond. Of course, as this took the tale back some two hundred and fiftyyears, the information was very indefinite; but still there itwas again, and on thinking it over I grew firmly convinced thatthere was some truth in all these rumours, and equally firmlydetermined to solve the mystery. Little did I guess in whatan almost miraculous way my desire was to be gratified. 

Well, we set to work to stalk the swans, which kept drawing, as they fed, nearer and nearer to the precipice, and at lastwe pushed the canoe under shelter of a patch of drift withinforty yards of them. Sir Henry had the shot-gun, loaded withNo. 1, and, waiting for a chance, got two in a line, and, firingat their necks, killed them both. Up rose the rest, thirty ormore of them, with a mighty splashing; and, as they did so, hegave them the other barrel. Down came one fellow with a brokenwing, and I saw the leg of another drop and a few feathers startout of his back; but he went on quite strong. Up went the swans, circling ever higher till at last they were mere specks levelwith the top of the frowning precipice, when I saw them forminto a triangle and head off for the unknown north-east. Meanwhilewe had picked up our two dead ones, and beautiful birds theywere, weighing not less than about thirty pounds each, and werechasing the winged one, which had scrambled over a mass of driftweedinto a pool of clear water beyond. Finding a difficulty in forcingthe canoe through the rubbish, I told our only remaining Wakwafiservant, whom I knew to be an excellent swimmer, to jump over, dive under the drift, and catch him, knowing that as there wereno crocodiles in this lake he could come to no harm. Enteringinto the fun of the thing, the man obeyed, and soon was dodgingabout after the winged swan in fine style, getting graduallynearer to the rock wall, against which the water washed as hedid so. 

Presently he gave up swimming after the swan, and began to cryout that he was being carried away; and, indeed, we saw that, though he was swimming with all his strength towards us, he wasbeing drawn slowly to the precipice. With a few desperate strokesof our paddles we pushed the canoe through the crust of driftand rowed towards the man as hard as we could, but, fast as wewent, he was drawn faster to the rock. Suddenly I saw that beforeus, just rising eighteen inches or so above the surface of thelake, was what looked like the top of the arch of a submergedcave or railway tunnel. Evidently, from the watermark on therock several feet above it, it was generally entirely submerged;but there had been a dry season, and the cold had prevented thesnow from melting as freely as usual; so the lake was low andthe arch showed. Towards this arch our poor servant was beingsucked with frightful rapidity. He was not more than ten fathomsfrom it, and we were about twenty when I saw it, and with littlehelp from us the canoe flew along after him. He struggled bravely, and I thought that we should have saved him, when suddenly Iperceived an expression of despair come upon his face, and therebefore our eyes he was sucked down into the cruel swirling bluedepths, and vanished. At the same moment I felt our canoe seizedas with a mighty hand, and propelled with resistless force towardsthe rock. 

We realized our danger now and rowed, or rather paddled, furiouslyin our attempt to get out of the vortex. In vain; in anothersecond we were flying straight for the arch like an arrow, andI thought that we were lost. Luckily I retained sufficient presenceof mind to shout out, instantly setting the example by throwingmyself into the bottom of the canoe, 'Down on your faces -- down!'and the others had the sense to take the hint. In another instantthere was a grinding noise, and the boat was pushed down tillthe water began to trickle over the sides, and I thought thatwe were gone. But no, suddenly the grinding ceased, and we couldagain feel the canoe flying along. I turned my head a little-- I dared not lift it -- and looked up. By the feeble lightthat yet reached the canoe, I could make out that a dense archof rock hung just over our heads, and that was all. In anotherminute I could not even see as much as that, for the faint lighthad merged into shadow, and the shadows had been swallowed upin darkness, utter and complete. 

For an hour or so we lay there, not daring to lift our headsfor fear lest the brains should be dashed out of them, and scarcelyable to speak even, on account of the noise of the rushing waterwhich drowned our voices. Not, indeed, that we had much inclinationto speak, seeing that we were overwhelmed by the awfulness ofour position and the imminent fear of instant death, either bybeing dashed against the sides of the cavern, or on a rock, orbeing sucked down in the raging waters, or perhaps asphyxiatedby want of air. All of these and many other modes of death presentedthemselves to my imagination as I lay at the bottom of the canoe, listening to the swirl of the hurrying waters which ran whitherwe knew not. One only other sound could I hear, and that wasAlphonse's intermittent howl of terror coming from the centreof the canoe, and even that seemed faint and unnatural. Indeed, the whole thing overpowered my brain, and I began to believethat I was the victim of some ghastly spirit-shaking nightmare. 

CHAPTER XTHE ROSE OF FIRE

On we flew, drawn by the mighty current, till at last I noticedthat the sound of the water was not half so deafening as it hadbeen, and concluded that this must be because there was moreroom for the echoes to disperse in. I could now hear Alphonse'showls much more distinctly; they were made up of the oddest mixtureof invocations to the Supreme Power and the name of his belovedAnnette that it is possible to conceive; and, in short, thoughtheir evident earnestness saved them from profanity, were, tosay the least, very remarkable. Taking up a paddle I managedto drive it into his ribs, whereon he, thinking that the endhad come, howled louder than ever. Then I slowly and cautiouslyraised myself on my knees and stretched my hand upwards, butcould touch no roof. Next I took the paddle and lifted it abovemy head as high as I could, but with the same result. I alsothrust it out laterally to the right and left, but could touchnothing except water. Then I bethought me that there was inthe boat, amongst our other remaining possessions, a bull's-eyelantern and a tin of oil. I groped about and found it, and havinga match on me carefully lit it, and as soon as the flame hadgot a hold of the wick I turned it on down the boat. As it happened, the first thing the light lit on was the white and scared faceof Alphonse, who, thinking that it was all over at last, andthat he was witnessing a preliminary celestial phenomenon, gavea terrific yell and was with difficulty reassured with the paddle. As for the other three, Good was lying on the flat of his back, his eyeglass still fixed in his eye, and gazing blankly intothe upper darkness. Sir Henry had his head resting on the thwartsof the canoe, and with his hand was trying to test the speedof the water. But when the beam of light fell upon old UmslopogaasI could really have laughed. I think I have said that we hadput a roast quarter of water-buck into the canoe. Well, it sohappened that when we all prostrated ourselves to avoid beingswept out of the boat and into the water by the rock roof, Umslopogaas'shead had come down uncommonly near this roast buck, and so soonas he had recovered a little from the first shock of our positionit occurred to him that he was hungry. Thereupon he coolly cutoff a chop with Inkosi-kaas, and was now employed in eating itwith every appearance of satisfaction. As he afterwards explained, he thought that he was going 'on a long journey', and preferredto start on a full stomach. It reminded me of the people whoare going to be hanged, and who are generally reported in theEnglish daily papers to have made 'an excellent breakfast'. 

As soon as the others saw that I had managed to light the lamp, we bundled Alphonse into the farther end of the canoe with athreat which calmed him down wonderfully, that if he would insistupon making the darkness hideous with his cries we would puthim out of suspense by sending him to join the Wakwafi and waitfor Annette in another sphere, and began to discuss the situationas well as we could. First, however, at Good's suggestion, webound two paddles mast-fashion in the bows so that they mightgive us warning against any sudden lowering of the roof of thecave or waterway. It was clear to us that we were in an undergroundriver or, as Alphonse defined it, 'main drain', which carriedoff the superfluous waters of the lake. Such rivers are wellknown to exist in many parts of the world, but it has not oftenbeen the evil fortune of explorers to travel by them. That theriver was wide we could clearly see, for the light from the bull's-eyelantern failed to reach from shore to shore, although occasionally, when the current swept us either to one side or the other, wecould distinguish the rock wall of the tunnel, which, as faras we could make out, appeared to arch about twenty-five feetabove our heads. As for the current itself, it ran, Good estimated, at least eight knots, and, fortunately for us, was, as is usual, fiercest in the middle of the stream. Still, our first act wasto arrange that one of us, with the lantern and a pole therewas in the canoe, should always be in the bows ready, if possible, to prevent us from being stove in against the side of the caveor any projecting rock. Umslopogaas, having already dined, tookthe first turn. This was absolutely, with one exception, allthat we could do towards preserving our safety. The exceptionwas that another of us took up a position in the stern with apaddle by means of which it was possible to steer the canoe moreor less and to keep her from the sides of the cave. These mattersattended to, we made a somewhat sparing meal off the cold buck'smeat (for we did not know how long it might have to last us), and then feeling in rather better spirits I gave my opinion that, serious as it undoubtedly was, I did not consider our positionaltogether without hope, unless, indeed, the natives were right, and the river plunged straight down into the bowels of the earth. If not, it was clear that it must emerge somewhere, probablyon the other side of the mountains, and in that case all we hadto think of was to keep ourselves alive till we got there, wherever'there' might be. But, of course, as Good lugubriously pointedout, on the other hand we might fall victims to a hundred unsuspectedhorrors -- or the river might go on winding away inside the earthtill it dried up, in which case our fate would indeed be anawful one. 

'Well, let us hope for the best and prepare ourselves for theworst, ' said Sir Henry, who is always cheerful and even spirited-- a very tower of strength in the time of trouble. 'We havecome out of so many queer scrapes together, that somehow I almostfancy we shall come out of this, ' he added. 

This was excellent advice, and we proceeded to take it each inour separate way -- that is, except Alphonse, who had by nowsunk into a sort of terrified stupor. Good was at the helm andUmslopogaas in the bows, so there was nothing left for Sir Henryand myself to do except to lie down in the canoe and think. It certainly was a curious, and indeed almost a weird, positionto be placed in -- rushing along, as we were, through the bowelsof the earth, borne on the bosom of a Stygian river, somethingafter the fashion of souls being ferried by Charon, as Curtissaid. And how dark it was! The feeble ray from our little lampdid but serve to show the darkness. There in the bows sat oldUmslopogaas, like Pleasure in the poem, {Endnote 9} watchfuland untiring, the pole ready to his hand, and behind in the shadowI could just make out the form of Good peering forward at theray of light in order to make out how to steer with the paddlethat he held and now and again dipped into the water. 

'Well, well, ' thought I, 'you have come in search of adventures, Allan my boy, and you have certainly got them. At your timeof life, too! You ought to be ashamed of yourself; but somehowyou are not, and, awful as it all is, perhaps you will pull throughafter all; and if you don't, why, you cannot help it, you see!And when all's said and done an underground river will makea very appropriate burying-place. '

At first, however, I am bound to say that the strain upon thenerves was very great. It is trying to the coolest and mostexperienced person not to know from one hour to another if hehas five minutes more to live, but there is nothing in this worldthat one cannot get accustomed to, and in time we began to getaccustomed even to that. And, after all, our anxiety, thoughno doubt natural, was, strictly speaking, illogical, seeing thatwe never know what is going to happen to us the next minute, even when we sit in a well-drained house with two policemen patrollingunder the window -- nor how long we have to live. It is all arrangedfor us, my sons, so what is the use of bothering?

It was nearly midday when we made our dive into darkness, andwe had set our watch (Good and Umslopogaas) at two, having agreedthat it should be of a duration of five hours. At seven o'clock, accordingly, Sir Henry and I went on, Sir Henry at the bow andI at the stern, and the other two lay down and went to sleep. For three hours all went well, Sir Henry only finding it necessaryonce to push us off from the side; and I that but little steeringwas required to keep us straight, as the violent current didall that was needed, though occasionally the canoe showed a tendencywhich had to be guarded against to veer and travel broadsideon. What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderfulriver was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick, no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or evenremarkably unpleasant. The only explanation that I can suggestis that the water of the lake had sufficient air in it to keepthe atmosphere of the tunnel from absolute stagnation, this airbeing given out as it proceeded on its headlong way. Of courseI only give the solution of the mystery for what it is worth, which perhaps is not much. 

When I had been for three hours or so at the helm, I began tonotice a decided change in the temperature, which was gettingwarmer. At first I took no notice of it, but when, at the expirationof another half-hour, I found that it was getting hotter andhotter, I called to Sir Henry and asked him if he noticed it, or if it was only my imagination. 'Noticed it!' he answered;'I should think so. I am in a sort of Turkish bath. ' Just aboutthen the others woke up gasping, and were obliged to begin todiscard their clothes. Here Umslopogaas had the advantage, forhe did not wear any to speak of, except a moocha. 

Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcelybreathe, and the perspiration poured out of us. Half an hourmore, and though we were all now stark naked, we could hardlybear it. The place was like an antechamber of the infernal regionsproper. I dipped my hand into the water and drew it out almostwith a cry; it was nearly boiling. We consulted a little thermometerwe had -- the mercury stood at 123 degrees. From the surfaceof the water rose a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse groaned outthat we were already in purgatory, which indeed we were, thoughnot in the sense that he meant it. Sir Henry suggested thatwe must be passing near the seat of some underground volcanicfire, and I am inclined to think, especially in the light ofwhat subsequently occurred, that he was right. Our sufferingsfor some time after this really pass my powers of description. We no longer perspired, for all the perspiration had been sweatedout of us. We simply lay in the bottom of the boat, which wewere now physically incapable of directing, feeling like hotembers, and I fancy undergoing very much the same sensationsthat the poor fish do when they are dying on land -- namely, that of slow suffocation. Our skins began to crack, and theblood to throb in our heads like the beating of a steam-engine. 

This had been going on for some time, when suddenly the riverturned a little, and I heard Sir Henry call out from the bowsin a hoarse, startled voice, and, looking up, saw a most wonderfuland awful thing. About half a mile ahead of us, and a littleto the left of the centre of the stream -- which we could nowsee was about ninety feet broad -- a huge pillar-like jet ofalmost white flame rose from the surface of the water and sprangfifty feet into the air, when it struck the roof and spread outsome forty feet in diameter, falling back in curved sheets offire shaped like the petals of a full-blown rose. Indeed thisawful gas jet resembled nothing so much as a great flaming flowerrising out of the black water. Below was the straight stalk, a foot or more thick, and above the dreadful bloom. And as forthe fearfulness of it and its fierce and awesome beauty, whocan describe it? Certainly I cannot. Although we were now somefive hundred yards away, it, notwithstanding the steam, lit upthe whole cavern as clear as day, and we could see that the roofwas here about forty feet above us, and washed perfectly smoothwith water. The rock was black, and here and there I could makeout long shining lines of ore running through it like great veins, but of what metal they were I know not. 

On we rushed towards this pillar of fire, which gleamed fiercerthan any furnace ever lit by man. 

'Keep the boat to the right, Quatermain -- to the right, ' shoutedSir Henry, and a minute afterwards I saw him fall forward senseless. Alphonse had already gone. Good was the next to go. Therethey lay as though dead; only Umslopogaas and I kept our senses. We were within fifty yards of it now, and I saw the Zulu's headfall forward on his hands. He had gone too, and I was alone. I could not breathe; the fierce heat dried me up. For yardsand yards round the great rose of fire the rock-roof was red-hot. The wood of the boat was almost burning. I saw the featherson one of the dead swans begin to twist and shrivel up; but Iwould not give in. I knew that if I did we should pass withinthree or four yards of the gas jet and perish miserably. I setthe paddle so as to turn the canoe as far from it as possible, and held on grimly. 

My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closedlids I could see the fierce light. We were nearly opposite now;it roared like all the fires of hell, and the water boiled furiouslyaround it. Five seconds more. We were past; I heard the roarbehind me. 

Then I too fell senseless. The next thing that I recollect isfeeling a breath of air upon my face. My eyes opened with greatdifficulty. I looked up. Far, far above me there was light, though around me was great gloom. Then I remembered and looked. The canoe still floated down the river, and in the bottom ofit lay the naked forms of my companions. 'Were they dead?' Iwondered. 'Was I left alone in this awful place?' I knew not. Next I became conscious of a burning thirst. I put my handover the edge of the boat into the water and drew it up againwith a cry. No wonder: nearly all the skin was burnt off theback of it. The water, however, was cold, or nearly so, andI drank pints and splashed myself all over. My body seemed tosuck up the fluid as one may see a brick wall suck up rain aftera drought; but where I was burnt the touch of it caused intensepain. Then I bethought myself of the others, and, dragging myselftowards them with difficulty, I sprinkled them with water, andto my joy they began to recover -- Umslopogaas first, then theothers. Next they drank, absorbing water like so many sponges. Then, feeling chilly -- a queer contrast to our recent sensations-- we began as best we could to get into our clothes. As wedid so Good pointed to the port side of the canoe: it was allblistered with heat, and in places actually charred. Had itbeen built like our civilized boats, Good said that the plankswould certainly have warped and let in enough water to sink us;but fortunately it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of asingle great tree, and had sides nearly three inches and a bottomfour inches thick. What that awful flame was we never discovered, but I suppose that there was at this spot a crack or hole inthe bed of the river through which a vast volume of gas forcedits way from its volcanic home in the bowels of the earth towardsthe upper air. How it first became ignited is, of course, impossibleto say -- probably, I should think, from some spontaneous explosionof mephitic gases. 

As soon as we had got some things together and shaken ourselvestogether a little, we set to work to make out where we were now. I have said that there was light above, and on examination wefound that it came from the sky. Our river that was, Sir Henrysaid, a literal realization of the wild vision of the poet{Endnote 10}, was no longer underground, but was running on itsdarksome way, not now through 'caverns measureless to man', butbetween two frightful cliffs which cannot have been less thantwo thousand feet high. So high were they, indeed, that thoughthe sky was above us, where we were was dense gloom -- not darknessindeed, but the gloom of a room closely shuttered in the daytime. Up on either side rose the great straight cliffs, grim and forbidding, till the eye grew dizzy with trying to measure their sheer height. The little space of sky that marked where they ended lay likea thread of blue upon their soaring blackness, which was unrelievedby any tree or creeper. Here and there, however, grew ghostlypatches of a long grey lichen, hanging motionless to the rockas the white beard to the chin of a dead man. It seemed as thoughonly the dregs or heavier part of the light had sunk to the bottomof this awful place. No bright-winged sunbeam could fall so low:they died far, far above our heads. 

By the river's edge was a little shore formed of round fragmentsof rock washed into this shape by the constant action of water, and giving the place the appearance of being strewn with thousandsof fossil cannon balls. Evidently when the water of the undergroundriver is high there is no beach at all, or very little, betweenthe border of the stream and the precipitous cliffs; but nowthere was a space of seven or eight yards. And here, on thisbeach, we determined to land, in order to rest ourselves a littleafter all that we had gone through and to stretch our limbs. It was a dreadful place, but it would give an hour's respitefrom the terrors of the river, and also allow of our repackingand arranging the canoe. Accordingly we selected what lookedlike a favourable spot, and with some little difficulty managedto beach the canoe and scramble out on to the round, inhospitablepebbles. 

'My word, ' called out Good, who was on shore the first, 'whatan awful place! It's enough to give one a fit. ' And he laughed. 

Instantly a thundering voice took up his words, magnifying thema hundred times. '_Give one a fit -- Ho! ho! ho!' -- 'A fit, Ho! ho! ho!_' answered another voice in wild accents from farup the cliff -- _a fit! a fit! a fit!_ chimed in voice after voice-- each flinging the words to and fro with shouts of awful laughterto the invisible lips of the other till the whole place echoedwith the words and with shrieks of fiendish merriment, whichat last ceased as suddenly as they had begun. 

'Oh, mon Dieu!' yelled Alphonse, startled quite out of suchself-command as he possessed. 

'_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_' the Titanic echoes thundered, shrieked, and wailed in every conceivable tone. 

'Ah, ' said Umslopogaas calmly, 'I clearly perceive that devilslive here. Well, the place looks like it. '

I tried to explain to him that the cause of all the hubbub wasa very remarkable and interesting echo, but he would not believe it. 

'Ah, ' he said, 'I know an echo when I hear one. There was one livedopposite my kraal in Zululand, and the Intombis [maidens] usedto talk with it. But if what we hear is a full-grown echo, mineat home can only have been a baby. No, no -- they are devilsup there. But I don't think much of them, though, ' he added, taking a pinch of snuff. 'They can copy what one says, but theydon't seem to be able to talk on their own account, and theydare not show their faces, ' and he relapsed into silence, andapparently paid no further attention to such contemptible fiends. 

After this we found it necessary to keep our conversation downto a whisper -- for it was really unbearable to have every wordone uttered tossed to and fro like a tennis-ball, as precipicecalled to precipice. 

But even our whispers ran up the rocks in mysterious murmurstill at last they died away in long-drawn sighs of sound. Echoesare delightful and romantic things, but we had more than enoughof them in that dreadful gulf. 

As soon as we had settled ourselves a little on the round stones, we went on to wash and dress our burns as well as we could. As we had but a little oil for the lantern, we could not spareany for this purpose, so we skinned one of the swans, and usedthe fat off its breast, which proved an excellent substitute. Then we repacked the canoe, and finally began to take some food, of which I need scarcely say we were in need, for our insensibilityhad endured for many hours, and it was, as our watches showed, midday. Accordingly we seated ourselves in a circle, and weresoon engaged in discussing our cold meat with such appetite aswe could muster, which, in my case at any rate, was not much, as I felt sick and faint after my sufferings of the previousnight, and had besides a racking headache. It was a curiousmeal. The gloom was so intense that we could scarcely see theway to cut our food and convey it to our mouths. Still we goton pretty well, till I happened to look behind me -- my attentionbeing attracted by a noise of something crawling over the stones, and perceived sitting upon a rock in my immediate rear a hugespecies of black freshwater crab, only it was five times thesize of any crab I ever saw. This hideous and loathsome-lookinganimal had projecting eyes that seemed to glare at one, verylong and flexible antennae or feelers, and gigantic claws. Nor was I especially favoured with its company. From every quarterdozens of these horrid brutes were creeping up, drawn, I suppose, by the smell of the food, from between the round stones and outof holes in the precipice. Some were already quite close tous. I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and as Idid so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw andgive the unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped upwith a howl, and set the 'wild echoes flying' in sober earnest. Just then, too, another, a very large one, got hold of Alphonse'sleg, and declined to part with it, and, as may be imagined, aconsiderable scene ensued. Umslopogaas took his axe and crackedthe shell of one with the flat of it, whereon it set up a horridscreaming which the echoes multiplied a thousandfold, and beganto foam at the mouth, a proceeding that drew hundreds more ofits friends out of unsuspected holes and corners. Those on thespot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell upon it like creditorson a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with theirhuge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey thefragments to their mouths. Seizing whatever weapons were handy, such as stones or paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters-- whose numbers were increasing by leaps and bounds, and whosestench was overpowering. So fast as we cracked their armourothers seized the injured ones and devoured them, foaming atthe mouth, and screaming as they did so. Nor did the brutesstop at that. When they could they nipped hold of us -- andawful nips they were -- or tried to steal the meat. One enormousfellow got hold of the swan we had skinned and began to dragit off. Instantly a score of others flung themselves upon theprey, and then began a ghastly and disgusting scene. How themonsters foamed and screamed, and rent the flesh, and each other!It was a sickening and unnatural sight, and one that will hauntall who saw it till their dying day -- enacted as it was in thedeep, oppressive gloom, and set to the unceasing music of themany-toned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange as it may seem to sayso, there was something so shockingly human about these fiendishcreatures -- it was as though all the most evil passions anddesires of man had got into the shell of a magnified crab andgone mad. They were so dreadfully courageous and intelligent, and they looked as if they _understood_. The whole scene mighthave furnished material for another canto of Dante's 'Inferno', as Curtis said. 

'I say, you fellows, let's get out of this or we shall all gooff our heads, ' sung out Good; and we were not slow to take thehint. Pushing the canoe, around which the animals were now crawlingby hundreds and making vain attempts to climb, off the rocks, we bundled into it and got out into mid-stream, leaving behindus the fragments of our meal and the screaming, foaming, stinkingmass of monsters in full possession of the ground. 

'Those are the devils of the place, ' said Umslopogaas with theair of one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I feltalmost inclined to agree with him. 

Umslopogaas' remarks were like his axe -- very much to the point. 

'What's to be done next?' said Sir Henry blankly. 

'Drift, I suppose, ' I answered, and we drifted accordingly. All the afternoon and well into the evening we floated on inthe gloom beneath the far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowingwhen day ended and night began, for down in that vast gulf thedifference was not marked, till at length Good pointed out astar hanging right above us, which, having nothing better todo, we observed with great interest. Suddenly it vanished, thedarkness became intense, and a familiar murmuring sound filledthe air. 'Underground again, ' I said with a groan, holding upthe lamp. Yes, there was no doubt about it. I could just makeout the roof. The chasm had come to an end and the tunnel hadrecommenced. And then there began another long, long night ofdanger and horror. To describe all its incidents would be toowearisome, so I will simply say that about midnight we struckon a flat projecting rock in mid-stream and were as nearly aspossible overturned and drowned. However, at last we got off, and went upon the uneven tenor of our way. And so the hourspassed till it was nearly three o'clock. Sir Henry, Good, andAlphonse were asleep, utterly worn out; Umslopogaas was at thebow with the pole, and I was steering, when I perceived thatthe rate at which we were travelling had perceptibly increased. Then, suddenly, I heard Umslopogaas make an exclamation, andnext second came a sound as of parting branches, and I becameaware that the canoe was being forced through hanging bushesor creepers. Another minute, and the breath of sweet open airfanned my face, and I felt that we had emerged from the tunneland were floating upon clear water. I say felt, for I couldsee nothing, the darkness being absolutely pitchy, as it oftenis just before the dawn. But even this could scarcely damp myjoy. We were out of that dreadful river, and wherever we mighthave got to this at least was something to be thankful for. And so I sat down and inhaled the sweet night air and waitedfor the dawn with such patience as I could command. 

CHAPTER XITHE FROWNING CITY

For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhilegone to sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, andhuge misty shapes moved over the surface of the water like ghostsof long-forgotten dawns. They were the vapours rising from theirwatery bed to greet the sun. Then the grey turned to primrose, and the primrose grew to red. Next, glorious bars of light sprangup across the eastern sky, and through them the radiant messengersof the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy way, scattering theghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with a kiss, as theyflew from range to range and longitude to longitude. Anothermoment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself cameforth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory anda flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night andcovered her with brightness, and it was day. 

But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as thoughthe whole surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then Isaw that we were afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water ofwhich I could not make out the shore. Some eight or ten milesbehind us, however, there stretched as far as the eye could reacha range of precipitous hills that formed a retaining wall ofthe lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through some entrancein these hills that the subterranean river found its way intothe open water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to bethe fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinarystrength and directness of the current of the mysterious riverthat the canoe, even at this distance, was still answering toit. Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up justthen, discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant oneit was. Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaascalled my attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddlebrought the canoe to the spot, whereupon we discovered that theobject was the body of a man floating face downwards. This wasbad enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas having turnedhim on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the sunkenfeatures the lineaments of -- whom do you suppose? None otherthan our poor servant who had been sucked down two days beforein the waters of the subterranean river. It quite frightenedme. I thought that we had left him behind for ever, and behold!borne by the current, he had made the awful journey with us, and with us had reached the end. His appearance also was dreadful, for he bore traces of having touched the pillar of fire -- onearm being completely shrivelled up and all his hair being burntoff. The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet theypreserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seenupon his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Reallythe sight unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all thatwe had gone through, and I was heartily glad when suddenly andwithout any warning the body began to sink just as though ithad had a mission, which having been accomplished, it retired;the real reason no doubt being that turning it on its back alloweda free passage to the gas. Down it went to the transparent depths-- fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at lasta long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each otherto the surface, alone remained where it had passed. At lengththese, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish. 

'What did he follow us for?' he asked. ''Tis an ill omen forthee and me, Macumazahn. ' And he laughed. 

I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions. If people have such ideas, they ought in common decency to keepthem to themselves. I detest individuals who make on the subjectof their disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dreamthat they saw one hanged as a common felon, or some such horror, will insist upon telling one all about it at breakfast, evenif they have to get up early to do it. 

Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedinglyat finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once morebeneath the blue sky. Then followed a babel of talk and suggestionsas to what we were to do next, the upshot of all of which wasthat, as we were excessively hungry, and had nothing whatsoeverleft to eat except a few scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained of our provisions to thosehorrible freshwater crabs, we determined to make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did not know where the shorewas, and, with the exception of the cliffs through which thesubterranean river made its entry, could see nothing but a wideexpanse of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that thelong flights of aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concludedthat they were advancing from their feeding-grounds on shoreto pass the day in the lake, and accordingly headed the boattowards the quarter whence they came, and began to paddle. Beforelong, however, a stiffish breeze sprang up, blowing directlyin the direction we wanted, so we improvized a sail with a blanketand the pole, which took us along merrily. This done, we devouredthe remnants of our biltong, washed down with the sweet lakewater, and then lit our pipes and awaited whatever might turn up. 

When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searchingthe horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully thathe saw land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colourof the water, he thought we must be approaching the mouth ofa river. In another minute we perceived a great golden dome, not unlike that of St Paul's, piercing the morning mists, andwhile we were wondering what in the world it could be, Good reportedanother and still more important discovery, namely, that a smallsailing-boat was advancing towards us. This bit of news, whichwe were very shortly able to verify with our own eyes, threwus into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this unknownlake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest thatthey possessed some degree of civilization. In a few more minutesit became evident that the occupant or occupants of the advancingboat had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in the windas though in doubt, and then came tacking towards us with greatswiftness. In ten more minutes she was within a hundred yards, and we saw that she was a neat little boat -- not a canoe 'dugout', but built more or less in the European fashion with planks, and carrying a singularly large sail for her size. But our attentionwas soon diverted from the boat to her crew, which consistedof a man and a woman, _nearly as white as ourselves_. 

We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must bemistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it. They were notfair, but the two people in the boat were decidedly of a whiteas distinguished from a black race, as white, for instance, asSpaniards or Italians. It was a patent fact. So it was true, after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power beyond our own, wehad discovered this wonderful people. I could have shouted forjoy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the thing;and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each otheron the unexpected success of our wild search. All my life hadI heard rumours of a white race that existed in the highlandsof this vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with my own eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was right when he wrote'Ex Africa semper aliquid novi', which he tells me means thatout of Africa there always comes some new thing. 

The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique, and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features, and an intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown cloth garment, something like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in anunmistakable kilt of the same material. The legs and feet werebare. Round the right arm and left leg he wore thick rings ofyellow metal that I judged to be gold. The woman had a sweetface, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the man's, and consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a linen under-garment thathung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip of cloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round thebody in graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulderso that the end, which was dyed blue or purple or some othercolour, according to the social standing of the wearer, hungdown in front, the right arm and breast being, however, leftquite bare. A more becoming dress, especially when, as in thepresent case, the wearer was young and pretty, it is quite impossibleto conceive. Good (who has an eye for such things) was greatlystruck with it, and so indeed was I. It was so simple and yetso effective. 

Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of theman and woman, it was clear that they were far more astonishedat us. As for the man, he appeared to be overcome with fearand wonder, and for a while hovered round our canoe, but wouldnot approach. At last, however, he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a language that sounded soft and pleasingenough, but of which we could not understand one word. So wehailed back in English, French, Latin, Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I am acquaintedwith, but our visitor did not understand any of these tongues;indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she wasbusily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returningthe compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a proceeding that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length, the man, being unable to make anything of us, suddenlyturned his boat round and began to head off for the shore, his little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow. As she passed across our bows the man turned to attend to thelarge sail, and Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss his handto the young lady. I was horrified at this proceeding, both ongeneral grounds and because I feared that she might take offence, but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round andseeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was engaged, she promptly kissed hers back. 

'Ah!' said I. 'It seems that we have at last found a languagethat the people of this country understand. '

'In which case, ' said Sir Henry, 'Good will prove an invaluableinterpreter. '

I frowned, for I do not approve of Good's frivolities, and heknows it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects. 'It is very clear to me, ' I said, 'that the man will be backbefore long with a host of his fellows, so we had best make upour minds as to how we are going to receive them. '

'The question is how will they receive us?' said Sir Henry. 

As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small squaretin case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from undera pile of baggage. Now we had often remonstrated with Good aboutthis tin case, inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never given any very explicit account as to its contents;but he had insisted on keeping it, saying mysteriously that itmight come in very useful one day. 

'What on earth are you going to do, Good?' asked Sir Henry. 

'Do -- why dress, of course! You don't expect me to appear ina new country in these things, do you?' and he pointed to hissoiled and worn garments, which were however, like all Good'sthings, very tidy, and with every tear neatly mended. 

We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathlessinterest. His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughlycompetent in such matters, to trim his hair and beard in themost approved fashion. I think that if he had had some hot waterand a cake of soap at hand he would have shaved off the latter;but he had not. This done, he suggested that we should lowerthe sail of the canoe and all take a bath, which we did, greatlyto the horror and astonishment of Alphonse, who lifted his handsand ejaculated that these English were indeed a wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of swimmingabout in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water, and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, andproduced first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it hadleft a London steam laundry, and then some garments wrapped firstin brown, then in white, and finally in silver paper. We watchedthis undoing with the tenderest interest and much speculation. One by one Good removed the dull husks that hid their splendours, carefully folding and replacing each piece of paper as he didso; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its golden epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy's full-dressuniform -- dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather bootsand all. We literally gasped. 

'_What!_' we said, '_what!_ Are you going to put those things on?'

'Certainly, ' he answered composedly; 'you see so much dependsupon a first impression, especially, ' he added, 'as I observethat there are ladies about. One at least of us ought to bedecently dressed. '

We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially whenwe considered the artful way in which Good had concealed thecontents of that box for all these months. Only one suggestiondid we make -- namely, that he should wear his mail shirt nexthis skin. He replied that he feared it would spoil the set ofhis coat, now carefully spread in the sun to take the creasesout, but finally consented to this precautionary measure. Themost amusing part of the affair, however, was to see old Umslopogaas'sastonishment and Alphonse's delight at Good's transformation. When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to themedals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the still watersof the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancienthistory, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in love withhis own shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings. 

'Oh, Bougwan!' he said. 'Oh, Bougwan! I always thought theean ugly little man, and fat -- fat as the cows at calving time;and now thou art like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan, it hurts my eyes to look at thee. '

Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tellthe truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise hadbrought him down three inches; but on the whole he was pleasedat Umslopogaas's admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted. 

'Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air -- the air of the warrior. It is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore. Monsieur is complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand --'

Here we stopped Alphonse. 

As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spiritof emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselvesup as well as we could. The most, however, that we were ableto do was to array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes, of which we each had several, all the fine clothes in the worldcould never make it otherwise than scrubby and insignificant;but Sir Henry looked what he is, a magnificent man in his nearlynew tweed suit, gaiters, and boots. Alphonse also got himselfup to kill, giving an extra turn to his enormous moustaches. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way given tothe vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lanternand a bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it tillit shone like Good's patent leather boots. Then he put on themail shirt Sir Henry had given him and his 'moocha', and, havingcleaned up Inkosi-kaas a little, stood forth complete. 

All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we hadfinished bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land, or, rather, for the mouth of a great river. Presently -- inall about an hour and a half after the little boat had left us-- we saw emerging from the river or harbour a large number ofboats, ranging up to ten or twelve tons burden. One of thesewas propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of the rest sailed. Looking through the glass we soon made out that the row-boatwas an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sortof uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old manof venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, anda sword strapped to his side, who was evidently the commanderof the craft. The other boats were apparently occupied by peoplebrought out by curiosity, and were rowing or sailing towardsus as quickly as they could. 

'Now for it, ' said I. 'What is the betting? Are they goingto be friendly or to put an end to us?'

Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlikeappearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt alittle anxious. 

Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water abouttwo hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not bea bad plan to impress the natives with a sense of our power byshooting some of them if possible. This, unluckily enough, struckus as a good idea, and accordingly we at once got out our eight-borerifles, for which we still had a few cartridges left, and preparedfor action. There were four of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three parts grown. We got up to themwithout difficulty, the great animals contenting themselves withsinking down into the water and rising again a few yards fartheron; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grownyoung one. The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and, crashing through the skull, killed it, and it sank, leavinga long train of blood behind it. At the same moment I firedat the cow, and Good at the old bull. My shot took effect, butnot fatally, and down went the hippopotamus with a prodigioussplashing, only to rise again presently blowing and gruntingfuriously, dyeing all the water round her crimson, when I killedher with the left barrel. Good, who is an execrable shot, missedthe head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely cutting theside of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after I had firedmy second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen amongwere evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the consternationcaused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was prodigious. Some of the parties in the boats began to cry out in fear; othersturned and made off as hard as they could; and even the old gentlemanwith the sword looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and haltedhis big row-boat. We had, however, but little time for observation, for just then the old bull, rendered furious by the wound hehad received, rose fair within forty yards of us, glaring savagely. We all fired, and hit him in various places, and down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity now began to overcome the fear of theonlookers, and some of them sailed on up close to us, amongstthese being the man and woman whom we had first seen a coupleof hours or so before, who drew up almost alongside. Just thenthe great brute rose again within ten yards of their base, andinstantly with a roar of fury made at it open-mouthed. The womanshrieked, and the man tried to give the boat way, but withoutsuccess. In another second I saw the huge red jaws and gleamingivories close with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormousmouthful out of its side and capsizing it. Down went the boat, leaving its occupants struggling in the water. Next moment, before we could do anything towards saving them, the huge andfurious creature was up again and making open-mouthed at thepoor girl, who was struggling in the water. Lifting my riflejust as the grinding jaws were about to close on her, I firedover her head right down the hippopotamus's throat. Over hewent, and commenced turning round and round, snorting, and blowingred streams of blood through his nostrils. Before he could recoverhimself, however, I let him have the other barrel in the sideof the throat, and that finished him. He never moved or struggledagain, but instantly sank. Our next effort was directed towardssaving the girl, the man having swum off towards another boat;and in this we were fortunately successful, pulling her intothe canoe (amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerablyexhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt. 

Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, andwe could see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened, were consulting what to do. Without giving them time for furtherconsideration, which we thought might result unfavourably toourselves, we instantly took our paddles and advanced towardsthem, Good standing in the bow and taking off his cocked hatpolitely in every direction, his amiable features suffused bya bland but intelligent smile. Most of the craft retreated aswe advanced, but a few held their ground, while the big row-boatcame on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and I couldsee that our appearance -- and especially Good's and Umslopogaas's-- filled the venerable-looking commander with astonishment, not unmixed with awe. He was dressed after the same fashionas the man we first met, except that his shirt was not made ofbrown cloth, but of pure white linen hemmed with purple. Thekilt, however, was identical, and so were the thick rings ofgold around the arm and beneath the left knee. The rowers woreonly a kilt, their bodies being naked to the waist. Good tookoff his hat to the old gentleman with an extra flourish, andinquired after his health in the purest English, to which hereplied by laying the first two fingers of his right hand horizontallyacross his lips and holding them there for a moment, which wetook as his method of salutation. Then he also addressed someremarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguishedour first interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we didnot understand by shaking our heads and shrugging our shoulders. This last Alphonse, being to the manner born, did to perfection, and in so polite a way that nobody could take any offence. Thenwe came a standstill, till I, being exceedingly hungry, thoughtI might as well call attention to the fact, and did so firstby opening my mouth and pointing down it, and then rubbing mystomach. These signals the old gentleman clearly understood, for he nodded his head vigorously, and pointed towards the harbour;and at the same time one of the men on his boat threw us a lineand motioned to us to make it fast, which we did. The row-boatthen took us in tow, and went with great rapidity towards themouth of the river, accompanied by all the other boats. In abouttwenty minutes more we reached the entrance to the harbour, whichwas crowded with boats full of people who had come out to seeus. We observed that all the occupants were more or less ofthe same type, though some were fairer than others. Indeed, we noticed certain ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness;and the darkest shade of colour which we saw was about that ofa rather swarthy Spaniard. Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did so an exclamation of astonishment and delightburst from our lips as we caught our first view of the placethat we afterwards knew as Milosis, or the Frowning City (frommi, which means city, and losis, a frown). 

At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river's bankrose a sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so inheight, which had no doubt once formed the bank itself -- theintermediate space of land now utilized as docks and roadwayshaving been gained by draining, and deepening and embankingthe stream. 

On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the samegranite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement piercedat its base by a little door. This imposing place we afterwardsdiscovered was the palace of the queen, or rather of the queens. At the back of the palace the town sloped gently upwards toa flashing building of white marble, crowned by the golden domewhich we had already observed. The city was, with the exceptionof this one building, entirely built of red granite, and laidout in regular blocks with splendid roadways between. So faras we could see also the houses were all one-storied and detached, with gardens round them, which gave some relief to the eye weariedwith the vista of red granite. At the back of the palace a roadof extraordinary width stretched away up the hill for a distanceof a mile and a half or so, and appeared to terminate at an openspace surrounding the gleaming building that crowned the hill. But right in front of us was the wonder and glory of Milosis-- the great staircase of the palace, the magnificence of whichtook our breath away. Let the reader imagine, if he can, a splendidstairway, sixty-five feet from balustrade to balustrade, consistingof two vast flights, each of one hundred and twenty-five stepsof eight inches in height by three feet broad, connected by aflat resting-place sixty feet in length, and running from thepalace wall on the edge of the precipice down to meet a waterwayor canal cut to its foot from the river. This marvellous staircasewas supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of which theresting-place between the two flights formed the crown; thatis, the connecting open space lay upon it. From this archwaysprang a subsidiary flying arch, or rather something that resembleda flying arch in shape, such as none of us had seen in any othercountry, and of which the beauty and wonder surpassed all thatwe had ever imagined. Three hundred feet from point to point, and no less than five hundred and fifty round the curve, thathalf-arc soared touching the bridge it supported for a spaceof fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the parentarchway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of the sideof the precipice. 

This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of whichany living man might have been proud, both on account of itsmagnitude and its surpassing beauty. Four times, as we afterwardslearnt, did the work, which was commenced in remote antiquity, fail, and was then abandoned for three centuries when half-finished, till at last there rose a youthful engineer named Rademas, whosaid that he would complete it successfully, and staked his lifeupon it. If he failed he was to be hurled from the precipicehe had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded, he was to be rewardedby the hand of the king's daughter. Five years was given tohim to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of labour andmaterial. Three times did his arch fall, till at last, seeingfailure to be inevitable, he determined to commit suicide onthe morrow of the third collapse. That night, however, a beautifulwoman came to him in a dream and touched his forehead, and ofa sudden he saw a vision of the completed work, and saw too throughthe masonry and how the difficulties connected with the flyingarch that had hitherto baffled his genius were to be overcome. Then he awoke and once more commenced the work, but on a differentplan, and behold! he achieved it, and on the last day of thefive years he led the princess his bride up the stair and intothe palace. And in due course he became king by right of hiswife, and founded the present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to thisday called the 'House of the Stairway', thus proving once morehow energy and talent are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur. And to commemorate his triumph he fashioned a statue of himselfdreaming, and of the fair woman who touched him on the forehead, and placed it in the great hall of the palace, and there it standsto this day. 

Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond. No wonder they named it the 'Frowning City', for certainly thosemighty works in solid granite did seem to frown down upon ourlittleness in their sombre splendour. This was so even in thesunshine, but when the storm-clouds gathered on her imperialbrow Milosis looked more like a supernatural dwelling-place, or some imagining of a poet's brain, than what she is --a mortal city, carven by the patient genius of generations outof the red silence of the mountain side. 

CHAPTER XIITHE SISTER QUEENS

The big rowing-boat glided on up the cutting that ran almostto the foot of the vast stairway, and then halted at a flightof steps leading to the landing-place. Here the old gentlemandisembarked, and invited us to do so likewise, which, havingno alternative, and being nearly starved, we did without hesitation-- taking our rifles with us, however. As each of us landed, our guide again laid his fingers on his lips and bowed deeply, at the same time ordering back the crowds which had assembledto gaze on us. The last to leave the canoe was the girl we hadpicked out of the water, for whom her companion was waiting. Before she went away she kissed my hand, I suppose as a tokenof gratitude for having saved her from the fury of the hippopotamus;and it seemed to me that she had by this time quite got overany fear she might have had of us, and was by no means anxiousto return in such a hurry to her lawful owners. At any rate, she was going to kiss Good's hand as well as mine, when the youngman interfered and led her off. As soon as we were on shore, a number of the men who had rowed the big boat took possessionof our few goods and chattels, and started with them up the splendidstaircase, our guide indicating to us by means of motions thatthe things were perfectly safe. This done, he turned to theright and led the way to a small house, which was, as I afterwardsdiscovered, an inn. Entering into a good-sized room, we sawthat a wooden table was already furnished with food, presumablyin preparation for us. Here our guide motioned us to be seatedon a bench that ran the length of the table. We did not requirea second invitation, but at once fell to ravenously on the viandsbefore us, which were served on wooden platters, and consistedof cold goat's-flesh, wrapped up in some kind of leaf that gaveit a delicious flavour, green vegetables resembling lettuces, brown bread, and red wine poured from a skin into horn mugs. This wine was peculiarly soft and good, having something ofthe flavour of Burgundy. Twenty minutes after we sat down atthat hospitable board we rose from it, feeling like new men. After all that we had gone through we needed two things, foodand rest, and the food of itself was a great blessing to us. Two girls of the same charming cast of face as the first whomwe had seen waited on us while we ate, and very nicely they didit. They were also dressed in the same fashion namely, in awhite linen petticoat coming to the knee, and with the toga-likegarment of brown cloth, leaving bare the right arm and breast. I afterwards found out that this was the national dress, andregulated by an iron custom, though of course subject to variations. Thus, if the petticoat was pure white, it signified that thewearer was unmarried; if white, with a straight purple striperound the edge, that she was married and a first or legal wife;if with a black stripe, that she was a widow. In the same waythe toga, or 'kaf', as they call it, was of different shadesof colour, from pure white to the deepest brown, according tothe rank of the wearer, and embroidered at the end in variousways. This also applies to the 'shirts' or tunics worn by themen, which varied in material and colour; but the kilts werealways the same except as regards quality. One thing, however, every man and woman in the country wore as the national insignia, and that was the thick band of gold round the right arm abovethe elbow, and the left leg beneath the knee. People of highrank also wore a torque of gold round the neck, and I observedthat our guide had one on. 

So soon as we had finished our meal our venerable conductor, who had been standing all the while, regarding us with inquiringeyes, and our guns with something as like fear as his pride wouldallow him to show, bowed towards Good, whom he evidently tookfor the leader of the party on account of the splendour of hisapparel, and once more led the way through the door and to thefoot of the great staircase. Here we paused for a moment toadmire two colossal lions, each hewn from a single block of pureblack marble, and standing rampant on the terminations of thewide balustrades of the staircase. These lions are magnificentlyexecuted, and it is said were sculptured by Rademas, the greatprince who designed the staircase, and who was without doubt, to judge from the many beautiful examples of his art that wesaw afterwards, one of the finest sculptors who ever lived, eitherin this or any other country. Then we climbed almost with afeeling of awe up that splendid stair, a work executed for alltime and that will, I do not doubt, be admired thousands of yearshence by generations unborn unless an earthquake should throwit down. Even Umslopogaas, who as a general rule made it a pointof honour not to show astonishment, which he considered undignified, was fairly startled out of himself, and asked if the 'bridgehad been built by men or devils', which was his vague way ofalluding to any supernatural power. But Alphonse did not careabout it. Its solid grandeur jarred upon the frivolous littleFrenchman, who said that it was all 'tres magnifique, mais triste-- ah, triste!' and went on to suggest that it would be improvedif the balustrades were _gilt_. 

On we went up the first flight of one hundred and twenty steps, across the broad platform joining it to the second flight, wherewe paused to admire the glorious view of one of the most beautifulstretches of country that the world can show, edged by the bluewaters of the lake. Then we passed on up the stair till at lastwe reached the top, where we found a large standing space towhich there were three entrances, all of small size. Two ofthese opened on to rather narrow galleries or roadways cut inthe face of the precipice that ran round the palace walls andled to the principal thoroughfares of the city, and were usedby the inhabitants passing up and down from the docks. Thesewere defended by gates of bronze, and also, as we afterwardslearnt, it was possible to let down a portion of the roadwaysthemselves by withdrawing certain bolts, and thus render it quiteimpracticable for an enemy to pass. The third entrance consistedof a flight of ten curved black marble steps leading to a doorwaycut in the palace wall. This wall was in itself a work of art, being built of huge blocks of granite to the height of fortyfeet, and so fashioned that its face was concave, whereby itwas rendered practically impossible for it to be scaled. Tothis doorway our guide led us. The door, which was massive, and made of wood protected by an outer gate of bronze, was closed;but on our approach it was thrown wide, and we were met by thechallenge of a sentry, who was armed with a heavy triangular-bladedspear, not unlike a bayonet in shape, and a cutting sword, andprotected by breast and back plates of skilfully prepared hippopotamushide, and a small round shield fashioned of the same tough material. The sword instantly attracted our attention; it was practicallyidentical with the one in the possession of Mr Mackenzie whichhe had obtained from the ill-starred wanderer. There was nomistaking the gold-lined fretwork cut in the thickness of theblade. So the man had told the truth after all. Our guide instantlygave a password, which the soldier acknowledged by letting theiron shaft of his spear fall with a ringing sound upon the pavement, and we passed on through the massive wall into the courtyardof the palace. This was about forty yards square, and laid outin flower-beds full of lovely shrubs and plants, many of whichwere quite new to me. Through the centre of this garden rana broad walk formed of powdered shells brought from the lakein the place of gravel. Following this we came to another doorwaywith a round heavy arch, which is hung with thick curtains, forthere are no doors in the palace itself. Then came another shortpassage, and we were in the great hall of the palace, and oncemore stood astonished at the simple and yet overpowering grandeurof the place. 

The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feetlong by eighty wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carvedwood. Down the entire length of the building there are on eitherside, and at a distance of twenty feet from the wall, slendershafts of black marble springing sheer to the roof, beautifullyfluted, and with carved capitals. At one end of this great placewhich these pillars support is the group of which I have alreadyspoken as executed by the King Rademas to commemorate his buildingof the staircase; and really, when we had time to admire it, its loveliness almost struck us dumb. The group, of which thefigures are in white, and the rest is black marble, is abouthalf as large again as life, and represents a young man of noblecountenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch. One armis carelessly thrown over the side of this couch, and his headreposes upon the other, its curling locks partially hiding it. Bending over him, her hand resting on his forehead, is a drapedfemale form of such white loveliness as to make the beholder'sbreath stand still. And as for the calm glory that shines uponher perfect face -- well, I can never hope to describe it. Butthere it rests like the shadow of an angel's smile; and power, love, and divinity all have their part in it. Her eyes are fixedupon the sleeping youth, and perhaps the most extraordinary thingabout this beautiful work is the success with which the artisthas succeeded in depicting on the sleeper's worn and weary facethe sudden rising of a new and spiritual thought as the spellbegins to work within his mind. You can see that an inspirationis breaking in upon the darkness of the man's soul as the dawnbreaks in upon the darkness of night. It is a glorious pieceof statuary, and none but a genius could have conceived it. Between each of the black marble columns is some such group offigures, some allegorical, and some representing the personsand wives of deceased monarchs or great men; but none of them, in our opinion, comes up the one I have described, although severalare from the hand of the sculptor and engineer, King Rademas. 

In the exact centre of the hall was a solid mass of black marbleabout the size of a baby's arm-chair, which it rather resembledin appearance. This, as we afterwards learnt, was the sacredstone of this remarkable people, and on it their monarchs laidtheir hand after the ceremony of coronation, and swore by thesun to safeguard the interests of the empire, and to maintainits customs, traditions, and laws. This stone was evidentlyexceedingly ancient (as indeed all stones are), and was scoreddown its sides with long marks or lines, which Sir Henry saidproved it to have been a fragment that at some remote periodin its history had been ground in the iron jaws of glaciers. There was a curious prophecy about this block of marble, whichwas reported among the people to have fallen from the sun, tothe effect that when it was shattered into fragments a king ofalien race should rule over the land. As the stone, however, looked remarkably solid, the native princes seemed to have afair chance of keeping their own for many a long year. 

At the end of the hall is a dais spread with rich carpets, onwhich two thrones are set side by side. These thrones are shapedlike great chairs, and made of solid gold. The seats are richlycushioned, but the backs are left bare, and on each is carvedthe emblem of the sun, shooting out his fiery rays in all directions. The footstools are golden lions couchant, with yellow topazesset in them for eyes. There are no other gems about them. 

The place is lighted by numerous but narrow windows, placed highup, cut on the principle of the loopholes to be seen in ancientcastles, but innocent of glass, which was evidently unknown here. 

Such is a brief description of this splendid hall in which wenow found ourselves, compiled of course from our subsequent knowledgeof it. On this occasion we had but little time for observation, for when we entered we perceived that a large number of men weregathered together in front of the two thrones, which were unoccupied. The principal among them were seated on carved wooden chairsranged to the right and the left of the thrones, but not in frontof them, and were dressed in white tunics, with various embroideriesand different coloured edgings, and armed with the usual piercedand gold-inlaid swords. To judge from the dignity of their appearance, they seemed one and all to be individuals of very great importance. Behind each of these great men stood a small knot of followersand attendants. 

Seated by themselves, in a little group to the left of the throne, were six men of a different stamp. Instead of wearing the ordinarykilt, they were clothed in long robes of pure white linen, withthe same symbol of the sun that is to be seen on the back ofthe chairs, emblazoned in gold thread upon the breast. Thisgarment was girt up at the waist with a simple golden curb-likechain, from which hung long elliptic plates of the same metal, fashioned in shiny scales like those of a fish, that, as theirwearers moved, jingled and reflected the light. They were allmen of mature age and of a severe and impressive cast of features, which was rendered still more imposing by the long beards they wore. 

The personality of one individual among them, however, impressedus at once. He seemed to stand out among his fellows and refuseto be overlooked. He was very old -- eighty at least -- andextremely tall, with a long snow-white beard that hung nearlyto his waist. His features were aquiline and deeply cut, andhis eyes were grey and cold-looking. The heads of the otherswere bare, but this man wore a round cap entirely covered withgold embroidery, from which we judged that he was a person ofgreat importance; and indeed we afterwards discovered that hewas Agon, the High Priest of the country. As we approached, all these men, including the priests, rose and bowed to us withthe greatest courtesy, at the same time placing the two fingersacross the lips in salutation. Then soft-footed attendants advancedfrom between the pillars, bearing seats, which were placed ina line in front of the thrones. We three sat down, Alphonseand Umslopogaas standing behind us. Scarcely had we done sowhen there came a blare of trumpets from some passage to theright, and a similar blare from the left. Next a man with along white wand of ivory appeared just in front of the right-handthrone, and cried out something in a loud voice, ending withthe word _Nyleptha_, repeated three times; and another man, similarlyattired, called out a similar sentence before the other throne, but ending with the word _Sorais_, also repeated thrice. Thencame the tramp of armed men from each side entrance, and in filedabout a score of picked and magnificently accoutred guards, whoformed up on each side of the thrones, and let their heavy iron-handledspears fall simultaneously with a clash upon the black marbleflooring. Another double blare of trumpets, and in from eitherside, each attended by six maidens, swept the two Queens of Zu-Vendis, everybody in the hall rising to greet them as they came. 

I have seen beautiful women in my day, and am no longer throwninto transports at the sight of a pretty face; but language failsme when I try to give some idea of the blaze of loveliness thatthen broke upon us in the persons of these sister Queens. Bothwere young -- perhaps five-and-twenty years of age -- both weretall and exquisitely formed; but there the likeness stopped. One, Nyleptha, was a woman of dazzling fairness; her right armand breast bare, after the custom of her people, showed likesnow even against her white and gold-embroidered 'kaf', or toga. And as for her sweet face, all I can say is, that it was onethat few men could look on and forget. Her hair, a veritablecrown of gold, clustered in short ringlets over her shapely head, half hiding the ivory brow, beneath which eyes of deep and gloriousgrey flashed out in tender majesty. I cannot attempt to describeher other features, only the mouth was most sweet, and curvedlike Cupid's bow, and over the whole countenance there shonean indescribable look of loving-kindness, lit up by a shadowof delicate humour that lay upon her face like a touch of silveron a rosy cloud. 

She wore no jewels, but on her neck, arm, and knee were the usualtorques of gold, in this instance fashioned like a snake; andher dress was of pure white linen of excessive fineness, plentifullyembroidered with gold and with the familiar symbols of the sun. 

Her twin sister, Sorais, was of a different and darker type ofbeauty. Her hair was wavy like Nyleptha's but coal-black, andfell in masses on her shoulders; her complexion was olive, hereyes large, dark, and lustrous; the lips were full, and I thoughtrather cruel. Somehow her face, quiet and even cold as it is, gave an idea of passion in repose, and caused one to wonder involuntarilywhat its aspect would be if anything occurred to break the calm. It reminded me of the deep sea, that even on the bluest daysnever loses its visible stamp of power, and in its murmuringsleep is yet instinct with the spirit of the storm. Her figure, like her sister's, was almost perfect in its curves and outlines, but a trifle more rounded, and her dress was absolutely the same. 

As this lovely pair swept onwards to their respective thrones, amid the deep attentive silence of the Court, I was bound toconfess to myself that they did indeed fulfil my idea of royalty. Royal they were in every way -- in form, in grace, and queenlydignity, and in the barbaric splendour of their attendant pomp. But methought that they needed no guards or gold to proclaimtheir power and bind the loyalty of wayward men. A glance fromthose bright eyes or a smile from those sweet lips, and whilethe red blood runs in the veins of youth women such as thesewill never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death. 

But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, andtherefore not devoid of curiosity. As they passed to their seatsI saw both of them glance swiftly in our direction. I saw, too, that their eyes passed by me, seeing nothing to charm them inthe person of an insignificant and grizzled old man. Then theylooked with evident astonishment on the grim form of old Umslopogaas, who raised his axe in salutation. Attracted next by the splendourof Good's apparel, for a second their glance rested on him likea humming moth upon a flower, then off it darted to where SirHenry Curtis stood, the sunlight from a window playing upon hisyellow hair and peaked beard, and marking the outlines of hismassive frame against the twilight of the somewhat gloomy hall. He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha's full, andthus for the first time the goodliest man and woman that it hasever been my lot to see looked one upon another. And why itwas I know not, but I saw the swift blood run up Nyleptha's skinas the pink lights run up the morning sky. Red grew her fairbosom and shapely arm, red the swanlike neck; the rounded cheeksblushed red as the petals of a rose, and then the crimson floodsank back to whence it came and left her pale and trembling. 

I glanced at Sir Henry. He, too, had coloured up to the eyes. 

'Oh, my word!' thought I to myself, 'the ladies have come onthe stage, and now we may look to the plot to develop itself. 'And I sighed and shook my head, knowing that the beauty of awoman is like the beauty of the lightning -- a destructive thingand a cause of desolation. By the time that I had finished myreflections both the Queens were on the thrones, for all thishad happened in about six seconds. Once more the unseen trumpetsblared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen Soraismotioned to us to do likewise. 

Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forwardour guide, the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holdingby the hand the girl whom we had seen first and afterwards rescuedfrom the hippopotamus. Having made obeisance he proceeded toaddress the Queens, evidently describing to them the way andplace where we had been found. It was most amusing to watchthe astonishment, not unmixed with fear, reflected upon theirfaces as they listened to his tale. Clearly they could not understandhow we had reached the lake and been found floating on it, andwere inclined to attribute our presence to supernatural causes. Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the frequentappeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where wehad shot the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that therewas something very wrong about those hippopotami, for the historywas frequently interrupted by indignant exclamations from thelittle group of white-robed priests and even from the courtiers, while the two Queens listened with an amazed expression, especiallywhen our guide pointed to the rifles in our hands as being themeans of destruction. And here, to make matters clear, I mayas well explain at once that the inhabitants of Zu-Vendis aresun-worshippers, and that for some reason or another the hippopotamusis sacred among them. Not that they do not kill it, becauseat a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands -- whichare specially preserved in large lakes up the country -- anduse their hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not preventthem from considering these animals as sacred to the sun. {Endnote 11}Now, as ill luck would have it, the particular hippopotami wehad shot were a family of tame animals that were kept in themouth of the port and daily fed by priests whose special dutyit was to attend to them. When we shot them I thought that thebrutes were suspiciously tame, and this was, as we afterwardsascertained, the cause of it. Thus it came about that in attemptingto show off we had committed sacrilege of a most aggravated nature. 

When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the longbeard and round cap, whose appearance I have already described, and who was, as I have said, the High Priest of the country, and known by the name of Agon, rose and commenced an impassionedharangue. I did not like the look of his cold grey eye as hefixed it on us. I should have liked it still less had I knownthat in the name of the outraged majesty of his god he was demandingthat the whole lot of us should be offered up as a sacrificeby means of being burnt alive. 

After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed himin a soft and musical voice, and appeared, to judge from hisgestures of dissent, to be putting the other side of the questionbefore him. Then Nyleptha spoke in liquid accents. Little didwe know that she was pleading for our lives. Finally, she turnedand addressed a tall, soldierlike man of middle age with a blackbeard and a long plain sword, whose name, as we afterwards learnt, was Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the country; apparentlyappealing to him for support. Now when Sir Henry had caughther eye and she had blushed so rosy red, I had seen that theincident had not escaped this man's notice, and, what is more, that it was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his lipand his hand tightened on his sword-hilt. Afterwards we learntthat he was an aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage, which accounted for it. This being so, Nyleptha could not haveappealed to a worse person, for, speaking in slow, heavy tones, he appeared to confirm all that the High Priest Agon had said. As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her knee, and, restingher chin on her hand, looked at him with a suppressed smile uponher lips, as though she saw through the man, and was determinedto be his match; but Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek flushed, her eyes flashed, and she did indeed look lovely. Finally sheturned to Agon and seemed to give some sort of qualified assent, for he bowed at her words; and as she spoke she moved her handsas though to emphasize what she said; while all the time Soraiskept her chin on her hand and smiled. Then suddenly Nylepthamade a sign, the trumpets blew again, and everybody rose to leavethe hall save ourselves and the guards, whom she motioned to stay. 

When they were all gone she bent forward and, smiling sweetly, partially by signs and partially by exclamations made it clearto us that she was very anxious to know where we came from. The difficulty was how to explain, but at last an idea struckme. I had my large pocket-book in my pocket and a pencil. Takingit out, I made a little sketch of a lake, and then as best Icould I drew the underground river and the lake at the otherend. When I had done this I advanced to the steps of the throneand gave it to her. She understood it at once and clapped herhands with delight, and then descending from the throne tookit to her sister Sorais, who also evidently understood. Nextshe took the pencil from me, and after examining it with curiosityproceeded to make a series of delightful little sketches, thefirst representing herself holding out both hands in welcome, and a man uncommonly like Sir Henry taking them. Next she drewa lovely little picture of a hippopotamus rolling about dyingin the water, and of an individual, in whom we had no difficultyin recognizing Agon the High Priest, holding up his hands inhorror on the bank. Then followed a most alarming picture ofa dreadful fiery furnace and of the same figure, Agon, pokingus into it with a forked stick. This picture perfectly horrifiedme, but I was a little reassured when she nodded sweetly andproceeded to make a fourth drawing -- a man again uncommonlylike Sir Henry, and of two women, in whom I recognized Soraisand herself, each with one arm around him, and holding a swordin protection over him. To all of these Sorais, who I saw wasemployed in carefully taking us all in -- especially Curtis --signified her approval by nodding. 

At last Nyleptha drew a final sketch of a rising sun, indicatingthat she must go, and that we should meet on the following morning;whereat Sir Henry looked so disappointed that she saw it, and, I suppose by way of consolation, extended her hand to him tokiss, which he did with pious fervour. At the same time Sorais, off whom Good had never taken his eyeglass during the whole indaba[interview], rewarded him by giving him her hand to kiss, though, while she did so, her eyes were fixed upon Sir Henry. I am gladto say that I was not implicated in these proceedings; neitherof them gave _me_ her hand to kiss. 

Then Nyleptha turned and addressed the man who appeared to bein command of the bodyguard, apparently from her manner and hisfrequent obeisances, giving him very stringent and careful orders;after which, with a somewhat coquettish nod and smile, she leftthe hall, followed by Sorais and most of the guards. 

When the Queens had gone, the officer whom Nyleptha had addressedcame forward and with many tokens of deep respect led us fromthe hall through various passages to a sumptuous set of apartmentsopening out of a large central room lighted with brazen swinginglamps (for it was now dusk) and richly carpeted and strewn withcouches. On a table in the centre of the room was set a profusionof food and fruit, and, what is more, flowers. There was a deliciouswine also in ancient-looking sealed earthenware flagons, andbeautifully chased golden and ivory cups to drink it from. Servants, male and female, also were there to minister to us, and whilstwe ate, from some recess outside the apartment

 'The silver lute did speak between The trumpet's lordly blowing;'

and altogether we found ourselves in a sort of earthly paradisewhich was only disturbed by the vision of that disgusting HighPriest who intended to commit us to the flames. But so veryweary were we with our labours that we could scarcely keep ourselvesawake through the sumptuous meal, and as soon as it was overwe indicated that we desired to sleep. As a further precautionagainst surprise we left Umslopogaas with his axe to sleep inthe main chamber near the curtained doorways leading to the apartmentswhich we occupied respectively, Good and I in the one, and SirHenry and Alphonse in the other. Then throwing off our clothes, with the exception of the mail shirts, which we considered itsafer to keep on, we flung ourselves down upon the low and luxuriouscouches, and drew the silk-embroidered coverlids over us. 

In two minutes I was just dropping off when I was aroused byGood's voice. 

'I say, Quatermain, ' he said, 'did you ever see such eyes?'

'Eyes!' I said, crossly; 'what eyes?'

'Why, the Queen's, of course! Sorais, I mean -- at leastI think that is her name. '

'Oh, I don't know, ' I yawned; 'I didn't notice them much:I suppose they are good eyes, ' and again I dropped off. 

Five minutes or so elapsed, and I was once more awakened. 

'I say, Quatermain, ' said the voice. 

'Well, ' I answered testily, 'what is it now?'

'Did you notice her ankle? The shape --'

This was more than I could stand. By my bed stood the veldtschoonsI had been wearing. Moved quite beyond myself, I took them upand threw them straight at Good's head -- and hit it. 

Afterwards I slept the sleep of the just, and a very heavy sleepit must be. As for Good, I don't know if he went to sleep orif he continued to pass Sorais' beauties in mental review, and, what is more, I don't care. 

CHAPTER XIIIABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE

And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors inthis novel drama are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we shouldexcept Nyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying in her bed of state encompassed by her maidens, tiring women, guards, and all the other people and appurtenancesthat surround a throne, and yet not able to slumber for thinkingof the strangers who had visited a country where no such strangershad ever come before, and wondering, as she lay awake, who theywere and what their past has been, and if she was ugly comparedto the women of their native place. I, however, not being poeticallyinclined, will take advantage of the lull to give some accountof the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needlessto state, from information which we subsequently collected. 

The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis, from Zu, 'yellow', and Vendis, 'place or country'. Why it iscalled the Yellow Country I have never been able to ascertainaccurately, nor do the inhabitants themselves know. Three reasonsare, however, given, each of which would suffice to account forit. The first is that the name owes its origin to the greatquantity of gold that is found in the land. Indeed, in thisrespect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the precious metalbeing extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is collectedfrom purely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently inspected, and which are situated within a day's journey from Milosis, beingmostly found in pockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounceup to six or seven pounds in weight. But other diggings of asimilar nature are known to exist, and I have besides seen greatveins of gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendis gold is a much commonermetal than silver, and thus it has curiously enough come to passthat silver is the legal tender of the country. 

The second reason given is, that at certain times of the yearthe native grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellow as ripe corn; and the third arises from a traditionthat the people were originally yellow skinned, but grew whiteafter living for many generations upon these high lands. Zu-Vendisis a country about the size of France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape; and on every side cut off from the surroundingterritory by illimitable forests of impenetrable thorn, beyondwhich are said to be hundreds of miles of morasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in short, a huge, high tablelandrising up in the centre of the dark continent, much as in southernAfrica flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the surroundingveldt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a levelof about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the landis even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being, I believe, about eleven thousand feet. As a consequence theclimate is, comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similarto that of southern England, only brighter and not so rainy. The land is, however, exceedingly fertile, and grows all cerealsand temperate fruits and timber to perfection; and in the lower-lyingparts even produces a hardy variety of sugar-cane. Coal is foundin great abundance, and in many places crops out from the surface;and so is pure marble, both black and white. The same may besaid of almost every metal except silver, which is scarce, andonly to be obtained from a range of mountains in the north. 

Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery, including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the westernboundary beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and theother piercing the country from north to south, and passing ata distance of about eighty miles from Milosis, from which townits higher peaks are distinctly visible. This range forms thechief watershed of the land. There are also three large lakes-- the biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, and which isnamed Milosis after the city, covering some two hundred squaremiles of country -- and numerous small ones, some of them salt. 

The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking, dense, numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions. It is almost purely agricultural in its habits, and dividedinto great classes as in civilized countries. There is a territorialnobility, a considerable middle class, formed principally ofmerchants, officers of the army, etc. ; but the great bulk ofthe people are well-to-do peasants who live upon the lands ofthe lords, from whom they hold under a species of feudal tenure. The best bred people in the country are, as I think I have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance; butthe common herd are much darker, though they do not show anynegro or other African characteristics. As to their descentI can give no certain information. Their written records, whichextend back for about a thousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler does indeed, in alluding to someold tradition that existed in his day, talk of it as having probablyoriginally 'come down with the people from the coast', but thatmay mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of the Zu-Vendiis lost in the mists of time. Whence they came or of what racethey are no man knows. Their architecture and some of theirsculptures suggest an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin;but it is well known that their present remarkable style of buildinghas only sprung up within the last eight hundred years, and theycertainly retain no traces of Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their appearance and some of their habits are rather Jewish;but here again it seems hardly conceivable that they should haveutterly lost all traces of the Jewish religion. Still, for aughtI know, they may be one of the lost ten tribes whom people areso fond of discovering all over the world, or they may not. I do not know, and so can only describe them as I find them, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out ofit, if indeed this account should ever be read at all, whichis exceedingly doubtful. 

And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going tohazard a theory of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young lady said in mitigation of her baby. This theoryis founded on a legend which I have heard among the Arabs onthe east coast, which is to the effect that 'more than two thousandyears ago' there were troubles in the country which was knownas Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde of Persians camedown to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven by thenorth-east monsoon to the east coast of Africa, where, accordingto the legend, 'the sun and fire worshippers' fell into conflictwith the belt of Arab settlers who even then were settled onthe east coast, and finally broke their way through them, and, vanishing into the interior, were no more seen. Now, I ask, is it not at least possible that the Zu-Vendi people are thedescendants of these 'sun and fire worshippers' who broke throughthe Arabs and vanished? As a matter of fact, there is a gooddeal in their characters and customs that tallies with the somewhatvague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we have no booksof reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory doesnot fail him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about500 BC, whereon a vast multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow, it is a well-established fact that there have been manyseparate emigrations of Persians from the Persian Gulf to theeast coast of Africa up to as lately as seven hundred years ago. There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, on the east coast, still ingood repair, which bear dates showing them to be just seven hundredyears old. {Endnote 12}

In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddly enough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot from theexigencies of their position make war upon other nations, theyfight among each other like the famed Kilkenny cats, with thehappy result that the population never outgrows the power ofthe country to support it. This habit of theirs is largely fosteredby the political condition of the country. The monarchy is nominallyan absolute one, save in so far as it is tempered by the powerof the priests and the informal council of the great lords; but, as in many other institutions, the king's writ does not run unquestionedthroughout the length and breadth of the land. In short, thewhole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute serfdomor slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominallyfrom the throne, but a number of them being practically independent, having the power of life and death, waging war against and makingpeace with their neighbours as the whim or their interests leadthem, and even on occasion rising in open rebellion against theirroyal master or mistress, and, safely shut up in their castlesand fenced cities, as far from the seat of government, successfullydefying them for years. 

Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a factthat will be well appreciated when I state that eight differentdynasties have sat upon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which took its rise from some noble family thatsucceeded in grasping the purple after a sanguinary struggle. At the date of our arrival in the country things were a littlebetter than they had been for some centuries, the last king, the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an exceptionallyable and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence, he kept downthe power of the priests and nobles. On his death, two yearsbefore we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children, were, following an ancient precedent, called to the throne, sincean attempt to exclude either would instantly have provoked asanguinary civil war; but it was generally felt in the countrythat this measure was a most unsatisfactory one, and could hardlybe expected to be permanent. Indeed, as it was, the variousintrigues that were set on foot by ambitious nobles to obtainthe hand of one or other of the queens in marriage had disquietedthe country, and the general opinion was that there would bebloodshed before long. 

I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, which is nothing more or less than sun-worship of a pronouncedand highly developed character. Around this sun-worship is groupedthe entire social system of the Zu-Vendi. It sends its rootsthrough every institution and custom of the land. From the cradleto the grave the Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of thesaying. As an infant he is solemnly held up in its light anddedicated to 'the symbol of good, the expression of power, andthe hope of Eternity', the ceremony answering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point out the gloriousorb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god, and he worshipsit at its up-rising and down-setting. Then when still quitesmall, he goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother's'kaf' (toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, and there, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon thegolden central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears the white-robed priests raise their solemn chant ofpraise and sees the people fall down to adore, and then, amidstthe blowing of the golden trumpets, watches the sacrifice throwninto the fiery furnace beneath the altar. Here he comes againto be declared 'a man' by the priests, and consecrated to warand to good works; here before the solemn altar he leads hisbride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise, hedivorces her. 

And so on, down life's long pathway till the last mile is travelled, and he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longera man. Here they bear him dead and lay his bier upon the fallingbrazen doors before the eastern altar, and when the last rayfrom the setting sun falls upon his white face the bolts aredrawn and he vanishes into the raging furnace beneath and is ended. 

The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited as youngmen specially devoted to the work by their parents and supportedby the State. The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthoodlies with the Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot bedispossessed, and it is scarcely too much to say that they reallyrule the land. To begin with, they are a united body sworn toobedience and secrecy, so that an order issued by the High Priestat Milosis will be instantly and unhesitatingly acted upon bythe resident priest of a little country town three or four hundredmiles off. They are the judges of the land, criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the lord paramount of the district, andfrom him to the king; and they have, of course, practically unlimitedjurisdiction over religious and moral offences, together witha right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of more highlycivilized lands, is a very effective weapon. Indeed, their rightsand powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state herethat the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, anddo not push things too far. It is but very seldom that theygo to extremes against anybody, being more inclined to exercisethe prerogative of mercy than run the risk of exasperating thepowerful and vigorous-minded people on whose neck they have settheir yoke, lest it should rise and break it off altogether. 

Another source of the power of the priests is their practicalmonopoly of learning, and their very considerable astronomicalknowledge, which enables them to keep a hold on the popular mindby predicting eclipses and even comets. In Zu-Vendis only afew of the upper classes can read and write, but nearly all thepriests have this knowledge, and are therefore looked upon aslearned men. 

The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differsin several respects from our civilized law. For instance, thelaw of England is much more severe upon offences against propertythan against the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passionis money. A man may half kick his wife to death or inflict horriblesufferings upon his children at a much cheaper rate of punishmentthan he can compound for the theft of a pair of old boots. In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for there they rightly or wrongly lookupon the person as of more consequence than goods and chattels, and not, as in England, as a sort of necessary appendage to thelatter. For murder the punishment is death, for treason death, for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for sacrilege, and forattempting to quit the country (which is looked on as a sacrilege)death. In each case the method of execution is the same, anda rather awful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the fieryfurnace beneath one of the altars to the Sun. For all otheroffences, including the offence of idleness, the punishment isforced labour upon the vast national buildings which are alwaysgoing on in some part of the country, with or without periodicalfloggings, according to the crime. 

The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable libertyto the individual, provided he does not offend against the lawsand customs of the country. They are polygamous in theory, thoughmost of them have only one wife on account of the expense. Bylaw a man is bound to provide a separate establishment for eachwife. The first wife also is the legal wife, and her childrenare said to be 'of the house of the Father'. The children ofthe other wives are of the houses of their respective mothers. This does not, however, imply any slur upon either mother orchildren. Again, a first wife can, on entering into the marriedstate, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no other wife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the greatupholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplusnumbers but gives greater importance to the first wife, who isthus practically the head of several households. Marriage islooked upon as primarily a civil contract, and, subject to certainconditions and to a proper provision for children, is dissolubleat the will of both contracting parties, the divorce, or 'unloosing', being formally and ceremoniously accomplished by going throughcertain portions of the marriage ceremony backwards. 

The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-heartedpeople. They are not great traders and care little about money, only working to earn enough to support themselves in that classof life in which they were born. They are exceedingly conservative, and look with disfavour upon changes. Their legal tender issilver, cut into little squares of different weights; gold isthe baser coin, and is about of the same value as our silver. It is, however, much prized for its beauty, and largely usedfor ornaments and decorative purposes. Most of the trade, however, is carried on by means of sale and barter, payment being madein kind. Agriculture is the great business of the country, andis really well understood and carried out, most of the availableacreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also givento the breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassedby any I have ever seen either in Europe or Africa. 

The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crownto the great lords, who again divide it among smaller lords, and so on down to the little peasant farmer who works his forty'reestu' (acres) on a system of half-profits with his immediatelord. In fact the whole system is, as I have said, distinctlyfeudal, and it interested us much to meet with such an old friendfar in the unknown heart of Africa. 

The taxes are very heavy. The State takes a third of a man'stotal earnings, and the priesthood about five per cent on theremainder. But on the other hand, if a man through any causefalls into bona fide misfortune the State supports him in theposition of life to which he belongs. If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the Government undertakings, and the Statelooks after his wives and children. The State also makes allthe roads and builds all town houses, about which great careis shown, letting them out to families at a small rent. It alsokeeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and provideswatchmen, etc. In return for their five per cent the priestsattend to the service of the temples, carry out all religiousceremonies, and keep schools, where they teach whatever theythink desirable, which is not very much. Some of the templesalso possess private property, but priests as individuals cannothold property. 

And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Are the Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? SometimesI think the one, sometimes the other. In some branches of artthey have attained the very highest proficiency. Take for instancetheir buildings and their statuary. I do not think that thelatter can be equalled either in beauty or imaginative poweranywhere in the world, and as for the former it may have beenrivalled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it has never beensince. But, on the other hand, they are totally ignorant ofmany other arts. Till Sir Henry, who happened to know somethingabout it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime, they could not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is ratherprimitive. A water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch;indeed, ours delighted them exceedingly. They know nothing aboutsteam, electricity, or gunpowder, and mercifully for themselvesnothing about printing or the penny post. Thus they are sparedmany evils, for of a truth our age has learnt the wisdom of theold-world saying, 'He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. '

As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginativepeople who know no better, and might therefore be expected toturn to the sun and worship him as the all-Father, but it cannotjustly be called elevating or spiritual. It is true that theydo sometimes speak of the sun as the 'garment of the Spirit', but it is a vague term, and what they really adore is the fieryorb himself. They also call him the 'hope of eternity', buthere again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if the phrase conveysany very clear impression to their minds. Some of them do indeedbelieve in a future life for the good -- I know Nyleptha doesfirmly -- but it is a private faith arising from the promptingsof the spirit, not an essential of their creed. So on the wholeI cannot say that I consider this sun-worship as a religion indicativeof a civilized people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual, or however moral and high-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of whom, I am sure, have their own opinions on the wholesubject; though of course they have nothing but praise for asystem which provides them with so many of the good things ofthis world. 

There are now only two more matters to which I need allude --namely, the language and the system of calligraphy. As forthe former, it is soft-sounding, and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it sounds something like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection with it. It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a peculiar quality about itis its euphony, and the way in which the sound of the wordsadapts itself to the meaning to be expressed. Long beforewe mastered the language, we could frequently make out whatwas meant by the ring of the sentence. It is on this accountthat the language lends itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these remarkable people are very fond. The Zu-Vendialphabet seems, Sir henry says, to be derived, like every otherknown system of letters, from a Phoenician source, and thereforemore remotely still from the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned in suchmatters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consistsof twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are not very unlike our own. The whole affair is, however, clumsyand puzzling. {Endnote 13} But as the people of Zu-Vendi arenot given to the writing of novels, or of anything except businessdocuments and records of the briefest character, it answers theirpurpose well enough. 

CHAPTER XIVTHE FLOWER TEMPLE

It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morningfollowing our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactlytwelve hours, and I must say that I did indeed feel better. Ah, what a blessed thing is sleep! and what a difference twelvehours of it or so makes to us after days and nights of toil anddanger. It is like going to bed one man and getting up another. 

I sat up upon my silken couch -- never had I slept upon sucha bed before -- and the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglassfixed on me from the recesses of his silken couch. There wasnothing else of him to be seen except his eyeglass, but I knewfrom the look of it that he was awake, and waiting till I wokeup to begin. 

'I say, Quatermain, ' he commenced sure enough, 'did you observeher skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush. '

'Now look here, Good, ' I remonstrated, when there came a soundat the curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary, who signified by signs that he was there to lead us to the bath. We gladly consented, and were conducted to a delightful marblechamber, with a pool of running crystal water in the centre ofit, into which we gaily plunged. When we had bathed, we returnedto our apartment and dressed, and then went into the centralroom where we had supped on the previous evening, to find a morningmeal already prepared for us, and a capital meal it was, thoughI should be puzzled to describe the dishes. After breakfastwe lounged round and admired the tapestries and carpets and somepieces of statuary that were placed about, wondering the whilewhat was going to happen next. Indeed, by this time our mindswere in such a state of complete bewilderment that we were, asa matter of fact, ready for anything that might arrive. As forour sense of astonishment, it was pretty well obliterated. Whilstwe were still thus engaged, our friend the captain of the guardpresented himself, and with many obeisances signified that wewere to follow him, which we did, not without doubts and heart-searchings-- for we guessed that the time had come when we should haveto settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with ourcold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest. However, there was nohelp for it, and personally I took great comfort in the promiseof the protection of the sister Queens, knowing that if ladieshave a will they can generally find a way; so off we startedas though we liked it. A minute's walk through a passage andan outer court brought us to the great double gates of the palacethat open on to the wide highway which runs uphill through theheart of Milosis to the Temple of the Sun a mile away, and thencedown the slope on the farther side of the temple to the outerwall of the city. 

These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarilybeautiful work in metal. Between them -- for one set is placedat the entrance to an interior, and one at that of the exteriorwall -- is a fosse, forty-five feet in width. This fosse isfilled with water and spanned by a drawbridge, which when liftedmakes the palace nearly impregnable to anything except siegeguns. As we came, one half of the wide gates were flung open, and we passed over the drawbridge and presently stood gazingup one of the most imposing, if not the most imposing, roadwaysin the world. It is a hundred feet from curb to curb, and oneither side, not cramped and crowded together, as is our Europeanfashion, but each standing in its own grounds, and built equidistantfrom and in similar style to the rest, are a series of splendid, single-storied mansions, all of red granite. These are the townhouses of the nobles of the Court, and stretch away in unbrokenlines for a mile or more till the eye is arrested by the gloriousvision of the Temple of the Sun that crowns the hill and headsthe roadway. 

As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon, there suddenly dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawnby two white horses. These chariots are two-wheeled, and madeof wood. They are fitted with a stout pole, the weight of whichis supported by leathern girths that form a portion of the harness. The wheels are made with four spokes only, are tired with iron, and quite innocent of springs. In the front of the chariot, and immediately over the pole, is a small seat for the driver, railed round to prevent him from being jolted off. Inside themachine itself are three low seats, one at each side, and onewith the back to the horses, opposite to which is the door. The whole vehicle is lightly and yet strongly made, and, owingto the grace of the curves, though primitive, not half so uglyas might be expected. 

But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horsesdid not. They were simply splendid, not very large but stronglybuilt, and well ribbed up, with small heads, remarkably largeand round hoofs, and a great look of speed and blood. I haveoften wondered whence this breed, which presents manydistinct characteristics, came, but like that of its owners, it history is obscure. Like the people the horses have alwaysbeen there. The first and last of these chariots were occupiedby guards, but the centre two were empty, except for the driver, and to these we were conducted. Alphonse and I got into thefirst, and Sir Henry, Good, and Umslopogaas into the one behind, and then suddenly off we went. And we did go! Among the Zu-Vendiit is not usual to trot horses either riding or driving, especiallywhen the journey to be made is a short one -- they go at fullgallop. As soon as we were seated the driver called out, thehorses sprang forward, and we were whirled away at a speed sufficientto take one's breath, and which, till I got accustomed to it, kept me in momentary fear of an upset. As for the wretched Alphonse, he clung with a despairing face to the side of what he calledthis 'devil of a fiacre', thinking that every moment was hislast. Presently it occurred to him to ask where we were going, and I told him that, as far as I could ascertain, we were goingto be sacrificed by burning. You should have seen his face ashe grasped the side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror. 

But the wild-looking charioteer only leant forward over his flyingsteeds and shouted; and the air, as it went singing past, boreaway the sound of Alphonse's lamentations. 

And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzlingloveliness, shone out the Temple of the Sun -- the peculiar prideof the Zu-Vendi, to whom it was what Solomon's, or rather Herod's, Temple was to the Jews. The wealth, and skill, and labour ofgenerations had been given to the building of this wonderfulplace, which had been only finally completed within the lastfifty years. Nothing was spared that the country could produce, and the result was indeed worthy of the effort, not so much onaccount of its size -- for there are larger fanes in the world-- as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and beautyof its materials, and the wonderful workmanship. The building(that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of gardenground on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling-places ofthe priests) is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome-coveredcentral hall, from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts, each dedicated to one of the twelve months, and serving as therepositories of statues reared in memory of the illustrious dead. The width of the circle beneath the dome is three hundred feet, the height of the dome is four hundred feet, and the length ofthe rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height of theirroofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central domeexactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raisedheart. Thus the exact measurement from the centre of the centralaltar to the extreme point of any one of the rounded rays wouldbe three hundred feet (the width of the circle itself), or atotal of six hundred feet from the rounded extremity of one rayor petal to the extremity of the opposite one. {Endnote 14}

The building itself is of pure and polished white marble, whichshows out in marvellous contrast to the red granite of the frowningcity, on whose brow it glistens indeed like an imperial diademupon the forehead of a dusky queen. The outer surface of thedome and of the twelve petal courts is covered entirely withthin sheets of beaten gold; and from the extreme point of theroof of each of these petals a glorious golden form with a trumpetin its hand and widespread wings is figured in the very act ofsoaring into space. I really must leave whoever reads this toimagine the surpassing beauty of these golden roofs flashingwhen the sun strikes -- flashing like a thousand fires aflameon a mountain of polished marble -- so fiercely that the reflectioncan be clearly seen from the great peaks of the range a hundredmiles away. 

It is a marvellous sight -- this golden flower upborne upon thecool white marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show suchanother. What makes the whole effect even more gorgeous is thata belt of a hundred and fifty feet around the marble wall ofthe temple is planted with an indigenous species of sunflower, which were at the time when we first saw them a sheet of goldenbloom. 

The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the twonorthernmost of the rays or petal courts, and is protected firstby the usual bronze gates, and then by doors made of solid marble, beautifully carved with allegorical subjects and overlaid withgold. When these are passed there is only the thickness of thewall, which is, however, twenty-five feet (for the Zu-Vendi buildfor all time), and another slight wall also of white marble, introduced in order to avoid causing a visible gap in the innerskin of the wall, and you stand in the circular hall under thegreat dome. Advancing to the central altar you look upon asbeautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive. Youare in the middle of the holy place, and above you the greatwhite marble dome (for the inner skin, like the outer, is ofpolished marble throughout) arches away in graceful curves somethinglike that of St Paul's in London, only at a slighter angle, andfrom the funnel-like opening at the exact apex a bright beamof light pours down upon the golden altar. At the east and thewest are other altars, and other beams of light stab the sacredtwilight to the heart. In every direction, 'white, mystic, wonderful', open out the ray-like courts, each pierced through by a singlearrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence anddimly to reveal the monuments of the dead. {Endnote 15}

Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness ofwhich thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, youturn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, thoughyou cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame crownedwith curls of faint blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid withpure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height, and thirty-six in circumference. Here also, hinged to the foundationsof the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold. All night and, except at one hour, all day also, these petals are closed overthe altar itself exactly as the petals of a water-lily closeover the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the sun atmidday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights uponthe golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery, only to close again when the ray has passed. 

Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles at equal distancesfrom each other on the north and south of the sacred place areten golden angels, or female winged forms, exquisitely shapedand draped. These figures, which are slightly larger than life-size, stand with bent heads in an attitude of adoration, their facesshadowed by their wings, and are most imposing and of exceedingbeauty. 

There is but one thing further which calls for descriptionin this altar, which is, that to the east the flooring in frontof it is not of pure white marble, as elsewhere throughout thebuilding, but of solid brass, and this is also the case in frontof the other two altars. 

The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape, and placed against the wall of the building, are much less imposing, and are not enfolded in golden petals. They are, however, alsoof gold, the sacred fire burns on each, and a golden-winged figurestands on either side of them. Two great golden rays run upthe wall behind them, but where the third or middle one shouldbe is an opening in the wall, wide on the outside, but narrowwithin, like a loophole turned inwards. Through the easternloophole stream the first beams of the rising sun, and strikeright across the circle, touching the folded petals of the greatgold flower as they pass till they impinge upon the western altar. In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun restfor a while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness. It is the promise of the dawn to the evening and the eveningto the dawn. 

With the exception of those three altars and the winged figuresabout them, the whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterlyempty and devoid of ornamentation -- a circumstance that to myfancy adds greatly to its splendour. 

Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building, to the glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by theircomplete simplicity, I only wish I had the power to do justice. But I cannot, so it is useless talking more about it. But whenI compare this great work of genius to some of the tawdry buildingsand tinsel ornamentation produced in these latter days by Europeanecclesiastical architects, I feel that even highly civilizedart might learn something from the Zu-Vendi masterpieces. Ican only say that the exclamation which sprang to my lips assoon as my eyes first became accustomed to the dim light of thatglorious building, and its white and curving beauties, perfectand thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one byone, was, 'Well! a dog would feel religious here. ' It is vulgarlyput, but perhaps it conveys my meaning more clearly than anypolished utterance. 

At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers, who appeared to be under the orders of a priest; and by themwe were conducted into one of the ray or 'petal' courts, as thepriests call them, and there left for at least half-an-hour. Here we conferred together, and realizing that we stood in greatdanger of our lives, determined, if any attempt should be madeupon us, to sell them as dearly as we could -- Umslopogaas announcinghis fixed intention of committing sacrilege on the person ofAgon, the High Priest, by splitting his head with Inkosi-kaas. From where we stood we could perceive that an immense multitudewere pouring into the temple, evidently in expectation of someunusual event, and I could not help fearing that we had to dowith it. And here I may explain that every day, when the sunlightfalls upon the central altar, and the trumpets sound, a burntsacrifice is offered to the Sun, consisting generally of thecarcase of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of fruit or corn. Thisevent comes off about midday; of course, not always exactly atthat hour, but as Zu-Vendis is situated not far from the Line, although -- being so high above the sea it is very temperate-- midday and the falling of the sunlight on the altar were generallysimultaneous. Today the sacrifice was to take place at abouteight minutes past twelve. 

Just at twelve o'clock a priest appeared, and made a sign, andthe officer of the guard signified to us that we were expectedto advance, which we did with the best grace that we could muster, all except Alphonse, whose irrepressible teeth instantly beganto chatter. In a few seconds we were out of the court and lookingat a vast sea of human faces stretching away to the farthestlimits of the great circle, all straining to catch a glimpseof the mysterious strangers who had committed sacrilege; thefirst strangers, mind you, who, to the knowledge of the multitude, had ever set foot in Zu-Vendis since such time that the memoryof man runneth not to the contrary. 

As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd thatwent echoing away up the great dome, and we saw a visible blushof excitement grow on the thousands of faces, like a pink lighton a stretch of pale cloud, and a very curious effect it was. On we passed down a lane cut through the heart of the humanmass, till presently we stood upon the brazen patch of flooringto the east of the central altar, and immediately facing it. For some thirty feet around the golden-winged figures the spacewas roped off, and the multitudes stood outside the ropes. Withinwere a circle of white-robed gold-cinctured priests holding longgolden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in front of uswas our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap uponhis head. His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage. We took our stand upon the brazen space, little knowing whatwas prepared for us beneath, but I noticed a curious hissingsound proceeding apparently from the floor for which I couldnot account. Then came a pause, and I looked around to see ifthere was any sign of the two Queens, Nyleptha and Sorais, butthey were not there. To the right of us, however, was a barespace that I guessed was reserved for them. 

We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently highup in the dome. Then came another murmur from the multitude, and up a long lane, leading to the open space to our right, wesaw the two Queens walking side by side. Behind them were somenobles of the Court, among whom I recognized the great lord Nasta, and behind them again a body of about fifty guards. These lastI was very glad to see. Presently they had all arrived and takentheir stand, the two Queens in the front, the nobles to the rightand left, and the guards in a double semicircle behind them. 

Then came another silence, and Nyleptha looked up and caughtmy eye; it seemed to me that there was meaning in her glance, and I watched it narrowly. From my eye it travelled down tothe brazen flooring, on the outer edge of which we stood. Thenfollowed a slight and almost imperceptible sidelong movementof the head. I did not understand it, and it was repeated. Then I guessed that she meant us to move back off the brazenfloor. One more glance and I was sure of it -- there was dangerin standing on the floor. Sir Henry was placed on one side ofme, Umslopogaas on the other. Keeping my eyes fixed straightbefore me, I whispered to them, first in Zulu and then in English, to draw slowly back inch by inch till half their feet were restingon the marble flooring where the brass ceased. Sir Henry whisperedon to Good and Alphonse, and slowly, very very slowly, we shiftedbackwards; so slowly that nobody, except Nyleptha and Sorais, who saw everything seemed to notice the movement. Then I glancedagain at Nyleptha, and saw that, by an almost imperceptible nod, she indicated approval. All the while Agon's eyes were fixedupon the altar before him apparently in an ecstasy of contemplation, and mine were fixed upon the small of his back in another sortof ecstasy. Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and in a solemnand resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for convenience'sake I append a rough, a _very_ rough, translation here, though, of course, I did not then comprehend its meaning. It wasan invocation to the Sun, and ran somewhat as follows: --

 There is silence upon the face of the Earth and the waters thereof! Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird; The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness, Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star, The Earth is faint with longing and wet with the tears of her desire; The star-girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted. She lies enshrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave-clothes, And stretches her pale hands to the East. 

 Lo! away in the farthest East there is the shadow of a light; The Earth seeth and lifts herself. She looks out from beneath the hollow of her hand. Then thy great angels fly forth from the Holy Place, oh Sun, They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness and shrivel it up. They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones; Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night; They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man, And behold! Thy glory comes, oh Sun!

 Oh, Thou beautiful one, Thou drapest thyself in fire. The wide heavens are thy pathway: thou rollest o'er them as a chariot. The Earth is thy bride. Thou dost embrace her and she brings forth children; Yea, Thou favourest her, and she yields her increase. Thou art the All Father and the giver of life, oh Sun. The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness; The old men creep forth and seeing remember their strength. Only the dead forget Thee, oh Sun!

 When Thou art wroth then Thou dost hide Thy face; Thou drawest around Thee a thick curtain of shadows. Then the Earth grows cold and the Heavens are dismayed; They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder: They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain; They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing. The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale; The old men and the little children go unto their appointed place When Thou withdrawest thy light, oh Sun!

 Say, what art Thou, oh Thou matchless Splendour -- Who set Thee on high, oh Thou flaming Terror? When didst Thou begin, and when is the day of Thy ending? Thou art the raiment of the living Spirit. {Endnote 16} None did place Thee on high, for Thou was the Beginning. Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten; Nay, Thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal. Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and measurest out the centuries. Oh Father of Life! oh dark-dispelling Sun!

He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enoughthing after going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressivein the original; and then, after a moment's pause, he glanced uptowards the funnel-sloped opening in the dome and added --

Oh Sun, descend upon thine Altar!

As he spoke a wonderful and a beautiful thing happened. Downfrom on high flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleavingthe twilight like a sword of fire. Full upon the closed petalsit fell and ran shimmering down their golden sides, and thenthe glorious flower opened as though beneath the bright influence. Slowly it opened, and as the great petals fell wide and revealedthe golden altar on which the fire ever burns, the priests blewa blast upon the trumpets, and from all the people there rosea shout of praise that beat against the domed roof and came echoingdown the marble walls. And now the flower altar was open, andthe sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred flame and beatit down, so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollowrecesses whence it rose. As it vanished, the mellow notes ofthe trumpets rolled out once more. Again the old priest flungup his hands and called aloud --

We sacrifice to thee, oh Sun!

Once more I caught Nyleptha's eye; it was fixed upon the brazen flooring. 

'Look out, ' I said, aloud; and as I said it, I saw Agon bendforward and touch something on the altar. As he did so, thegreat white sea of faces around us turned red and then whiteagain, and a deep breath went up like a universal sigh. Nyleptha leant forward, and with an involuntary movement coveredher eyes with her hand. Sorais turned and whispered to the officerof the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the wholeof the brazen flooring slid from before our feet, and there inits place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble shaft terminatingin a most awful raging furnace beneath the altar, big enoughand hot enough to heat the iron stern-post of a man-of-war. 

With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretchedAlphonse, who was paralysed with fear, and would have falleninto the fiery furnace which had been prepared for us, had notSir Henry caught him in his strong hand as he was vanishing anddragged him back. 

Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four gotback to back, Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circlein his attempts to take shelter under our legs. We all had ourrevolvers on -- for though we had been politely disarmed of ourguns on leaving the palace, of course these people did not knowwhat a revolver was. Umslopogaas, too, had his axe, of whichno effort had been made to deprive him, and now he whirled itround his head and sent his piercing Zulu war-shout echoing upthe marble walls in fine defiant fashion. Next second, the priests, baffled of their prey, had drawn swords from beneath their whiterobes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a stag at bay. I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or belost, so as the first man came bounding along -- and a greattall fellow he was -- I sent a heavy revolver ball through him, and down he fell at the mouth of the shaft, and slid, shriekingfrantically, into the fiery gulf that had been prepared for us. 

Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effectof the pistol shot, or what, I know not, but the other priestshalted, paralysed and dismayed, and before they could come onagain Sorais had called out something, and we, together withthe two Queens and most of the courtiers, were being surroundedwith a wall of armed men. In a moment it was done, and stillthe priests hesitated, and the people hung in the balance likea herd of startled buck as it were, making no sign one way orthe other. 

The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire hadfinished him, and a great silence fell upon the place. 

Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the faceof a devil. 'Let the sacrifice be sacrificed, ' he cried to theQueens. 'Has not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers, and would ye, as Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty overevildoers? Are not the creatures sacred to the Sun dead? Andis not a priest of the Sun also dead, but now slain by the magicof these strangers, who come as the winds out of heaven, whencewe know not, and who are what we know not? Beware, oh Queens, how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God, even beforeHis high altar! There is a Power that is more than your power;there is a Justice that is higher than your justice. Bewarehow ye lift an impious hand against it! Let the sacrifice besacrificed, oh Queens. '

Then Sorais made answer in her deep quiet tones, that alwaysseemed to me to have a suspicion of mockery about them, howeverserious the theme: 'Oh, Agon, thou hast spoken according to thydesire, and thou hast spoken truth. But it is thou who wouldstlift an impious hand against the justice of thy God. Bethinkthee the midday sacrifice is accomplished; the Sun hath claimedhis priest as a sacrifice. '

This was a novel idea, and the people applauded it. 

'Bethink thee what are these men? They are strangers found floatingon the bosom of a lake. Who brought them here? How came theyhere? How know you that they also are not servants of the Sun?Is this the hospitality that ye would have our nation show tothose whom chance brings to them, to throw them to the flames?Shame on you! Shame on you! What is hospitality? To receivethe stranger and show him favour. To bind up his wounds, andfind a pillow for his head, and food for him to eat. But thypillow is the fiery furnace, and thy food the hot savour of theflame. Shame on thee, I say!'

She paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon themultitude, and seeing that it was favourable, changed her tonefrom one of remonstrance to one of command. 

'Ho! place there, ' she cried; 'place, I say; make way for theQueens, and those whom the Queens cover with their "kaf" (mantle). '

'And if I refuse, oh Queen?' said Agon between his teeth. 

'Then will I cut a path with my guards, ' was the proud answer;'ay, even in the presence of thy sanctuary, and through the bodiesof thy priests. '

Agon turned livid with baffled fury. He glanced at the peopleas though meditating an appeal to them, but saw clearly thattheir sympathies were all the other way. The Zu-Vendi are avery curious and sociable people, and great as was their senseof the enormity that we had committed in shooting the sacredhippopotami, they did not like the idea of the only real livestrangers they had seen or heard of being consigned to a fieryfurnace, thereby putting an end for ever to their chance of extractingknowledge and information from, and gossiping about us. Agonsaw this and hesitated, and then for the first time Nylepthaspoke in her soft sweet voice. 

'Bethink thee, Agon, ' she said, 'as my sister Queen has said, these men may also be servants of the Sun. For themselves theycannot speak, for their tongues are tied. Let the matter beadjourned till such time as they have learnt our language. Whocan be condemned without a hearing? When these men can pleadfor themselves, then it will be time to put them to the proof. '

Here was a clever loophole of escape, and the vindictive oldpriest took it, little as he liked it. 

'So be it, oh Queens, ' he said. 'Let the men go in peace, andwhen they have learnt our tongue then let them speak. And I, even I, will make humble supplication at the altar lest pestilencefall on the land by cause of the sacrilege. '

These words were received with a murmur of applause, and in anotherminute we were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royalguards. 

But it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exactsubstance of what had passed, and how hardly our lives had beenwrung out of the cruel grip of the Zu-Vendi priesthood, in theface of which even the Queens were practically powerless. Hadit not been for their strenuous efforts to protect us we shouldhave been slain even before we set foot in the Temple of theSun. The attempt to drop us bodily into the fiery pit as anoffering was a last artifice to attain this end when severalothers quite unsuspected by us had already failed. 

CHAPTER XVSORAIS' SONG

After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned toour quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The twoQueens, the nobles and the people vied with each other in doingus honour and showering gifts upon us. As for that painful littleincident of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we werequite content to leave it. Every day deputations and individualswaited on us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts, and our instruments, especially our watches, with which theywere much delighted. In short, we became quite the rage, somuch so that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zu-Vendibegan to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir Henry'sshooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on usand, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion. This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to thosewho generally came to visit us. They were little insignificantmen of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour;and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observingthe details of Good's full-dress uniform, of which they tookcopious notes and measurements. Good was much flattered at thetime, not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leadingtailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when onattending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some sevenor eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a veryfair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind. I shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust. It was after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also becauseour clothes were wearing out and had to be saved up, that weresolved to adopt the native dress; and a very comfortable onewe found it, though I am bound to say that I looked sufficientlyridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas wouldhave none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierceold Zulu made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grimand naked as his own battleaxe. 

Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and madevery good progress. On the morning following our adventure inthe temple, three grave and reverend signiors presented themselvesarmed with manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, andindicated that they had been sent to teach us. So, with theexception of Umslopogaas, we all buckled to with a will, doingfour hours a day. As for Umslopogaas, he would have none ofthat either. He did not wish to learn that 'woman's talk', nothe; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a bookand an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasiveway, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bagunder the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprangup with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyesof our learned friend, and there was an end of the attempt toteach _him_ Zu-Vendi. 

Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew moreand more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons weregiven up to recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably oneto the gold mines and another to the marble quarries both ofwhich I wish I had space and time to describe; and sometimeswe went out hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose, and a very exciting sport it is, as the country is full of agriculturalenclosures and our horses were magnificent. This is not to bewondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our command, in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses givento us by Nyleptha. 

Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in greatfavour among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at aspecies of partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness andstrength of its flight. When attacked by the hawk this birdappears to lose its head, and, instead of seeking cover, flieshigh into the sky, thus offering wonderful sport. I have seenone of these partridges soar up almost out of sight when followedby the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a variety of solitarysnipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful in thiscountry, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, andhighly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzaggingof the great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight andmovements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightfulone. Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting ofa very small species of antelope with trained eagles; and itcertainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar andsoar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, andthen suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon somecowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everythingbut that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when theeagle takes the buck running. 

On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at someof the great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villagesclustering beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fieldsand well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in them asfilled me with delight, for I do love a good tree. There itstands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very typeof the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare headto the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoiceswhen the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too, when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannotequal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. Allday it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, andthus passionless, and yet full of life, it endures through thecenturies, come storm, come shine, drawing its sustenance fromthe cool bosom of its mother earth, and as the slow years rollby, learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay. Andso on and on through generations, outliving individuals, customs, dynasties -- all save the landscape it adorns and human nature-- till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battleand rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroketo his fungus-fingered work. 

Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!

In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myselfto dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties -- not every night, indeed, but about three or four times a week, whenever they hadnot much company, or the affairs of state would allow of it. And I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite themost charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with. How true is the saying that the very highest in rank are alwaysthe most simple and kindly. It is from your half-and-half sortof people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the differencebetween the two being very much what one sees every day inEngland between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family, and the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and 'take theplace'. I really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is hersweet simplicity, and her kindly genuine interest even in littlethings. She is the simplest woman I ever knew, and where herpassions are not involved, one of the sweetest; but she can lookqueenly enough when she likes, and be as fierce as any savage too. 

For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for thefirst time was sure that she was really in love with Curtis. It came about in this way -- all through Good's weakness forladies' society. When we had been employed for some three monthsin learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master Good that he was gettingrather tired of the old gentlemen who did us the honour to leadus in the way that we should go, so he proceeded, without sayinga word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a peculiarfact, but that we could not make any real progress in the deeperintricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by ladies-- young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own country, he pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-lookingand most charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangerswho happened to come that way, etc. 

All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. Therewas, they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplationof the beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certainporosity of mind similar to that produced upon the physical bodyby the healthful influences of sun and air. Consequently itwas probable that we might absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a littlefaster if suitable teachers could be found. Another thing wasthat, as the female sex was naturally loquacious, good practicewould be gained in the viva voce department of our studies. 

To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemendeparted, assuring him that their orders were to fall in withour wishes in every way, and that, if possible, our views shouldbe met. 

Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and Itrust and believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room wherewe were accustomed to carry on our studies the following morning, we found, instead of our usual venerable tutors, three of thebest-looking young women whom Milosis could produce -- and thatis saying a good deal -- who blushed and smiled and curtseyed, and gave us to understand that they were there to carry on ourinstruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in bewilderment, thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his memorybefore -- but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previousevening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further educationshould be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, andappealed to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis. 

'Well, ' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they? Ifwe sent them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings, eh? One doesn't like to be rough, you see; and they look regular_blues_, don't they, eh?'

By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomestof the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everythingwent very well: the young ladies were certainly very clever, and they only smiled when we blundered. I never saw Good soattentive to his books before, and even Sir Henry appeared totackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest. 'Ah, ' thought I, 'willit always be thus?'

Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersedwith questions about our native country, what the ladies werelike there, etc. , all of which we answered as best as we couldin Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her lovelinesswas to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to whichshe replied with a little toss of the head, that she was a plainteaching woman and nothing else, and that it was not kind 'todeceive a poor girl so'. Then we had a little singing that wasreally charming, so natural and unaffected. The Zu-Vendi love-songsare most touching. On the third day we were all quite intimate. Good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his fairteacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with hisown. I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendianart, and never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity todrop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my back, whilst inthe corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared, so far as Icould judge, to be going through a lesson framed on the greateducational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers Esq. , thoughin a very modified or rather spiritualized form. The lady softlyrepeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he took hers; 'eyes', and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips', and -- but justat that moment _my_ young lady dropped the cockroach down my backand ran away laughing. Now if there is one thing I loathe morethan another it is cockroaches, and moved quite beyond myself, and yet laughing at her impudence, I took up the cushion shehad been sitting on and threw it after her. Imagine then myshame -- my horror, and my distress -- when the door opened, and, attended by two guards only, in walked _Nyleptha_. The cushioncould not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of theguards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually triedto look as though I had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing, and began to murder Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and SirHenry whistled and looked silly. As for the poor girls, theywere utterly dumbfounded. 

And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to towereven above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red, and then pale as death. 

'Guards, ' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fairbut unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that woman. '

The men hesitated, as well they might. 

'Will ye do my bidding, ' she said again in the same voice, 'or will ye not?'

Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears. By this time Sir Henry had recovered himself, and saw thatthe comedy was likely to turn into a tragedy. 

'Stand back, ' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same timegetting in front of the terrified girl. 'Shame on thee, Nyleptha -- shame! Thou shalt not kill her. '

'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her. Thou couldst hardly do less in honour, ' answered theinfuriated Queen; 'but she shall die -- she shall die, 'and she stamped her little foot. 

'It is well, ' he answered; 'then will I die with her. I am thyservant, oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt. ' And he bowedtowards her, and fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face. 

'I could wish to slay thee too, ' she answered; 'for thou dostmake a mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, andI suppose not knowing what else to do, she burst into such astorm of tears and looked so royally lovely in her passionatedistress, that, old as I am, I must say I envied Curtis his taskof supporting her. It was rather odd to see him holding herin his arms considering what had just passed -- a thought thatseemed to occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herselffree and went, leaving us all much disturbed. 

Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a messageto the girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the cityand return to their homes in the country, and that no furtherharm would come to them; and accordingly they went, one of themremarking philosophically that it could not be helped, and thatit was a satisfaction to know that they had taught us a littleserviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly nice girl, and, overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my favouritelucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away. After thatour former masters resumed their course of instruction, needlessto say to my great relief. 

That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royalsupper table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache. That headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourthshe was present at supper as usual, and with the most graciousand sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to the table. No allusion was made to the little affair described above beyondher saying, with a charming air of innocence, that when she cameto see us at our studies the other day she had been seized witha giddiness from which she had only now recovered. She supposed, she added with a touch of the humour that was common to her, that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected her. 

In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did notlook quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of thosequick glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings ofa man must have gone through him like a knife, and the subjectdropped entirely. Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescendedto put us through an examination to see what we had learnt, andto express herself well satisfied with the results. Indeed, she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson on herown account, and very interesting we found it. 

And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, andlaughed, Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, andlook at us and read us all like a book, only from time to timesaying a few words, and smiling that quick ominous smile of herswhich was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark cloudthan anything else. And as near to her as he dared would sitGood, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he really was gettingseriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom, speaking personally, I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and soon I foundout that for all her apparent impassibility she was at heartbitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found out, andthe discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she _also_was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could notbe sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman;but I noticed one or two little things, and, as elephant huntersknow, dried grass shows which way the wind has set. 

And so another three months passed over us, by which time wehad all attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendilanguage, which is an easy one to learn. And as the time wenton we became great favourites with the people, and even withthe courtiers, gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness, because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show themhow to make glass, which was a national want, and also, by thehelp of a twenty-year almanac that we had with us, to predictvarious heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected bythe native astronomers. We even succeeded in demonstrating theprinciple of the steam-engine to a gathering of the learned men, who were filled with amazement; and several other things of thesame sort we did. And so it came about that the people madeup their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go outof the country (which indeed was an apparent impossibility evenif we had wished it), and we were advanced to great honour andmade officers to the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanentquarters were assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion wasasked upon questions of national policy. 

But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one, on the horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confoundedhippopotami, but it is not on that account to be supposed thatour sacrilege was forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerfulpriesthood headed by Agon appeased. On the contrary, it wasburning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed, and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downrightdirect hatred born of jealousy. Hitherto, the priests had beenthe wise men of the land, and were on this account, as well asfrom superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration. But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strangeinventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blowto this state of affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, wentfar towards destroying the priestly prestige. A still worseaffront to them, however, was the favour with which we were regarded, and the trust that was reposed in us. All these things tendedto make us excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan, the most powerful because the most united faction in the kingdom. 

Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy ofsome of the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism tous had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatenedto break out into open flame. Nasta had for some years beena candidate for Nyleptha's hand in marriage, and when we appearedon the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though therewere still many obstacles in his path, success was by no meansout of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy Nylepthasmiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guessthe cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention toSorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountainside. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that doorwas closed on him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of thethirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his biddingthrough the northern mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adornthe gates of Milosis with our heads. 

But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attemptand to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after theformal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had beenproclaimed by the Queens during the year. 

Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance, and with a little trembling of the voice herself informed usof it as we sat at supper on the night preceding the great ceremonyof the law-giving. 

Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainlyshowed his agitation. 

'And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to thegreat Lord?' asked I, in a jesting manner. 

'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulunames in Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivoryshoulder. 'Nay, I know not; what is a poor woman to do, whenthe wooer has thirty thousand swords wherewith to urge his love?'And from under her long lashes she glanced at Curtis. 

Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room. 'Quatermain, a word, quick, ' said Sir Henry to me. 'Listen. I have never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: Ilove Nyleptha. What am I to do?'

Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question intoconsideration, and was therefore able to give such answer asseemed the wisest to me. 

'You must speak to Nyleptha tonight, ' I said. 'Now is your time, now or never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her, and whisper to her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statueat the end of the great hall. I will keep watch for you there. Now or never, Curtis. '

We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, herhands before her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face. A little way off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow measuredtones. 

The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according to their habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, SirHenry had had no chance of saying a word in private: indeed, though we saw much of the royal sisters, it was by no means easyto see them alone. I racked my brains, and at last an idea cameto me. 

'Will the Queen be pleased, ' I said, bowing low before Sorais, 'to sing to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; singto us, oh Lady of the Night' (Sorais' favourite name among thepeople). 

'My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart, yet will I sing if it pleases thee, ' she answered; and she roseand went a few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument notunlike a zither, and struck a few wandering chords. 

Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, herrounded voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet withso eerie and sad a refrain, that it made the very blood standstill. Up, up soared the golden notes, that seemed to melt faraway, and then to grow again and travel on, laden with all thesorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost. It wasa marvellous song, but I had not time to listen to it properly. However, I got the words of it afterwards, and here is a translationof its burden, so far as it admits of being translated at all. 

 SORAIS' SONG

 As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging, As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is swinging, So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing. 

 As the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness unspoken, As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token, So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken. 

 As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending, As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are rending, So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending. 

 So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us, A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us, Till Death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o'ertake us. 

Refrain

Oh, the world is fair at the dawning -- dawning -- dawning, But the red sun sinks in blood -- the red sun sinks in blood. 

I only wish that I could write down the music too. 

'Now, Curtis, now, ' I whispered, when she began the second verse, and turned my back. 

'Nyleptha, ' he said -- for my nerves were so much on the stretchthat I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even throughSorais' divine notes -- 'Nyleptha, I must speak with thee thisnight, upon my life I must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'

'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly beforeher; 'Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and watched. '

'Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademasin the great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and canpass in. Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with himthe Zulu. Oh come, my Queen, deny me not. '

'It is not seemly, ' she murmured, 'and tomorrow --'

Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain, and Sorais slowly turned her round. 

'I will be there, ' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life seethat thou fail me not. '

CHAPTER XVIBEFORE THE STATUE

It was night -- dead night -- and the silence lay on theFrowning City like a cloud. 

Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myselfthreaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance tothe great Throne Chamber. Once we were met by the fierce rattlingchallenge of the sentry. I gave the countersign, and the mangrounded his spear and let us pass. Also we were officers ofthe Queens' bodyguard, and in that capacity had a right to comeand go unquestioned. 

We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that even when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoedup the lofty walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintlyagainst the carven roof, like ghosts of the footsteps of deadmen haunting the place that once they trod. 

It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threw great pencils and patches of light through the highwindowless openings in the walls, that lay pure and beautifulupon the blackness of the marble floor, like white flowers ona coffin. One of these silver arrows fell upon the statue ofthe sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form bent over him, illuminingit, and a small circle round it, with a soft clear light, remindingme of that with which Catholics illumine the altars of theircathedrals. 

Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henryand I close together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could only just make out his towering outline leaningon the outline of an axe. 

So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting againstthe cold marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis givea quick catching breath. Then from far away there came a littlesound as though the statues that lined the walls were whisperingto each other some message of the ages. 

It was the faint sweep of a lady's dress. Nearer it grew, andnearer yet. We could see a figure steal from patch to patchof moonlight, and even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I saw the black silhouette of the old Zuluraise its arm in mute salute, and Nyleptha was before us. 

Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just withinthe circle of the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her white bosom heaved beneath it. Round her head a broideredscarf was loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus rendering it even more lovely; for beauty, dependentas it is to a certain extent upon the imagination, is never sobeautiful as when it is half hid. There she stood radiant buthalf doubting, stately and yet so sweet. It was but a moment, but I then and there fell in love with her myself, and have remainedso to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more like an angel outof heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal woman. Low we bowedbefore her, and then she spoke. 

'I have come, ' she whispered, 'but it was at great risk. Yeknow not how I am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watchesme with those great eyes of hers. My very guards are spies uponme. Nasta watches me too. Oh, let him be careful!' and shestamped her foot. 'Let him be careful; I am a woman, and thereforehard to drive. Ay, and I am a Queen, too, and can still avenge. Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of giving him my handI take his head, ' and she ended the outburst with a little sob, and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed. 

'Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu' (Curtis had taughther to call him so). 'Doubtless it is about business of theState, for I know that thou art ever full of great ideas andplans for my welfare and my people's. So even as a Queen shouldI have come, though I greatly fear the dark alone, ' and againshe laughed and gave him a glance from her grey eyes. 

At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets'of the State' should not be made public property; but she wouldnot let me go far, peremptorily stopping me within five yardsor so, saying that she feared surprise. So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heard all that passed. 

'Thou knowest, Nyleptha, ' said Sir Henry, 'that it was for noneof these things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place. Nyleptha, waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for -- I love thee. '

As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, andchange. The coquetry went out of it, and in its place thereshone a great light of love which seemed to glorify it, and makeit like that of the marble angel overhead. I could not helpthinking that it must have been a touch of prophetic instinctwhich made the long dead Rademas limn, in the features of theangel of his inspiring vision, so strange a likeness of his owndescendant. Sir Henry, also, must have observed and been struckby the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha's face, he glanced quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then backagain at his beloved. 

'Thou sayest thou dost love me, ' she said in a low voice, 'andthy voice rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speakthe truth?'

'Though, ' she went on with proud humility, and in the statelythird person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, 'I beas nothing in the eyes of my lord, ' and she curtseyed towardshim, 'who comes from among a wonderful people, to whom my peopleare but children, yet here am I a queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundred thousand spears shall sparklein my train like stars glimmering down the path of the bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in the eyes of my lord, 'and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed again, 'yethere among my own people am I held right fair, and ever sinceI was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrelconcerning me, as though forsooth, ' she added with a flash ofpassion, 'I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to be sold to the highest bidder. Let my lord pardonme if I weary my lord, but it hath pleased my lord to say thathe loves me, Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, and thereforewould I say that though my love and my hand be not much to mylord, yet to me are they all. '

'Oh!' she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and modifying her dignified mode of address. 'Oh, how can Iknow that thou lovest but me? How can I know that thou wiltnot weary of me and seek thine own place again, leaving me desolate?Who is there to tell me but that thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but who yet draws breath beneaththis same moon that shines on me tonight? Tell me _how_ am I toknow?' And she clasped her hands and stretched them out towardshim and looked appealingly into his face. 

'Nyleptha, ' answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way ofspeech; 'I have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tellthee how much I love thee? Is there then a measure for love?Yet will I try. I say not that I have never looked upon anotherwoman with favour, but this I say that I love thee with all mylife and with all my strength; that I love thee now and shalllove thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe beyondmy death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is musicto my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that whenthou art there the world is beautiful, and when I see thee notit is as though the light was dead. Oh, Nyleptha, I will neverleave thee; here and now for thy dear sake I will forget my peopleand my father's house, yea, I renounce them all. By thy sidewill I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side will I die. '

He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head likea lily, and said never a word. 

'Look!' he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlightplayed so brightly. 'Thou seest that angel woman who rests herhand upon the forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest howat her touch his soul flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touch of the fire, so is it with me andthee, Nyleptha. Thou hast awakened my soul and called it forth, and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine, but _thine_ and thineonly. There is no more for me to say; in thy hands is my life. 'And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue, lookingvery pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a god. 

Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, all alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though to read his very soul. Then at last she spoke, lowindeed, but clearly as a silver bell. 

'Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill willbe the day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learnthat I have believed a lie. And now hearken to me, oh man, whohath wandered here from far to steal my heart and make me allthine own. I put my hand upon thy hand thus, and thus I, whoselips have never kissed before, do kiss thee on the brow; andnow by my hand and by that first and holy kiss, ay, by my people'sweal and by my throne that like enough I shall lose for thee-- by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by theeternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I liveand die. And I swear that I will love thee and thee only tilldeath, ay, and beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, andthat thy will shall be my will, and thy ways my ways. 

'Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she wholoves; I, who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feetI do my homage;' and the lovely impassioned creature flung herselfdown on her knees on the cold marble before him. And after thatI really do not know, for I could stand it no longer, and clearedoff to refresh myself with a little of old Umslopogaas' society, leaving them to settle it their own way, and a very long timethey were about it. 

I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, andsurveying the scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smileof amusement. 

'Ah, Macumazahn, ' he said, 'I suppose it is because I am gettingold, but I don't think that I shall ever learn to understandthe ways of you white people. Look there now, I pray thee, theyare a pretty pair of doves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn?He wants a wife, and she wants a husband, then why does he notpay his cows down {Endnote 17} like a man and have done withit? It would save a deal of trouble, and we should have hadour night's sleep. But there they go, talk, talk, talk, andkiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. Eugh!'

Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the 'pair of doves'came strolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, andNyleptha remarking calmly that the moonlight made very prettyeffects on the marble. Then, for she was in a most graciousmood, she took my hand and said that I was 'her Lord's' dearfriend, and therefore most dear to her -- not a word for my ownsake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas' axe, and examinedit curiously, saying significantly as she did so that he mightsoon have cause to use it in defence of her. 

After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting atender glance at her lover, glided off into the darknesslike a beautiful vision. 

When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, Curtis asked me jocularly what I was thinking about. 

'I am wondering, ' I answered, 'on what principle it is arrangedthat some people should find beautiful queens to fall in lovewith them, while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody;and I am also wondering how many brave men's lives this night'swork will cost. ' It was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehowall the feelings do not evaporate with age, and I could not helpbeing a little jealous of my old friend's luck. Vanity, my sons;vanity of vanities!

On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence, and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhereabout the mouth, slowly travelled up his face like the ringsin a duckpond, till they flowed over the brim of his eyeglassand went where sweet smiles go. The fact of the matter, however, was that not only was Good rejoiced about the thing on its ownmerits but also for personal reasons. He adored Sorais quiteas earnestly as Sir Henry adored Nyleptha, and his adorationhad not altogether prospered. Indeed, it had seemed to him andto me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen favoured Curtisin her own curious inscrutable way much more than Good. Thereforeit was a relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival waspermanently and satisfactorily attached in another direction. His face fell a little, however, when he was told that the wholething was to be kept as secret as the dead, above all from Soraisfor the present, inasmuch as the political convulsion which wouldfollow such an announcement at the moment would be altogethertoo great to face and would very possibly, if prematurely made, shake Nyleptha from her throne. 

That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I couldnot help smiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflecting that, if walls could speak, they would have strangetales to tell. 

What actresses women are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped in her blazoned 'kaf' or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha, and when Sir Henry came in a little late, dressed in the fulluniform of an officer of her guard and humbly bent himself beforeher, she merely acknowledged his salute with a careless nod andturned her head coldly aside. It was a very large Court, fornot only did the signing of the laws attract many outside ofthose whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumour that Nastawas going to publicly ask the hand of Nyleptha in marriage hadgone abroad, with the result that the great hall was crowdedto its utmost capacity. There were our friends the priests inforce, headed by Agon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye;and a most imposing band they were, with their long white embroideredrobes girt with a golden chain from which hung the fish-likescales. There, too, were a number of the lords, each with aband of brilliantly attired attendants, and prominent among themwas Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively and lookingunusually pleasant. It was a splendid and impressive sight, especially when the officer after having read out each law handedthem to the Queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out andthe Queens' guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute. This reading and signing of the laws took a long time, but atlength it came to an end, the last one reciting that 'whereasdistinguished strangers, etc. ', and proceeding to confer on thethree of us the rank of 'lords', together with certain militarycommands and large estates bestowed by the Queen. When it wasread the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as usual, but I saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, whileNasta ground his teeth. They did not like the favour that wasshown to us, which under all the circumstances was not perhapsunnatural. 

Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowinghumbly, though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon atthe hands of the Queen Nyleptha. 

Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayedthe 'well-beloved lord' to speak on, whereon in a fewstraightforward soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage. 

Then, before she could find words to answer, the High PriestAgon took up the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence andpower pointed out the many advantages of the proposed alliance;how it would consolidate the kingdom, for Nasta's dominions, of which he was virtually king, were to Zu-Vendis much what Scotlandused to be to England; how it would gratify the wild mountaineersand be popular among the soldiery, for Nasta was a famous general;how it would set her dynasty firmly on the throne, and wouldgain the blessing and approval of the 'Sun', i. E. Of the officeof the High Priest, and so on. Many of his arguments were undoubtedlyvalid, and there was, looking at it from a political point ofview, everything to be said for the marriage. But unfortunatelyit is difficult to play the game of politics with the personsof young and lovely queens as though they were ivory effigiesof themselves on a chessboard. Nyleptha's face, while Agon spoutedaway, was a perfect study; she smiled indeed, but beneath thesmile it set like a stone, and her eyes began to flash ominously. 

At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. Beforeshe did so, however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voicesufficiently loud for me to catch what she said, 'Bethink theewell, my sister, ere thou dost speak, for methinks that our thronesmay hang upon thy words. '

Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Soraisleant back again and listened. 

'Of a truth a great honour has been done to me, ' she said, 'thatmy poor hand should not only have been asked in marriage, butthat Agon here should be so swift to pronounce the blessing ofthe Sun upon my union. Methinks that in another minute he wouldhave wed us fast ere the bride had said her say. Nasta, I thankthee, and I will bethink me of thy words, but now as yet I haveno mind for marriage, that is a cup of which none know the tasteuntil they begin to drink it. Again I thank thee, Nasta, ' andshe made as though she would rise. 

The great lord's face turned almost as black as his beard withfury, for he knew that the words amounted to a final refusalof his suit. 

'Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words, ' he said, restraininghimself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, 'myheart shall surely treasure them. And now I crave another boon, namely, the royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor citiesin the north till such time as the Queen shall say my suit nayor yea. Mayhap, ' he added, with a sneer, 'the Queen will bepleased to visit me there, and to bring with her these strangerlords, ' and he scowled darkly towards us. 'It is but a poorcountry and a rough, but we are a hardy race of mountaineers, and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shouta welcome to her. '

This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, wasreceived in complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answeredit with spirit. 

'Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in mytrain, and for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince, will I bring two from the lowlands who call me Queen, and wewill see which is the staunchest breed. Till then farewell. '

The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assemblybroke up in murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home witha heavy heart foreseeing civil war. 

After this there was quiet for a few weeks. Curtis and the Queendid not often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allowthe true relation in which they stood to each other to leak out;but do what they would, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzingfly in a dark room, and yet quite as audible, began to humround and round, and at last to settle on her throne. 

CHAPTER XVIITHE STORM BREAKS

And now it was that the trouble which at first had been but acloud as large as a man's hand began to loom very black and bigupon our horizon, namely, Sorais' preference for Sir Henry. I saw the storm drawing nearer and nearer; and so, poor fellow, did he. The affection of so lovely and highly-placed a womanwas not a thing that could in a general way be considered a calamityby any man, but, situated as Curtis was, it was a grievous burdento bear. 

To begin with, Nyleptha, though altogether charming, was, it mustbe admitted, of a rather jealous disposition, and was sometimesapt to visit on her lover's head her indignation at the marksof what Alphonse would have called the 'distinguished consideration'with which her royal sister favoured him. Then the enforcedsecrecy of his relation to Nyleptha prevented Curtis from takingsome opportunity of putting a stop, or trying to put a stop, to this false condition of affairs, by telling Sorais, in a casualbut confidential way, that he was going to marry her sister. A third sting in Sir Henry's honey was that he knew that Goodwas honestly and sincerely attached to the ominous-looking butmost attractive Lady of the Night. Indeed, poor Bougwan waswasting himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about her, his face getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stickin it; while she, with a sort of careless coquetry, just gavehim encouragement enough to keep him going, thinking, no doubt, that he might be useful as a stalking-horse. I tried to givehim a hint, in as delicate a way as I could, but he flew intoa huff and would not listen to me, so I was determined to letill along, for fear of making it worse. Poor Good, he reallywas very ludicrous in his distress, and went in for all sortsof absurdities, under the belief that he was advancing his suit. One of them was the writing -- with the assistance of one ofthe grave and revered signiors who instructed us, and who, whatevermay have been the measure of his erudition, did not understandhow to scan a line -- of a most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song, of which the continually recurring refrain was something about'I will kiss thee; oh yes, I will kiss thee!' Now among theZu-Vendi it is a common and most harmless thing for young mento serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do in the southerncountries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical songsto them. The young men may or may not be serious; but no offenceis meant and none is taken, even by ladies of the highest rank, who accept the whole thing as an English girl would agracefully-turned compliment. 

Availing himself of this custom, Good bethought him that wouldserenade Sorais, whose private apartments, together with thoseof her maidens, were exactly opposite our own, on the furtherside of a narrow courtyard which divided one section of the greatpalace from another. Accordingly, having armed himself witha native zither, on which, being an adept with the light guitar, he had easily learned to strum, he proceeded at midnight -- thefashionable hour for this sort of caterwauling -- to make nighthideous with his amorous yells. I was fast asleep when theybegan, but they soon woke me up -- for Good possesses a tremendousvoice and has no notion of time -- and I ran to my window-placeto see what was the matter. And there, standing in the fullmoonlight in the courtyard, I perceived Good, adorned with anenormous ostrich feather head-dress and a flowing silken cloak, which it is the right thing to wear upon these occasions, andshouting out the abominable song which he and the old gentlemanhad evolved, to a jerky, jingling accompaniment. From the directionof the quarters of the maids of honour came a succession of faintsniggerings; but the apartments of Sorais herself -- whom I devoutlypitied if she happened to be there -- were silent as the grave. There was absolutely no end to that awful song, with its eternal'I will kiss thee!' and at last neither I nor Sir Henry, whomI had summoned to enjoy the sight, could stand it any longer;so, remembering the dear old story, I put my head to the windowopening, and shouted, 'For Heaven's sake, Good, don't go on talkingabout it, but _kiss_ her and let's all go to sleep!' That chokedhim off, and we had no more serenading. 

The whole thing formed a laughable incident in a tragic business. How deeply thankful we ought to be that even the most seriousmatters have generally a silver lining about them in the shapeof a joke, if only people could see it. The sense of humouris a very valuable possession in life, and ought to be cultivatedin the Board schools -- especially in Scotland. 

Well, the more Sir Henry held off the more Sorais came on, asis not uncommon in such cases, till at last things got very queerindeed. Evidently she was, by some strange perversity of mind, quite blinded to the true state of the case; and I, for one, greatly dreaded the moment of her awakening. Sorais was a dangerouswoman to be mixed up with, either with or without one's consent. At last the evil moment came, as I saw it must come. One fineday, Good having gone out hawking, Sir Henry and I were sittingquietly talking over the situation, especially with referenceto Sorais, when a Court messenger arrived with a written note, which we with some difficulty deciphered, and which was to theeffect that 'the Queen Sorais commanded the attendance of theLord Incubu in her private apartments, whither he would be conductedby the bearer'. 

'Oh my word!' groaned Sir Henry. 'Can't you go instead, old fellow?'

'Not if I know it, ' I said with vigour. 'I had rather face awounded elephant with a shot-gun. Take care of your own business, my boy. If you will be so fascinating you must take the consequences. I would not be in your place for an empire. '

'You remind me of when I was going to be flogged at school andthe other boys came to console me, ' he said gloomily. 'Whatright has this Queen to command my attendance, I should liketo know? I won't go. '

'But you must; you are one of her officers and bound to obeyher, and she knows it. And after all it will soon be over. '

'That's just what they used to say, ' he said again. 'I onlyhope she won't put a knife into me. I believe that she is quitecapable of it. ' And off he started very faintheartedly, and no wonder. 

I sat and waited, and at the end of about forty-five minuteshe returned, looking a good deal worse than when he went. 

'Give me something to drink, ' he said hoarsely. 

I got him a cup of wine, and asked what was the matter. 

'What is the matter? Why if ever there was trouble there's troublenow. You know when I left you? Well, I was shown straight intoSorais' private chamber, and a wonderful place it is; and thereshe sat, quite alone, upon a silken couch at the end of the room, playing gently upon that zither of hers. I stood before her, and for a while she took no notice of me, but kept on playingand singing a little, and very sweet music it was. At last shelooked up and smiled. 

'"So thou art come, " she said. "I thought perchance thou hadstgone about the Queen Nyleptha's business. Thou art ever on herbusiness, and I doubt not a good servant and a true. "

'To this I merely bowed, and said I was there to receive theQueen's word. 

'"Ah yes, I would talk with thee, but be thou seated. It weariesme to look so high, " and she made room for me beside her on thecouch, placing herself with her back against the end, so as tohave a view of my face. 

'"It is not meet, " I said, "that I should make myself equal withthe Queen. "

'"I said be seated, " was her answer, so I sat down, and she beganto look at me with those dark eyes of hers. There she sat likean incarnate spirit of beauty, hardly talking at all, and whenshe did, very low, but all the while looking at me. There wasa white flower in her black hair, and I tried to keep my eyeson it and count the petals, but it was of no use. At last, whetherit was her gaze, or the perfume in her hair, or what I do notknow, but I almost felt as though I was being mesmerized. Atlast she roused herself. 

'"Incubu, " she said, "lovest thou power?"

'I replied that I supposed all men loved power of one sort or another. 

'"Thou shalt have it, " she said. "Lovest thou wealth?"

'I said I liked wealth for what it brought. 

'"Thou shalt have it, " she said. "And lovest thou beauty?"

'To this I replied that I was very fond of statuary and architecture, or something silly of that sort, at which she frowned, and therewas a pause. By this time my nerves were on such a stretch thatI was shaking like a leaf. I knew that something awful was goingto happen, but she held me under a kind of spell, and I couldnot help myself. 

'"Incubu, " she said at length, "wouldst thou be a king? Listen, wouldst thou be a king? Behold, stranger, I am minded to makethee king of all Zu-Vendis, ay and husband of Sorais of the Night. Nay, peace and hear me. To no man among my people had I thusopened out my secret heart, but thou art an outlander and thereforeI speak without shame, knowing all I have to offer and how hardit had been thee to ask. See, a crown lies at thy feet, my lordIncubu, and with that fortune a woman whom some have wished towoo. Now mayst thou answer, oh my chosen, and soft shall thywords fall upon mine ears. "

'"Oh Sorais, " I said, "I pray thee speak not thus" -- you seeI had not time to pick and choose my words -- "for this thingcannot be. I am betrothed to thy sister Nyleptha, oh Sorais, and I love her and her alone. "

'Next moment it struck me that I had said an awful thing, andI looked up to see the results. When I spoke, Sorais' face washidden in her hands, and as my words reached her she slowly raisedit, and I shrank back dismayed. It was ashy white, and her eyeswere flaming. She rose to her feet and seemed to be choking, but the awful thing was that she was so quiet about it all. Once she looked at a side table, on which lay a dagger, and fromit to me, as though she thought of killing me; but she did nottake it up. At last she spoke one word, and one only --

'"_Go!_"

'And I went, and glad enough I was to get out of it, and hereI am. Give me another cup of wine, there's a good fellow, and tell me, what is to be done?'

I shook my head, for the affair was indeed serious. As one of thepoets says, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', more especially if the woman is a queen and a Sorais, and indeedI feared the very worst, including imminent danger to ourselves. 

'Nyleptha had better be told of this at once, ' I said, 'and perhapsI had better tell her; she might receive your account with suspicion. '

'Who is captain of her guard tonight?' I went on. 

'Good. '

'Very well then, there will be no chance of her being got at. Don't look surprised. I don't think that her sister would stickat that. I suppose one must tell Good of what has happened. '

'Oh, I don't know, ' said Sir Henry. 'It would hurt his feelings, poor fellow! You see, he takes a lively personal interest in Sorais. '

'That's true; and after all, perhaps there is no need to tell him. He will find out the truth soon enough. Now, you mark my words, Sorais will throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up inthe North there, and there will be such a war as has not beenknown in Zu-Vendis for centuries. Look there!' and I pointedto two Court messengers, who were speeding away from the doorof Sorais' private apartments. 'Now follow me, ' and I ran upa stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the roof of ourquarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out over thepalace wall. The first thing we saw was one of the messengersspeeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, theQueen's word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searchedin vain. Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiouslythrough the northern gate of the city, and in him I recognizedthe other messenger. 

'Ah!' I said, 'Sorais is a woman of spirit. She is acting atonce, and will strike quick and hard. You have insulted her, my boy, and the blood will flow in rivers before the stain iswashed away, and yours with it, if she can get hold of you. Well, I'm off to Nyleptha. Just you stop where you are, oldfellow, and try to get your nerves straight again. You'll needthem all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human naturein the rough for fifty years for nothing. ' And off I went accordingly. 

I gained audience of the Queen without trouble. She was expectingCurtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-colouredface instead. 

'Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waitsnot upon me? Say, is he sick?'

I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado, I plunged into my story and told it from beginning to end. Oh, what a rage she flew into! It was a sight to see her, she lookedso lovely. 

'How darest thou come to me with such a tale?' she cried. 'Itis a lie to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister. '

'Pardon me, oh Queen, ' I answered, 'I said that Sorais was makinglove to thy lord. '

'Spin me no spiders' webs of words. Is not the thing the samething? The one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes, and what matters it which is the most guilty? Sorais! oh, Ihate her -- Sorais is a queen and my sister. She had not stoopedso low had he not shown the way. Oh, truly hath the poet saidthat man is like a snake, whom to touch is poison, and whom nonecan hold. '

'The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misreadthe poet. Nyleptha, ' I went on, 'thou knowest well that thywords are empty foolishness, and that this is no time for folly. '

'How darest thou?' she broke in, stamping her foot. 'Hast myfalse lord sent thee to me to insult me also? Who art thou, stranger, that thou shouldst speak to me, the Queen, after thissort? How darest thou?'

'Yea, I dare. Listen. The moments which thou dost waste inidle anger may well cost thee thy crown and all of us our lives. Already Sorais' horsemen go forth and call to arms. In threedays' time Nasta will rouse himself in his fastnesses like alion in the evening, and his growling will be heard throughoutthe North. The "Lady of the Night" (Sorais) hath a sweet voice, and she will not sing in vain. Her banner will be borne fromrange to range and valley to valley, and warriors will springup in its track like dust beneath a whirlwind; half the armywill echo her war-cry; and in every town and hamlet of this wideland the priests will call out against the foreigner and willpreach her cause as holy. I have spoken, oh Queen!'

Nyleptha was quite calm now; her jealous anger had passed; andputting off the character of a lovely headstrong lady, with arapidity and completeness that distinguished her, she put onthat of a queen and a woman of business. The transformationwas sudden but entire. 

'Thy words are very wise, Macumazahn. Forgive me my folly. Ah, what a Queen I should be if only I had no heart! To be heartless-- that is to conquer all. Passion is like the lightning, itis beautiful, and it links the earth to heaven, but alas it blinds!

'And thou thinkest that my sister Sorais would levy war uponme. So be it. She shall not prevail against me. I, too, havemy friends and my retainers. There are many, I say, who willshout "Nyleptha!" when my pennon runs up on peak and pinnacle, and the light of my beacon fires leaps tonight from crag to crag, bearing the message of my war. I will break her strength andscatter her armies. Eternal night shall be the portion of Soraisof the Night. Give me that parchment and the ink. So. Now summon the officer in the ante-room. He is a trusty man. '

I did as I was bid! and the man, a veteran and quiet-lookinggentleman of the guard, named Kara, entered, bowing low. 

'Take this parchment, ' said Nyleptha; 'it is thy warrant; andguard every place of in and outgoing in the apartments of mysister Sorais, the "Lady of the Night", and a Queen of the Zu-Vendi. Let none come in and none go out, or thy life shall pay thecost. '

The man looked startled, but he merely said, 'The Queen's wordbe done, ' and departed. Then Nyleptha sent a messenger to SirHenry, and presently he arrived looking uncommonly uncomfortable. I thought that another outburst was about to follow, but wonderfulare the ways of woman; she said not a word about Sorais and hissupposed inconstancy, greeting him with a friendly nod, and statingsimply that she required his advice upon high matters. All thesame there was a look in her eye, and a sort of suppressed energyin her manner towards him, that makes me think that she had notforgotten the affair, but was keeping it for a private occasion. 

Just after Curtis arrived the officer returned, and reportedthat Sorais was _gone_. The bird had flown to the Temple, statingthat she was going, as was sometimes the custom among Zu-Vendiladies of rank, to spend the night in meditation before the altar. We looked at each other significantly. The blow had fallenvery soon. 

Then we set to work. 

Generals who could be trusted were summoned from their quarters, and as much of the State affairs as was thought desirable wastold to each, strict injunctions being given to them to get alltheir available force together. The same was done with suchof the more powerful lords as Nyleptha knew she could rely on, several of whom left that very day for distant parts of the countryto gather up their tribesmen and retainers. Sealed orders weredispatched to the rulers of far-off cities, and some twenty messengerswere sent off before nightfall with instructions to ride earlyand late till they reached the distant chiefs to whom their letterswere addressed: also many spies were set to work. All the afternoonand evening we laboured, assisted by some confidential scribes, Nyleptha showing an energy and resource of mind that astonishedme, and it was eight o'clock before we got back to our quarters. Here we heard from Alphonse, who was deeply aggrieved becauseour non-return had spoilt his dinner (for he had turned cookagain now), that Good had come back from his hawking and goneon duty. As instructions had already been given to the officerof the outer guard to double the sentries at the gate, and aswe had no reason to fear any immediate danger, we did not thinkit worth while to hunt him up and tell him anything of what hadpassed, which at best was, under the peculiar circumstances ofthe case, one of those tasks that one prefers to postpone, soafter swallowing our food we turned in to get some much-neededrest. Before we did so, however, it occurred to Curtis to tellold Umslopogaas to keep a look-out in the neighbourhood of Nyleptha'sprivate apartments. Umslopogaas was now well known about theplace, and by the Queen's order allowed to pass whither he wouldby the guards, a permission of which he often availed himselfby roaming about the palace during the still hours in a nocturnalfashion that he favoured, and which is by no means uncommon amongstblack men generally. His presence in the corridors would not, therefore, be likely to excite remark. Without any comment theZulu took up his axe and departed, and we also departed to bed. 

I seemed to have been asleep but a few minutes when I was awakenedby a peculiar sensation of uneasiness. I felt that somebodywas in the room and looking at me, and instantly sat up, to seeto my surprise that it was already dawn, and that there, standingat the foot of my couch and looking peculiarly grim and gauntin the grey light, was Umslopogaas himself. 

'How long hast thou been there?' I asked testily, for it is notpleasant to be aroused in such a fashion. 

'Mayhap the half of an hour, Macumazahn. I have a word for thee. '

'Speak on, ' I said, now wide enough awake. 

'As I was bid I went last night to the place of the White Queenand hid myself behind a pillar in the second anteroom, beyondwhich is the sleeping-place of the Queen. Bougwan (Good) wasin the first anteroom alone, and outside the curtain of thatroom was a sentry, but I had a mind to see if I could pass inunseen, and I did, gliding behind them both. There I waitedfor many hours, when suddenly I perceived a dark figure comingsecretly towards me. It was the figure of a woman, and in herhand she held a dagger. Behind that figure crept another unseenby the woman. It was Bougwan following in her tracks. His shoeswere off, and for so fat a man he followed very well. The womanpassed me, and the starlight shone upon her face. '

'Who was it?' I asked impatiently. 

'The face was the face of the "Lady of the Night", and of a truthshe is well named. 

'I waited, and Bougwan passed me also. Then I followed. So we went slowly and without a sound up the long chamber. First the woman, then Bougwan, and then I; and the woman sawnot Bougwan, and Bougwan saw not me. At last the "Lady of theNight" came to the curtains that shut off the sleeping placeof the White Queen, and put out her left hand to part them. She passed through, and so did Bougwan, and so did I. At thefar end of the room is the bed of the Queen, and on it she layvery fast asleep. I could hear her breathe, and see one whitearm lying on the coverlid like a streak of snow on the dry grass. The "Lady of the Night" doubled herself thus, and with the longknife lifted crept towards the bed. So straight did she gazethereat that she never thought to look behind her. When shewas quite close Bougwan touched her on the arm, and she caughther breath and turned, and I saw the knife flash, and heard itstrike. Well was it for Bougwan that he had the skin of ironon him, or he had been pierced. Then for the first time he sawwho the woman was, and without a word he fell back astonished, and unable to speak. She, too, was astonished, and spoke not, but suddenly she laid her finger on her lip, thus, and walkedtowards and through the curtain, and with her went Bougwan. So close did she pass to me that her dress touched me, and Iwas nigh to slaying her as she went. In the first outer roomshe spoke to Bougwan in a whisper and, clasping her hands thus, she pleaded with him, but what she said I know not. And so theypassed on to the second outer room, she pleading and he shakinghis head, and saying, "Nay, nay, nay". And it seemed to me thathe was about to call the guard, when she stopped talking andlooked at him with great eyes, and I saw that he was bewitchedby her beauty. Then she stretched out her hand and he kissedit, whereon I gathered myself together to advance and take her, seeing that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no longer knewthe good from the evil, when behold! she was gone. '

'Gone!' I ejaculated. 

'Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like oneasleep, and presently he went too, and I waited a while and cameaway also. '

'Art thou sure, Umslopogaas, ' said I, 'that thou hast not beena dreamer this night?'

In reply he opened his left hand, and produced about three inchesof a blade of a dagger of the finest steel. 'If I be, Macumazahn, behold what the dream left with me. The knife broke upon Bougwan'sbosom and as I passed I picked this up in the sleeping-placeof the White Queen. '

CHAPTER XVIIIWAR! RED WAR!

Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and wentoff with him to Sir Henry's room, where the Zulu repeated hisstory word for word. It was a sight to watch Curtis' face ashe heard it. 

'Great Heavens!' he said: 'here have I been sleeping away whileNyleptha was nearly murdered -- and all through me, too. Whata fiend that Sorais must be! It would have served her well ifUmslopogaas had cut her down in the act. '

'Ay, ' said the Zulu. 'Fear not; I should have slain her ereshe struck. I was but waiting the moment. '

I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousanddoomed lives would have been saved if he had meted out to Soraisthe fate she meant for her sister. And, as the issue proved, I was right. 

After he had told his tale Umslopogaas went off unconcernedlyto get his morning meal, and Sir Henry and I fell to talking. 

At first he was very bitter against Good, who, he said, was nolonger to be trusted, having designedly allowed Sorais to escapeby some secret stair when it was his duty to have handed herover to justice. Indeed, he spoke in the most unmeasured termson the matter. I let him run on awhile, reflecting to myselfhow easy we find it to be hard on the weaknesses of others, andhow tender we are to our own. 

'Really, my dear fellow, ' I said at length, 'one would neverthink, to hear you talk, that you were the man who had an interviewwith this same lady yesterday, and found it rather difficultto resist her fascinations, notwithstanding your ties to oneof the loveliest and most loving women in the world. Now supposeit was Nyleptha who had tried to murder Sorais, and _you_ hadcaught her, and she had pleaded with you, would you have beenso very eager to hand her over to an open shame, and to deathby fire? Just look at the matter through Good's eyeglass fora minute before you denounce an old friend as a scoundrel. '

He listened to this jobation submissively, and then franklyacknowledged that he had spoken hardly. It is one of thebest points in Sir Henry's character that he is always readyto admit it when he is in the wrong. 

But, though I spoke up thus for Good, I was not blind to thefact that, however natural his behaviour might be, it was obviousthat he was being involved in a very awkward and disgracefulcomplication. A foul and wicked murder had been attempted, andhe had let the murderess escape, and thereby, among other things, allowed her to gain a complete ascendency over himself. In fact, he was in a fair way to become her tool -- and no more dreadfulfate can befall a man than to become the tool of an unscrupulouswoman, or indeed of any woman. There is but one end to it: whenhe is broken, or has served her purpose, he is thrown away --turned out on the world to hunt for his lost self-respect. WhilstI was pondering thus, and wondering what was to be done -- forthe whole subject was a thorny one -- I suddenly heard a greatclamour in the courtyard outside, and distinguished the voiceof Umslopogaas and Alphonse, the former cursing furiously, andthe latter yelling in terror. 

Hurrying out to see what was the matter, I was met by a ludicroussight. The little Frenchman was running up the courtyard atan extraordinary speed, and after him sped Umslopogaas like agreat greyhound. Just as I came out he caught him, and, liftinghim right off his legs, carried him some paces to a beautifulbut very dense flowering shrub which bore a flower not unlikethe gardenia, but was covered with short thorns. Next, despitehis howls and struggles, he with one mighty thrust plunged poorAlphonse head first into the bush, so that nothing but the calvesof his legs and heels remained in evidence. Then, satisfiedwith what he had done, the Zulu folded his arms and stood grimlycontemplating the Frenchman's kicks, and listening to his yells, which were awful. 

'What art thou doing?' I said, running up. 'Wouldst thou killthe man? Pull him out of the bush!'

With a savage grunt he obeyed, seizing the wretched Alphonseby the ankle, and with a jerk that must have nearly dislocatedit, tearing him out of the heart of the shrub. Never did I seesuch a sight as he presented, his clothes half torn off his back, and bleeding as he was in every direction from the sharp thorns. There he lay and yelled and rolled, and there was no gettinganything out of him. 

At last, however, he got up and, ensconcing himself behind me, cursed old Umslopogaas by every saint in the calendar, vowingby the blood of his heroic grandfather that he would poison him, and 'have his revenge'. 

At last I got to the truth of the matter. It appeared that Alphonsehabitually cooked Umslopogaas's porridge, which the latter atefor breakfast in the corner of the courtyard, just as he wouldhave done at home in Zululand, from a gourd, and with a woodenspoon. Now Umslopogaas had, like many Zulus, a great horrorof fish, which he considered a species of water-snake; so Alphonse, who was as fond of playing tricks as a monkey, and who was alsoa consummate cook, determined to make him eat some. Accordinglyhe grated up a quantity of white fish very finely, and mixedit with the Zulu's porridge, who swallowed it nearly all downin ignorance of what he was eating. But, unfortunately for Alphonse, he could not restrain his joy at this sight, and came caperingand peering round, till at last Umslopogaas, who was very cleverin his way, suspected something, and, after a careful examinationof the remains of his porridge, discovered 'the buffalo heifer'strick', and, in revenge, served him as I have said. Indeed, the little man was fortunate not to get a broken neck for hispains; for, as one would have thought, he might have learnt fromthe episode of his display of axemanship that 'le Monsieur noir'was an ill person to play practical jokes upon. 

This incident was unimportant enough in itself, but I narrateit because it led to serious consequences. As soon as he hadstanched the bleeding from his scratches and washed himself, Alphonse went off still cursing, to recover his temper, a processwhich I knew from experience would take a very long time. Whenhe had gone I gave Umslopogaas a jobation and told him that Iwas ashamed of his behaviour. 

'Ah, well, Macumazahn, ' he said, 'you must be gentle with me, for here is not my place. I am weary of it, weary to death ofeating and drinking, of sleeping and giving in marriage. I lovenot this soft life in stone houses that takes the heart out ofa man, and turns his strength to water and his flesh to fat. I love not the white robes and the delicate women, the blowingof trumpets and the flying of hawks. When we fought the Masaiat the kraal yonder, ah, then life was worth the living, buthere is never a blow struck in anger, and I begin to think Ishall go the way of my fathers and lift Inkosi-kaas no more, 'and he held up the axe and gazed at it in sorrow. 

'Ah, ' I said, 'that is thy complaint, is it? Thou hast theblood-sickness, hast thou? And the Woodpecker wants a tree. And at thy age, too. Shame on thee! Umslopogaas. '

'Ay, Macumazahn, mine is a red trade, yet is it better and morehonest than some. Better is it to slay a man in fair fight thanto suck out his heart's blood in buying and selling and usuryafter your white fashion. Many a man have I slain, yet is therenever a one that I should fear to look in the face again, ay, many are there who once were friends, and whom I should be rightglad to snuff with. But there! there! thou hast thy ways, andI mine: each to his own people and his own place. The high-veldtox will die in the fat bush country, and so is it with me, Macumazahn. I am rough, I know it, and when my blood is warm I know notwhat to do, but yet wilt thou be sorry when the night swallowsme and I am utterly lost in blackness, for in thy heart thoulovest me, my father, Macumazahn the fox, though I be noughtbut a broken-down Zulu war-dog -- a chief for whom there is noroom in his own kraal, an outcast and a wanderer in strange places:ay, I love thee, Macumazahn, for we have grown grey together, and there is that between us that cannot be seen, and yet istoo strong for breaking;' and he took his snuff-box, which wasmade of an old brass cartridge, from the slit in his ear wherehe always carried it, and handed it to me for me to help myself. 

I took the pinch of snuff with some emotion. It was quite true, I was much attached to the bloodthirsty old ruffian. I do notknow what was the charm of his character, but it had a charm;perhaps it was its fierce honesty and directness; perhaps oneadmired his almost superhuman skill and strength, or it may havebeen simply that he was so absolutely unique. Frankly, withall my experience of savages, I never knew a man quite like him, he was so wise and yet such a child with it all; and though itseems laughable to say so, like the hero of the Yankee parody, he 'had a tender heart'. Anyway, I was very fond of him, thoughI should never have thought of telling him so. 

'Ay, old wolf, ' I said, 'thine is a strange love. Thou wouldstsplit me to the chin if I stood in thy path tomorrow. '

'Thou speakest truth, Macumazahn, that would I if it came inthe way of duty, but I should love thee all the same when theblow had gone fairly home. Is there any chance of some fightinghere, Macumazahn?' he went on in an insinuating voice. 'Methoughtthat what I saw last night did show that the two great Queenswere vexed one with another. Else had the "Lady of the Night"not brought that dagger with her. '

I agreed with him that it showed that more or less pique andirritation existed between the ladies, and told him how thingsstood, and that they were quarrelling over Incubu. 

'Ah, is it so?' he exclaimed, springing up in delight; 'thenwill there be war as surely as the rivers rise in the rains --war to the end. Women love the last blow as well as the lastword, and when they fight for love they are pitiless as a woundedbuffalo. See thou, Macumazahn, a woman will swim through bloodto her desire, and think nought of it. With these eyes haveI seen it once, and twice also. Ah, Macumazahn, we shall seethis fine place of houses burning yet, and hear the battle criescome ringing up the street. After all, I have not wandered fornothing. Can this folk fight, think ye?'

Just then Sir Henry joined us, and Good arrived, too, from anotherdirection, looking very pale and hollow-eyed. The moment Umslopogaassaw the latter he stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him. 

'Ah, Bougwan, ' he cried, 'greeting to thee, Inkoos! Thou artsurely weary. Didst thou hunt too much yesterday?' Then, withoutwaiting for an answer, he went on --

'Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about awoman, therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?

'There was a man and he had a brother, and there was a womanwho loved the man's brother and was beloved of the man. Butthe man's brother had a favourite wife and loved not the woman, and he made a mock of her. Then the woman, being very cunningand fierce-hearted for revenge, took counsel with herself andsaid to the man, "I love thee, and if thou wilt make war uponthy brother I will marry thee. " And he knew it was a lie, yetbecause of his great love of the woman, who was very fair, didhe listen to her words and made war. And when many people hadbeen killed his brother sent to him, saying, "Why slayest thoume? What hurt have I done unto thee? From my youth up haveI not loved thee? When thou wast little did I not nurture thee, and have we not gone down to war together and divided the cattle, girl by girl, ox by ox, and cow by cow? Why slayest thou me, my brother, son of my own mother?"

'Then the man's heart was heavy, and he knew that his path wasevil, and he put aside the tempting of the woman and ceased tomake war on his brother, and lived at peace in the same kraalwith him. And after a time the woman came to him and said, "Ihave lost the past, I will be thy wife. " And in his heart heknew that it was a lie and that she thought the evil thing, yet because of his love did he take her to wife. 

'And the very night that they were wed, when the man was plungedinto a deep sleep, did the woman arise and take his axe fromhis hand and creep into the hut of his brother and slay him inhis rest. Then did she slink back like a gorged lioness andplace the thong of the red axe back upon his wrist and go her ways. 

'And at the dawning the people came shouting, "Lousta is slainin the night, " and they came unto the hut of the man, and therehe lay asleep and by him was the red axe. Then did they rememberthe war and say, "Lo! he hath of a surety slain his brother, "and they would have taken and killed him, but he rose and fledswiftly, and as he fleeted by he slew the woman. 

'But death could not wipe out the evil she had done, and on himrested the weight of all her sin. Therefore is he an outcastand his name a scorn among his own people; for on him, and himonly, resteth the burden of her who betrayed. And, therefore, does he wander afar, without a kraal and without an ox or a wife, and therefore will he die afar like a stricken buck and his namebe accursed from generation to generation, in that the peoplesay that he slew his brother, Lousta, by treachery in the night-time. '

The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated byhis own story. Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowedto his breast, and went on:

'I was the man, Bougwan. Ou! I was that man, and now harkthou! Even as I am so wilt thou be -- a tool, a plaything, anox of burden to carry the evil deeds of another. Listen! Whenthou didst creep after the "Lady of the Night" I was hard uponthy track. When she struck thee with the knife in the sleepingplace of the White Queen I was there also; when thou didstlet her slip away like a snake in the stones I saw thee, andI knew that she had bewitched thee and that a true man had abandonedthe truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had takena crooked way. Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp, but out of a full heart are they spoken. See her no more, soshalt thou go down with honour to the grave. Else because ofthe beauty of a woman that weareth as a garment of fur shaltthou be even as I am, and perchance with more cause. I havesaid. '

Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectlysilent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to hisown case, he coloured up, and when he learnt that what had passedbetween him and Sorais had been overseen he was evidently muchdistressed. And now, when at last he spoke, it was in a toneof humility quite foreign to him. 

'I must say, ' he said, with a bitter little laugh, 'that I scarcelythought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; butit just shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows canunderstand how humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of itis that I deserve it all. Of course I should have handed Soraisover to the guard, but I could not, and that is a fact. I lether go and I promised to say nothing, more is the shame to me. She told me that if I would side with her she would marry meand make me king of this country, but thank goodness I did findthe heart to say that even to marry her I could not desert myfriends. And now you can do what you like, I deserve it all. All I have to say is that I hope that you may never love a womanwith all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her, ' andhe turned to go. 

'Look here, old fellow, ' said Sir Henry, 'just stop a minute. I have a little tale to tell you too. ' And he went on to narratewhat had taken place on the previous day between Sorais and himself. 

This was a finishing stroke to poor Good. It is not pleasantto any man to learn that he has been made a tool of, but whenthe circumstances are as peculiarly atrocious as in the presentcase, it is about as bitter a pill as anybody can be called onto swallow. 

'Do you know, ' he said, 'I think that between you, you fellowshave about worked a cure, ' and he turned and walked away, andI for one felt very sorry for him. Ah, if the moths would alwayscarefully avoid the candle, how few burnt wings there would be!

That day was a Court day, when the Queens sat in the great halland received petitions, discussed laws, money grants, and soforth, and thither we adjourned shortly afterwards. On our waywe were joined by Good, who was looking exceedingly depressed. 

When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throneand proceeding with business as usual, surrounded by councillors, courtiers, lawyers, priests, and an unusually strong guard. It was, however, easy to see from the air of excitement and expectationon the faces of everybody present that nobody was paying muchattention to ordinary affairs, the fact being that the knowledgethat civil war was imminent had now got abroad. We saluted Nylepthaand took our accustomed places, and for a little while thingswent on as usual, when suddenly the trumpets began to call outsidethe palace, and from the great crowd that was gathered therein anticipation of some unusual event there rose a roar of'_Sorais! Sorais!_'

Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently thegreat curtains at the end of the hall were drawn wide and throughthem entered the 'Lady of the Night' herself. Nor did she comealone. Preceding her was Agon, the High Priest, arrayed in hismost gorgeous vestments, and on either side were other priests. The reason for their presence was obvious -- coming with themit would have been sacrilege to attempt to detain her. Behindher were a number of the great lords, and behind them a smallbody of picked guards. A glance at Sorais herself was enoughto show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for in placeof her gold embroidered 'kaf' she wore a shining tunic formedof golden scales, and on her head a little golden helmet. Inher hand, too, she bore a toy spear, beautifully made and fashionedof solid silver. Up the hall she came, looking like a lionessin her conscious pride and beauty, and as she came the spectatorsfell back bowing and made a path for her. By the sacred stoneshe halted, and laying her hand on it, she cried out with a loudvoice to Nyleptha on the throne, 'Hail, oh Queen!'

'All hail, my royal sister!' answered Nyleptha. 'Draw thou near. Fear not, I give thee safe conduct. '

Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up the halltill she stood right before the thrones. 

'A boon, oh Queen!' she cried again. 

'Speak on, my sister; what is there that I can give thee whohath half our kingdom?'

'Thou canst tell me a true word -- me and the people of Zu-Vendis. Art thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf, 'and she pointed to Sir Henry with her toy spear, 'to be a husbandto thee, and share thy bed and throne?'

Curtis winced at this, and turning towards Sorais, said to herin a low voice, 'Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other namesthan wolf to call me by, oh Queen!' and I saw her bite her lipsas, like a danger flag, the blood flamed red upon her face. As for Nyleptha, who is nothing if not original, she, seeingthat the thing was out, and that there was nothing further tobe gained by concealment, answered the question in a novel andeffectual manner, inspired thereto, as I firmly believe, by coquetryand a desire to triumph over her rival. 

Up she rose and, descending from the throne, swept in all theglory of her royal grace on to where her lover stood. Thereshe stopped and untwined the golden snake that was wound aroundher arm. Then she bade him kneel, and he dropped on one kneeon the marble before her, and next, taking the golden snake withboth her hands, she bent the pure soft metal round his neck, and when it was fast, deliberately kissed him on the brow andcalled him her 'dear lord'. 

'Thou seest, ' she said, when the excited murmur of the spectatorshad died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to hisfeet, 'I have put my collar round the "wolf's" neck, and behold!he shall be my watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, QueenSorais, my sister, and to those with thee. Fear not, ' she wenton, smiling sweetly on her lover, and pointing to the goldensnake she had twined round his massive throat, 'if my yoke beheavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not gall thee. '

Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proudtone, 'Ay, Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People heregathered together, by this sign do I take the foreigner to husband, even here in the face of you all. What, am I a Queen, and yetnot free to choose the man whom I will love? Then should I belower than the meanest girl in all my provinces. Nay, he hathwon my heart, and with it goes my hand, and throne, and all Ihave -- ay, had he been a beggar instead of a great lord fairerand stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledgeof strange things, I had given him all, how much more so beingwhat he is!' And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him, and holding it, stood there boldly facing the people. And suchwas her sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, andso beautiful she looked standing hand in hand there at her lover'sside, so sure of him and of herself, and so ready to risk allthings and endure all things for him, that most of those whosaw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her blushingface, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold strokefor her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but humannature in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold andnot afraid to break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptibleto appeals to its poetical side. 

And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of theNight stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bearto see her sister's triumph, which robbed her of the man whomshe had hoped to win, and in the awfulness of her jealous angershe trembled and turned white like an aspen in the wind. I thinkI have said somewhere of her that she reminded me of the seaon a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping power abouther. Well, it was all awake now, and like the face of the furiousocean it awed and yet fascinated me. A really handsome womanin a royal rage is always a beautiful sight, but such beautyand such a rage I never saw combined before, and I can only saythat the effect produced was well worthy of the two. 

She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purplerings beneath her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak andthrice she failed, but at last her voice came. Raising her silverspear, she shook it, and the light gleamed from it and from thegolden scales of her cuirass. 

'And thinkest thou, Nyleptha, ' she said in notes which pealedthrough the great hall like a clarion, 'thinkest thou that I, Sorais, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlandershall sit upon my father's throne and rear up half-breeds tofill the place of the great House of the Stairway? Never! never!while there is life in my bosom and a man to follow me and aspear to strike with. Who is on my side? Who?

'Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hitherto prey with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committedthe deadly sin against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee War-- red War! Ay, I say to thee that the path of thy passion shallbe marked out by the blazing of thy towns and watered with theblood of those who cleave to thee. On thy head rest the burdenof the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the dying andthe cries of the widows and those who are left fatherless forever and for ever. 

'I tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, fromthy throne, and that thou shalt be hurled -- ay, hurled evenfrom the topmost stair of the great way to the foot thereof, in that thou hast covered the name of the House of him who builtit with black shame. And I tell ye strangers -- all save Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service I will save alive ifthou wilt leave these men and follow me' (here poor Good shookhis head vigorously and ejaculated 'Can't be done' in English)-- 'that I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet alivein chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels thatfly east and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnaclesof the Temple, so that ye may be a token and a warning to theland. And as for thee, Incubu, thou shalt die in yet anotherfashion that I will not tell thee now. '

She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her likea storm, and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration, ran through the hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and withdignity:

'Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speakas thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up againstthee, for if my hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of ironwhen it grips thine armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear theenot. I weep for that which thou wilt bring upon our people andon thyself, but for myself I say -- I fear thee not. Yet thou, who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover and my lord fromme, whom today thou dost call a "foreign wolf", to be _thy_ loverand _thy_ lord' (here there was an immense sensation in the hall), 'thou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didstenter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place --ay, even by a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay asleep --'

'It is false, it is false!' rang out Agon's and a score of other voices. 

'It is _not_ false, ' said I, producing the broken point of thedagger and holding it up. 'Where is the haft from whichthis flew, oh Sorais?'

'It is not false, ' cried Good, determined at last to act likea loyal man. 'I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen'sbed, and on my breast the dagger broke. '

'Who is on my side?' cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she saw that public sympathy was turning against her. 'What, Bougwan, thou comest not?' she said, addressing Good, who wasstanding close to her, in a low, concentrated voice. 'Thou pale-souledfool, for a reward thou shalt eat out thy heart with love ofme and not be satisfied, and thou mightest have been my husbandand a king! At least I hold _thee_ in chains that cannot bebroken. 

'_War! War! War!_' she cried. 'Here, with my hand upon thesacred stone that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till theZu-Vendi set their necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare warto the end. Who follows Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?'

Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribableconfusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot withthe 'Lady of the Night', but some came from her following tous. Amongst the former was an under officer of Nyleptha's ownguard, who suddenly turned and made a run for the doorway throughwhich Sorais' people were already passing. Umslopogaas, whowas present and had taken the whole scene in, seeing with admirablepresence of mind that if this soldier got away others would followhis example, seized the man, who drew his sword and struck athim. Thereon the Zulu sprang back with a wild shout, and, avoidingthe sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible axe, till in a few seconds the man's fate overtook him and he fellwith a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor. 

This was the first blood spilt in the war. 

'Shut the gates, ' I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catchSorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committingsacrilege. But the order came too late, her guards were alreadypassing through them, and in another minute the streets echoedwith the furious galloping of horses and the rolling of her chariots. 

So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passinglike a whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to herheadquarters at M'Arstuna, a fortress situated a hundred andthirty miles to the north of Milosis. 

And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regimentsand preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas oncemore began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpeningInkosi-kaas's razor edge. 

CHAPTER XIXA STRANGE WEDDING

One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time beforethe gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as we had every reason to believe, was Sorais' great ally, andthe heart and soul of her party. This cunning and ferociousold man had not forgiven us for those hippopotami, or ratherthat was what he said. What he meant was that he would neverbrook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and foreignlearning and influence while there was a possibility of stampingus out. Also he knew that we possessed a different system ofreligion, and no doubt was in daily terror of our attemptingto introduce it into Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we hadany religion in our country, and I told him that so far as Icould remember we had ninety-five different ones. You mighthave knocked him down with a feather, and really it is difficultnot to pity a high priest of a well-established cult who is hauntedby the possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions. 

When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and Idiscussed what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarceratinghim, but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would producea disastrous effect throughout the country. 'Ah!' she added, with a stamp of her foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen, I will break the power of those priests, with their rites andrevels and dark secret ways. ' I only wished that old Agon couldhave heard her, it would have frightened him. 

'Well, ' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him, I supposethat we may as well let him go. He is of no use here. '

Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said ina dry little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'

'Eh?' said Curtis. 'No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him. '

She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way thatwas as shy as it was sweet. 

Then at last he understood. 

'Forgive me, Nyleptha, ' he said, rather tremulously. 'Dost thoumean that thou wilt marry me, even now?'

'Nay, I know not; let my lord say, ' was her rapid answer; 'butif my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'-- pointing to the entrance to a private chapel -- 'and am Inot ready to do the will of my lord? Listen, oh my lord! Ineight days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, forthou shalt lead my armies, and in war -- men sometimes fall, and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, ifonly for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovelyeyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down thered heart of a rose. 

'Mayhap, too, ' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and withmy crown my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and verybitter, and if she prevails she will not spare. Who can readthe future? Happiness is the world's White Bird, that alightsseldom, and flies fast and far till one day he is lost in theclouds. Therefore should we hold him fast if by any chance herests for a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to neglectthe present for the future, for who knows what the future willbe, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them, for when the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will othersbloom that we shall never see. ' And she lifted her sweet faceto him and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a curiouspang of jealousy and turned and went away. They never took muchnotice of whether I was there or not, thinking, I suppose, thatI was an old fool, and that it did not matter one way or theother, and really I believe that they were right. 

So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general, and watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the windowas a vulture whets his beak beside a dying ox. 

And in about an hour's time Sir Henry came tearing over, lookingvery radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself andeven Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist ata real wedding. Of course we said yes, and off we went to thechapel, where we found Agon looking as sulky as any High Priestpossibly could, and no wonder. It appeared that he and Nylepthahad a slight difference of opinion about the coming ceremony. He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to allow any of hispriests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry and toldhim that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant tobe obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry theEighth to perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to bemarried, she would be married, and that he should marry her. {Endnote 18}

He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinchedher argument thus --

'Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurdprejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all hissubordinates would raise a crying that would bring the starsdown on Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I _can_ leave him to contemplatethe altar of the Sun without anything to eat, because that ishis natural vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon!thou shalt be placed before the altar yonder with nought buta little water till such time as thou hast reconsidered the matter. '

Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morningwithout his breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, sohe presently modified his views and consented to marry them, saying at the same time that he washed his hands of all responsibilityin the matter. 

So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favouritemaidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face anddowncast eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of anysort, as seems to be the fashion on these occasions in most countriesof the world. She did not wear a single ornament, even her goldcirclets were removed, and I thought that if possible she lookedmore lovely than ever without them, as really superbly beautifulwomen do. 

She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his handand led him up before the altar, and after a little pause, ina slow, clear voice uttered the following words, which are customaryin Zu-Vendis if the bride desires and the man consents: --

'Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other womanto wife unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?'

'I swear it, ' answered Sir Henry; adding in English, 'One isquite enough for me. '

Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the altar, cameforward and gabbled off something into his beard at such a ratethat I could not follow it, but it appeared to be an invocationto the Sun to bless the union and make it fruitful. I observedthat Nyleptha listened very closely to every word, and afterwardsdiscovered that she was afraid lest Agon should play her a trick, and by going through the invocations backwards divorce them insteadof marry them. At the end of the invocations they were asked, as in our service, if they took each other for husband and wife, and on their assenting they kissed each other before the altar, and the service was over, so far as their rites were concerned. But it seemed to me that there was yet something wanting, andso I produced a Prayer-Book, which has, together which the 'IngoldsbyLegends', that I often read when I lie awake at night, accompaniedme in all my later wanderings. I gave it to my poor boy Harryyears ago, and after his death I found it among his things andtook it back again. 

'Curtis, ' I said, 'I am not a clergyman, and I do not know ifwhat I am going to propose is allowable -- I know it is not legal-- but if you and the Queen have no objection I should like to readthe English marriage service over you. It is a solemn step whichyou are taking, and I think that you ought, so far as circumstanceswill allow, to give it the sanction of your own religion. '

'I have thought of that, ' he said, 'and I wish you would. I do not feel half married yet. '

Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that her husbandwished to celebrate the marriage according to the rites prevailingin his own country, and so I set to work and read the service, from 'Dearly beloved' to 'amazement', as well as I could; andwhen I came to 'I, Henry, take thee, Nyleptha, ' I translated, and also 'I, Nyleptha, take thee, Henry, ' which she repeatedafter me very well. Then Sir Henry took a plain gold ring fromhis little finger and placed it on hers, and so on to the end. The ring had been Curtis' mother's wedding-ring, and I couldnot help thinking how astonished the dear old Yorkshire ladywould have been if she could have foreseen that her wedding-ringwas to serve a similar purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi. 

As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this secondceremony was going on, for he at once understood that it wasreligious in its nature, and doubtless bethought him of the ninety-fivenew faiths which loomed so ominously in his eyes. Indeed, heat once set me down as a rival High Priest, and hated me accordingly. However, in the end off he went, positively bristling with indignation, and I knew that we might look out for danger from his direction. 

And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also, leaving thehappy pair to themselves, and very low we all felt. Marriagesare supposed to be cheerful things, but my experience is thatthey are very much the reverse to everybody, except perhaps thetwo people chiefly interested. They mean the breaking-up ofso many old ties as well as the undertaking of so many new ones, and there is always something sad about the passing away of theold order. Now to take this case for instance: Sir Henry Curtisis the best and kindest fellow and friend in the world, but hehas never been quite the same since that little scene in thechapel. It is always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that -- Nyleptha, in short, from morning till night in one way or another, eitherexpressed or understood. And as for the old friends -- well, of course they have taken the place that old friends ought totake, and which ladies are as a rule very careful to see theydo take when a man marries, and that is, the second place. Yes, he would be angry if anybody said so, but it is a fact for allthat. He is not quite the same, and Nyleptha is very sweet andvery charming, but I think that she likes him to understand thatshe has married _him_, and not Quatermain, Good, and Co. Butthere! what is the use of grumbling? It is all very right andproper, as any married lady would have no difficulty in explaining, and I am a selfish, jealous old man, though I hope I never showit. 

So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged in anextra fine flagon of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, andpresently one of our attendants came and told a story that gaveus something to think about. 

It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel withUmslopogaas, Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temperto sulk over his scratches. Well, it appears that he walkedright past the Temple to the Sun, down the wide road on the furtherside of the slope it crowns, and thence on into the beautifulpark, or pleasure gardens, which are laid out just beyond theouter wall. After wandering about there for a little he startedto return, but was met near the outer gate by Sorais' train ofchariots, which were galloping furiously along the great northernroad. When she caught sight of Alphonse, Sorais halted her trainand called to him. On approaching he was instantly seized anddragged into one of the chariots and carried off, 'crying outloudly', as our informant said, and as from my general knowledgeof him I can well believe. 

At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais couldhave had in carrying off the poor little Frenchman. She couldhardly stoop so low as to try to wreak her fury on one whom sheknew was only a servant. At last, however, an idea occurredto me. We three were, as I think I have said, much revered bythe people of Zu-Vendis at large, both because we were the firststrangers they had ever seen, and because we were supposed tobe the possessors of almost supernatural wisdom. Indeed, thoughSorais' cry against the 'foreign wolves' -- or, to translateit more accurately, 'foreign hyenas' -- was sure to go down verywell with the nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt, likely to be particularly effectual amongst the bulk of the population. The Zu-Vendi people, like the Athenians of old, are ever seekingfor some new thing, and just because we were so new our presencewas on the whole acceptable to them. Again, Sir Henry's magnificentpersonal appearance made a deep impression upon a race who possessa greater love of beauty than any other I have ever been acquaintedwith. Beauty may be prized in other countries, but in Zu-Vendisit is almost worshipped, as indeed the national love of statuaryshows. The people said openly in the market-places that therewas not a man in the country to touch Curtis in personal appearance, as with the exception of Sorais there was no woman who couldcompete with Nyleptha, and that therefore it was meet that theyshould marry; and that he had been sent by the Sun as a husbandfor their Queen. Now, from all this it will be seen that theoutcry against us was to a considerable extent fictitious, andnobody knew it better than Sorais herself. Consequently it struckme that it might have occurred to her that down in the countryand among the country people, it would be better to place thereason of her conflict with her sister upon other and more generalgrounds than Nyleptha's marriage with the stranger. It wouldbe easy in a land where there had been so many civil wars torake out some old cry that would stir up the recollection ofburied feuds, and, indeed, she soon found an effectual one. This being so, it was of great importance to her to have oneof the strangers with her whom she could show to the common peopleas a great Outlander, who had been so struck by the justice ofher cause that he had elected to leave his companions and followher standard. 

This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a hold ofGood, whom she would have used till he ceased to be of serviceand then cast off. But Good having drawn back she grasped atthe opportunity of securing Alphonse, who was not unlike himin personal appearance though smaller, no doubt with the objectof showing him off in the cities and country as the great Bougwanhimself. I told Good that I thought that that was her plan, and his face was a sight to see -- he was so horrified at theidea. 

'What, ' he said, 'dress up that little wretch to represent me?Why, I shall have to get out of the country! My reputationwill be ruined for ever. '

I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not pleasant tobe personated all over a strange country by an arrant littlecoward, and I can quite sympathize with his vexation. 

Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in solitarygrandeur, feeling very much as though we had just returned fromburying a friend instead of marrying one, and next morning thework began in good earnest. The messages and orders which hadbeen despatched by Nyleptha two days before now began to takeeffect, and multitudes of armed men came pouring into the city. We saw, as may be imagined, but very little of Nyleptha andnot too much of Curtis during those next few days, but Good andI sat daily with the council of generals and loyal lords, drawingup plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the distributionof commands, and a hundred and one other things. Men came infreely, and all the day long the great roads leading to Milosiswere spotted with the banners of lords arriving from their distantplaces to rally round Nyleptha. 

After the first few days it became clear that we should be ableto take the field with about forty thousand infantry and twentythousand cavalry, a very respectable force considering how shortwas the time we had to collect it, and that about half the regulararmy had elected to follow Sorais. 

But if our force was large, Sorais' was, according to the reportsbrought in day by day by our spies, much larger. She had takenup her headquarters at a very strong town called M'Arstuna, situated, as I have said, to the north of Milosis, and all the countrysidewas flocking to her standard. Nasta had poured down from hishighlands and was on his way to join her with no less than twenty-fivethousand of his mountaineers, the most terrible soldiers to facein all Zu-Vendis. Another mighty lord, named Belusha, who livedin the great horse-breeding district, had come in with twelvethousand cavalry, and so on. Indeed, what between one thingand another, it seemed certain that she would gather a fullyarmed host of nearly one hundred thousand men. 

And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up hercamp and march on the Frowning City itself, desolating the countryas she came. Thereon arose the question whether it would bebest to meet her at Milosis or to go out and give her battle. When our opinion was asked upon the subject, Good and I unhesitatinglygave it in favour of an advance. If we were to shut ourselvesup in the city and wait to be attacked, it seemed to us thatour inaction would be set down to fear. It is so important, especially on an occasion of this sort, when a very little willsuffice to turn men's opinions one way or the other, to be upand doing something. Ardour for a cause will soon evaporateif the cause does not move but sits down to conquer. Thereforewe cast our vote for moving out and giving battle in the open, instead of waiting till we were drawn from our walls like a badgerfrom a hole. 

Sir Henry's opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless tosay, did that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always readyto flash out fire. A great map of the country was brought andspread out before her. About thirty miles this side of M'Arstuna, where Sorais lay, and ninety odd miles from Milosis, the roadran over a neck of land some two and a half miles in width, andflanked on either side by forest-clad hills which, without beinglofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite impracticablefor a great baggage-laden army to cross. She looked earnestlyat the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that insome women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her fingerupon this neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband, said, with a proud air of confidence and a toss of the goldenhead --

'Here shalt thou meet Sorais' armies. I know the spot, hereshalt thou meet them, and drive them before thee like dust beforethe storm. '

But Curtis looked grave and said nothing. 

CHAPTER XXTHE BATTLE OF THE PASS

It was on the third morning after this incident of the map thatSir Henry and I started. With the exception of a small guard, all the great host had moved on the night before, leaving theFrowning City very silent and empty. Indeed, it was found impossibleto leave any garrison with the exception of a personal guardfor Nyleptha, and about a thousand men who from sickness or onecause or another were unable to proceed with the army; but asMilosis was practically impregnable, and as our enemy was infront of and not behind us, this did not so much matter. 

Good and Umslopogaas had gone on with the army, but Nylepthaaccompanied Sir Henry and myself to the city gates, riding amagnificent white horse called Daylight, which was supposed tobe the fleetest and most enduring animal in Zu-Vendis. Her facebore traces of recent weeping, but there were no tears in hereyes now, indeed she was bearing up bravely against what musthave been a bitter trial to her. At the gate she reined in herhorse and bade us farewell. On the previous day she had reviewedand addressed the officers of the great army, speaking to themsuch high, eloquent words, and expressing so complete a confidencein their valour and in their ultimate victory, that she quitecarried their hearts away, and as she rode from rank to rankthey cheered her till the ground shook. And now today the samemood seemed to be on her. 

'Fare thee well, Macumazahn!' she said. 'Remember, I trust tothy wits, which are as a needle to a spear-handle compared tothose of my people, to save us from Sorais. I know that thouwilt do thy duty. '

I bowed and explained to her my horror of fighting, and my fearlest I should lose my head, at which she laughed gently and turnedto Curtis. 

'Fare thee well, my lord!' she said. 'Come back with victory, and as a king, or on thy soldiers' spears. ' {Endnote 19}

Sir Henry said nothing, but turned his horse to go; perhaps hehad a bit of a lump in his throat. One gets over it afterwards, but these sort of partings are trying when one has only beenmarried a week. 

'Here, ' added Nyleptha, 'will I greet thee when ye return intriumph. And now, my lords, once more, farewell!'

Then we rode on, but when we had gone a hundred and fifty yardsor so, we turned and perceived her still sitting on her horseat the same spot, and looking out after us beneath her hand, and that was the last we saw of her. About a mile farther on, however, we heard galloping behind us, and looking round, sawa mounted soldier coming towards us, leading Nyleptha's matchlesssteed -- Daylight. 

'The Queen sends the white stallion as a farewell gift to herLord Incubu, and bids me tell my lord that he is the fleetestand most enduring horse in all the land, ' said the soldier, bendingto his saddle-bow before us. 

At first Sir Henry did not want to take the horse, saying thathe was too good for such rough work, but I persuaded him to doso, thinking that Nyleptha would be hurt if he did not. Littledid I guess at the time what service that noble horse would renderin our sorest need. It is curious to look back and realize uponwhat trivial and apparently coincidental circumstances greatevents frequently turn as easily and naturally as a door on itshinges. 

Well, we took the horse, and a beauty he was, it was a perfectpleasure to see him move, and Curtis having sent back his greetingsand thanks, we proceeded on our journey. 

By midday we overtook the rear-guard of the great army of whichSir Henry then formally took over the command. It was a heavyresponsibility, and it oppressed him very much, but the Queen'sinjunctions on the point were such as did not admit of beingtrifled with. He was beginning to find out that greatness hasits responsibilities as well as its glories. 

Then we marched on without meeting with any opposition, almostindeed without seeing anybody, for the populations of the townsand villages along our route had for the most part fled, fearinglest they should be caught between the two rival armies and groundto powder like grain between the upper and the nether stones. 

On the evening of the fourth day, for the progress of so greata multitude was necessarily slow, we camped two miles this sideof the neck or ridge I have spoken of, and our outposts broughtus word that Sorais with all her power was rolling down uponus, and had pitched her camp that night ten miles the fartherside of the neck. 

Accordingly before dawn we sent forward fifteen hundred cavalryto seize the position. Scarcely had they occupied it, however, before they were attacked by about as many of Sorais' horsemen, and a very smart little cavalry fight ensued, with a loss tous of about thirty men killed. On the advance of our supports, however, Sorais' force drew off, carrying their dead and woundedwith them. 

The main body of the army reached the neck about dinner-time, and I must say that Nyleptha's judgment had not failed her, itwas an admirable place to give battle in, especially to a superiorforce. 

The road ran down a mile or more, through ground too broken toadmit of the handling of any considerable force, till it reachedthe crest of a great green wave of land, that rolled down a gentleslope to the banks of a little stream, and then rolled away againup a still gentler slope to the plain beyond, the distance fromthe crest of the land-wave down to the stream being a littleover half a mile, and from the stream up to the plain beyonda trifle less. The length of this wave of land at its highestpoint, which corresponded exactly with the width of the neckof the land between the wooded hills, was about two miles anda quarter, and it was protected on either side by dense, rocky, bush-clad ground, that afforded a most valuable cover to theflanks of the army and rendered it almost impossible for themto be turned. 

It was on the hither slope of this neck of land that Curtis encampedhis army in the same formation that he had, after consultationwith the various generals, Good, and myself, determined thatthey should occupy in the great pitched battle which now appearedto be imminent. 

Our force of sixty thousand men was, roughly speaking, dividedas follows. In the centre was a dense body of twenty thousandfoot-soldiers, armed with spears, swords, and hippopotamus-hideshields, breast and back plates. {Endnote 20} These formed thechest of the army, and were supported by five thousand foot, and three thousand horse in reserve. On either side of thischest were stationed seven thousand horse arranged in deep, majesticsquadrons; and beyond and on either side but slightly in frontof them again were two bodies, each numbering about seven thousandfive hundred spearmen, forming the right and left wings of thearmy, and each supported by a contingent of some fifteen hundredcavalry. This makes in all sixty thousand men. 

Curtis commanded in chief, I was in command of the seven thousandhorse between the chest and right wing, which was commanded byGood, and the other battalions and squadrons were entrusted toZu-Vendis generals. 

Scarcely had we taken up our positions before Sorais' vast armybegan to swarm on the opposite slope about a mile in front ofus, till the whole place seemed alive with the multitude of herspearpoints, and the ground shook with the tramp of her battalions. It was evident that the spies had not exaggerated; we were outnumberedby at least a third. At first we expected that Sorais was goingto attack us at once, as the clouds of cavalry which hung uponher flanks executed some threatening demonstrations, but shethought better of it, and there was no fight that day. As forthe formation of her great forces I cannot now describe it withaccuracy, and it would only serve to bewilder if I did, but Imay say, generally, that in its leading features it resembledour own, only her reserve was much greater. 

Opposite our right wing, and forming Sorais' left wing, was agreat army of dark, wild-looking men, armed with sword and shieldonly, which, I was informed, was composed of Nasta's twenty-fivethousand savage hillsmen. 

'My word, Good, ' said I, when I saw them, 'you will catch ittomorrow when those gentlemen charge!' whereat Good not unnaturallylooked rather anxious. 

All day we watched and waited, but nothing happened, and at lastnight fell, and a thousand watch-fires twinkled brightly on theslopes, to wane and die one by one like the stars they resembled. As the hours wore on, the silence gradually gathered more deeplyover the opposing hosts. 

It was a very wearying night, for in addition to the endlessthings that had to be attended to, there was our gnawing suspenseto reckon with. The fray which tomorrow would witness wouldbe so vast, and the slaughter so awful, that stout indeed mustthe heart have been that was not overwhelmed at the prospect. And when I thought of all that hung upon it, I own I felt ill, and it made me very sad to reflect that these mighty forces weregathered for destruction, simply to gratify the jealous angerof a woman. This was the hidden power which was to send thosedense masses of cavalry, flashing like human thunderbolts acrossthe plain, and to roll together the fierce battalions as cloudswhen hurricane meets hurricane. It was a dreadful thought, andset one wondering about the responsibilities of the great onesof the earth. Deep into the night we sat, with pale faces andheavy hearts, and took counsel, whilst the sentries tramped upand down, down and up, and the armed and plumed generals cameand went, grim and shadow-like. 

And so the time wore away, till everything was ready for thecoming slaughter; and I lay down and thought, and tried to geta little rest, but could not sleep for fear of the morrow --for who could say what the morrow would bring forth? Miseryand death, this was certain; beyond that we knew not, and I confessI was very much afraid. But as I realized then, it is uselessto question that eternal Sphinx, the future. From day to dayshe reads aloud the riddles of the yesterday, of which the puzzledwordlings of all ages have not answered one, nor ever will, guessthey never so wildly or cry they never so loud. 

And so at length I gave up wondering, being forced humbly toleave the issue in the balancing hands of Providence and themorrow. 

And at last up came the red sun, and the huge camps awoke witha clash, and a roar, and gathered themselves together for battle. It was a beautiful and awe-inspiring scene, and old Umslopogaas, leaning on his axe, contemplated it with grim delight. 

'Never have I seen the like, Macumazahn, never, ' he said. 'Thebattles of my people are as the play of children to what thiswill be. Thinkest thou that they will fight it out?'

'Ay, ' I answered sadly, 'to the death. Content thyself, "Woodpecker", for once shalt thou peck thy fill. '

Time went on, and still there was no sign of an attack. A forceof cavalry crossed the brook, indeed, and rode slowly along ourfront, evidently taking stock of our position and numbers. Withthis we did not attempt to interfere, as our decision was tostand strictly on the defensive, and not to waste a single man. The men breakfasted and stood to their arms, and the hours woreon. About midday, when the men were eating their dinner, forwe thought they would fight better on full stomachs, a shoutof '_Sorais, Sorais_' arose like thunder from the enemy's extremeright, and taking the glass, I was able to clearly distinguishthe 'Lady of the Night' herself, surrounded by a glittering staff, and riding slowly down the lines of her battalions. And as shewent, that mighty, thundering shout rolled along before her likethe rolling of ten thousand chariots, or the roaring of the oceanwhen the gale turns suddenly and carries the noise of it to thelistener's ears, till the earth shook, and the air was full ofthe majesty of sound. 

Guessing that this was a prelude to the beginning of the battle, we remained still and made ready. 

We had not long to wait. Suddenly, like flame from a cannon'smouth, out shot two great tongue-like forces of cavalry, andcame charging down the slope towards the little stream, slowlyat first, but gathering speed as they came. Before they gotto the stream, orders reached me from Sir Henry, who evidentlyfeared that the shock of such a charge, if allowed to fall unbrokenupon our infantry, would be too much for them, to send five thousandsabres to meet the force opposite to me, at the moment when itbegan to mount the stiffest of the rise about four hundred yardsfrom our lines. This I did, remaining behind myself with therest of my men. 

Off went the five thousand horsemen, drawn up in a wedge-likeform, and I must say that the general in command handled themvery ably. Starting at a hand gallop, for the first three hundredyards he rode straight at the tip of the tongue-shaped mass ofcavalry which, numbering, so far as I could judge, about eightthousand sabres, was advancing to charge us. Then he suddenlyswerved to the right and put on the pace, and I saw the greatwedge curl round, and before the foe could check himself andturn to meet it, strike him about halfway down his length, witha crashing rending sound, like that of the breaking-up of vastsheets of ice. In sank the great wedge, into his heart, andas it cut its way hundreds of horsemen were thrown up on eitherside of it, just as the earth is thrown up by a ploughshare, or more like still, as the foaming water curls over beneath thebows of a rushing ship. In, yet in, vainly does the tongue twistits ends round in agony, like an injured snake, and strive toprotect its centre; still farther in, by Heaven! right through, and so, amid cheer after cheer from our watching thousands, backagain upon the severed ends, beating them down, driving themas a gale drives spray, till at last, amidst the rushing of hundredsof riderless horses, the flashing of swords, and the victoriousclamour of their pursuers, the great force crumples up like anempty glove, then turns and gallops pell-mell for safety backto its own lines. 

I do not think it reached them more than two-thirds as strongas it went out ten minutes before. The lines which were nowadvancing to the attack, opened and swallowed them up, and myforce returned, having only suffered a loss of about five hundredmen -- not much, I thought, considering the fierceness of thestruggle. I could also see that the opposing bodies of cavalryon our left wing were drawing back, but how the fight went withthem I do not quite know. It is as much as I can do to describewhat took place immediately around me. 

By this time the dense masses of the enemy's left, composed almostentirely of Nasta's swordsmen, were across the little stream, and with alternate yells of 'Nasta' and 'Sorais', with dancingbanners and gleaming swords, were swarming up towards us likeants. 

Again I received orders to try and check this movement, and alsothe main advance against the chest of our army, by means of cavalrycharges, and this I did to the best of my ability, by continuallysending squadrons of about a thousand sabres out against them. These squadrons did the enemy much damage, and it was a glorioussight to see them flash down the hillside, and bury themselveslike a living knife in the heart of the foe. But, also, we lostmany men, for after the experience of a couple of these charges, which had drawn a sort of bloody St Andrew's cross of dead anddying through the centre of Nasta's host, our foes no longerattempted to offer an unyielding front to their irresistibleweight, but opened out to let the rush go through, throwing themselveson the ground and hamstringing hundreds of horses as they passed. 

And so, notwithstanding all that we could do, the enemy drewnearer, till at last he hurled himself upon Good's force of seventhousand five hundred regulars, who were drawn up to receivethem in three strong squares. About the same time, too, an awfuland heartshaking roar told me that the main battle had closedin on the centre and extreme left. I raised myself in my stirrupsand looked down to my left; so far as the eye could see therewas a long dazzling shimmer of steel as the sun glanced uponfalling sword and thrusting spear. 

To and fro swung the contending lines in that dread struggle, now giving way, now gaining a little in the mad yet ordered confusionof attack and defence. But it was as much as I could do to keepcount of what was happening to our own wing; and, as for themoment the cavalry had fallen back under cover of Good's threesquares, I had a fair view of this. 

Nasta's wild swordsmen were now breaking in red waves againstthe sullen rock-like squares. Time after time did they yellout their war-cries, and hurl themselves furiously against thelong triple ridges of spear points, only to be rolled back asbillows are when they meet the cliff. 

And so for four long hours the battle raged almost without apause, and at the end of that time, if we had gained nothingwe had lost nothing. Two attempts to turn our left flank byforcing a way through the wood by which it was protected hadbeen defeated; and as yet Nasta's swordsmen had, notwithstandingtheir desperate efforts, entirely failed to break Good's threesquares, though they had thinned their numbers by quite a third. 

As for the chest of the army where Sir Henry was with his staffand Umslopogaas, it had suffered dreadfully, but it had heldits own with honour, and the same may be said of our left battle. 

At last the attacks slackened, and Sorais' army drew back, having, I began to think, had enough of it. On this point, however, I was soon undeceived, for splitting up her cavalry into comparativelysmall squadrons, she charged us furiously with them, all alongthe line, and then once more sullenly rolled her tens of thousandsof sword and spearmen down upon our weakened squares and squadrons;Sorais herself directing the movement, as fearless as a lionessheading the main attack. On they came like an avalanche -- I sawher golden helm gleaming in the van -- our counter charges of cavalryentirely failing to check their forward sweep. Now they hadstruck us, and our centre bent in like a bow beneath the weightof their rush -- it parted, and had not the ten thousand menin reserve charged down to its support it must have been utterlydestroyed. As for Good's three squares, they were swept backwardslike boats upon an incoming tide, and the foremost one was burstinto and lost half its remaining men. But the effort was toofierce and terrible to last. Suddenly the battle came, as itwere, to a turning-point, and for a minute or two stood still. 

Then it began to move towards Sorais' camp. Just then, too, Nasta's fierce and almost invincible highlanders, either becausethey were disheartened by their losses or by way of a ruse, fellback, and the remains of Good's gallant squares, leaving thepositions they had held for so many hours, cheered wildly, andrashly followed them down the slope, whereon the swarms of swordsmenturned to envelop them, and once more flung themselves upon themwith a yell. Taken thus on every side, what remained of thefirst square was quickly destroyed, and I perceived that thesecond, in which I could see Good himself mounted on a largehorse, was on the point of annihilation. A few more minutesand it was broken, its streaming colours sank, and I lost sightof Good in the confused and hideous slaughter that ensued. 

Presently, however, a cream-coloured horse with a snow-whitemane and tail burst from the ruins of the square and came rushingpast me riderless and with wide streaming reins, and in it Irecognized the charger that Good had been riding. Then I hesitatedno longer, but taking with me half my effective cavalry force, which now amounted to between four and five thousand men, I commendedmyself to God, and, without waiting for orders, I charged straightdown upon Nasta's swordsmen. Seeing me coming, and being warnedby the thunder of my horses' hoofs, the majority of them facedround, and gave us a right warm welcome. Not an inch would theyyield; in vain did we hack and trample them down as we plougheda broad red furrow through their thousands; they seemed to re-ariseby hundreds, driving their terrible sharp swords into our horses, or severing their hamstrings, and then hacking the troopers whocame to the ground with them almost into pieces. My horse wasspeedily killed under me, but luckily I had a fresh one, my ownfavourite, a coal-black mare Nyleptha had given me, being heldin reserve behind, and on this I afterwards mounted. MeanwhileI had to get along as best I could, for I was pretty well lostsight of by my men in the mad confusion of the moment. My voice, of course, could not be heard in the midst of the clanging ofsteel and the shrieks of rage and agony. Presently I found myselfmixed up with the remnants of the square, which had formed roundits leader Good, and was fighting desperately for existence. I stumbled against somebody, and glancing down, caught sightof Good's eyeglass. He had been beaten to his knee. Over himwas a great fellow swinging a heavy sword. Somehow I managedto run the man through with the sime I had taken from the Masaiwhose hand I had cut off; but as I did so, he dealt me a frightfulblow on the left side and breast with the sword, and though mychain shirt saved my life, I felt that I was badly hurt. Fora minute I fell on to my hands and knees among the dead and dying, and turned sick and faint. When I came to again I saw that Nasta'sspearmen, or rather those of them who remained, were retreatingback across the stream, and that Good was there by me smiling sweetly. 

'Near go that, ' he shouted; 'but all's well that ends well. '

I assented, but I could not help feeling that it had not endedwell for me. I was sorely hurt. 

Just then we saw the smaller bodies of cavalry stationed on ourextreme right and left, and which were now reinforced by thethree thousand sabres which we had held in reserve, flash outlike arrows from their posts and fall upon the disordered flanksof Sorais' forces, and that charge decided the issue of the battle. In another minute or two the enemy was in slow and sullen retreatacross the little stream, where they once more re-formed. Thencame another lull, during which I managed to get a second horse, and received my orders to advance from Sir Henry, and then withone fierce deep-throated roar, with a waving of banners and awide flashing of steel, the remains of our army took the offensiveand began to sweep down, slowly indeed, but irresistibly fromthe positions they had so gallantly held all day. 

At last it was our turn to attack. 

On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, andwere approaching the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinarysight. Galloping wildly towards us, his arms tightly claspedaround his horse's neck, against which his blanched cheek wastightly pressed, was a man arrayed in the full costume of a Zu-Vendigeneral, but in whom, as he came nearer, I recognized none otherthan our lost Alphonse. It was impossible even then to mistakethose curling mustachios. In a minute he was tearing throughour ranks and narrowly escaped being cut down, till at last somebodycaught his horse's bridle, and he was brought to me just as amomentary halt occurred in our advance to allow what remainedof our shattered squares to form into line. 

'Ah, monsieur, ' he gasped out in a voice that was nearly inarticulatewith fright, 'grace to the sky, it is you! Ah, what I have endured!But you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the laches. But listen, monsieur -- I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murderedtomorrow at the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guardswill leave their posts, and the priests are going to kill her. Ah yes! they little thought it, but I was ensconced beneatha banner, and I heard it all. '

'What?' I said, horror-struck; 'what do you mean?'

'What I say, monsieur; that devil of a Nasta he went last nightto settle the affair with the Archbishop [Agon]. The guard willleave open the little gate leading from the great stair and goaway, and Nasta and Agon's priests will come in and kill her. Themselves they would not kill her. '

'Come with me, ' I said, and, shouting to the staff-officer nextto me to take over the command, I snatched his bridle and gallopedas hard as I could for the spot, between a quarter and half amile off, where I saw the royal pennon flying, and where I knewthat I should find Curtis if he were still alive. On we tore, our horses clearing heaps of dead and dying men, and splashingthrough pools of blood, on past the long broken lines of spearmento where, mounted on the white stallion Nyleptha had sent to himas a parting gift, I saw Sir Henry's form towering above thegenerals who surrounded him. 

Just as we reached him the advance began again. A bloody clothwas bound around his head, but I saw that his eye was as brightand keen as ever. Beside him was old Umslopogaas, his axe redwith blood, but looking quite fresh and uninjured. 

'What's wrong, Quatermain?' he shouted. 

'Everything. There is a plot to murder the Queen tomorrow atdawn. Alphonse here, who has just escaped from Sorais, has overheardit all, ' and I rapidly repeated to him what the Frenchman hadtold me. 

Curtis' face turned deadly pale and his jaw dropped. 

'At dawn, ' he gasped, 'and it is now sunset; it dawns beforefour and we are nearly a hundred miles off -- nine hours at theoutside. What is to be done?'

An idea entered into my head. 'Is that horse of yours fresh?'I said. 

'Yes, I have only just got on to him -- when my last was killed, and he has been fed. '

'So is mine. Get off him, and let Umslopogaas mount; he canride well. We will be at Milosis before dawn, or if we are not-- well, we cannot help it. No, no; it is impossible for youto leave now. You would be seen, and it would turn the fateof the battle. It is not half won yet. The soldiers would thinkyou were making a bolt of it. Quick now. '

In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas spranginto the empty saddle. 

'Now farewell, ' I said. 'Send a thousand horsemen with remountsafter us in an hour if possible. Stay, despatch a general tothe left wing to take over the command and explain my absence. '

'You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?' he said in abroken voice. 

'Ay, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind. '

He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff gallopedoff to join the advance, which by this time was fording the littlebrook that now ran red with the blood of the fallen. 

As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field asarrows leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right outof the sight of slaughter, the smell of blood, and the turmoiland shouting, which only came to our ears as a faint, far-offroaring like the sound of distant breakers. 

CHAPTER XXIAWAY! AWAY!

At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe ourhorses; and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which, illumined as it was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun stainingthe whole scene red, looked from where we were more like somewild titanic picture than an actual hand-to-hand combat. Thedistinguishing scenic effect from that distance was the countlessdistinct flashes of light reflected from the swords and spears, otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might have been expected. The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was beingfought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and thewide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and whatwas tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificantwhen viewed from the distance. But is it not thus with all theaffairs and doings of our race about which we blow the loud trumpetand make such a fuss and worry? How utterly antlike, and morallyand physically insignificant, must they seem to the calm eyesthat watch them from the arching depths above!

'We win the day, Macumazahn, ' said old Umslopogaas, taking inthe whole situation with a glance of his practised eye. 'Look, the Lady of the Night's forces give on every side, there is nostiffness left in them, they bend like hot iron, they are fightingwith but half a heart. But alas! the battle will in a mannerbe drawn, for the darkness gathers, and the regiments will notbe able to follow and slay!' -- and he shook his head sadly. 'But, ' he added, 'I do not think that they will fight again. We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well tohave lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing. '

By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side byside I told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed, all the lives that had been lost that day would have been lostin vain. 

'Ah!' he said, 'nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these, and to be there before the dawn! Well -- away! away! man canbut try, Macumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time tosplit that old "witch-finder's" [Agon's] skull for him. Oncehe wanted to burn us, the old "rain-maker", did he? And nowhe would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he? Good!So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely, be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay, by T'Chaka's head I swear it!' and he shook Inkosi-kaas as hegalloped. By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunatelythere would be a moon later, and the road was good. 

On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrodehad got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a widesteady stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile. Down the side of slopes we galloped, across wide vales thatstretched to the foot of far-off hills. Nearer and nearer grewthe blue hills; now we were travelling up their steeps, and nowwe were over and passing towards others that sprang up like visionsin the far, faint distance beyond. 

On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quietof the night, that was set like a song to the falling music ofour horses' hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only someforgotten starving dog howled a melancholy welcome; on, pastlonely moated dwellings; on, through the white patchy moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide bosom of the earth, as though therewas no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for hour after hour!

We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorioushorses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as theyfilled their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ringof their round hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaaslook beside me, mounted upon the great white horse, like Deathin the Revelation of St John, as now and again lifting his fierceset face he gazed out along the road, and pointed with his axetowards some distant rise or house. 

And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour. 

At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode wasbeginning to give out. I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight, and we were considerably more than half way. On the top of arise was a little spring, which I remembered because I had sleptby it a few nights before, and here I motioned to Umslopogaasto pull up, having determined to give the horses and ourselvesten minutes to breathe in. He did so, and we dismounted -- thatis to say, Umslopogaas did, and then helped me off, for whatwith fatigue, stiffness, and the pain of my wound, I could notdo so for myself; and then the gallant horses stood panting there, resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat felldrip, drip, from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale cloudsin the still night air. 

Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the springand drank deep of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but asingle mouthful of wine since midday, when the battle began, and I was parched up, though my fatigue was too great to allowme to feel hungry. Then, having laved my fevered head and hands, I returned, and the Zulu went and drank. Next we allowed thehorses to take a couple of mouthfuls each -- no more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts away from the water!There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in hobbling upand down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting thecondition of the horses. My mare, gallant animal though shewas, was evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and hereye looked sick and dull; but Daylight, Nyleptha's glorious horse-- who, if he is served aright, should, like the steeds who savedgreat Rameses in his need, feed for the rest of his days outof a golden manger -- was still comparatively speaking fresh, notwithstanding the fact that he had had by far the heavier weightto carry. He was 'tucked up', indeed, and his legs were weary, but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his shapely head upand gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that seemed tosay that whoever failed _he_ was good for those five-and-forty milesthat yet lay between us and Milosis. Then Umslopogaas helped meinto the saddle and -- vigorous old savage that he was! -- vaultedinto his own without touching a stirrup, and we were off once more, slowly at first, till the horses got into their stride, and thenmore swiftly. So we passed over another ten miles, and then camea long, weary rise of some six or seven miles, and three timesdid my poor black mare nearly come to the ground with me. But onthe top she seemed to gather herself together, and rattled downthe slope with long, convulsive strides, breathing in gasps. We did that three or four miles more swiftly than any since wehad started on our wild ride, but I felt it to be a last effort, and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse took the bit between herteeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground forsome three or four hundred yards, and then, with two or threejerky strides, pulled herself up and fell with a crash right onto her head, I rolling myself free as she did so. As I struggledto my feet the brave beast raised her head and looked at me withpiteous bloodshot eyes, and then her head dropped with a groanand she was dead. Her heart was broken. 

Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at himin dismay. There were still more than twenty miles to do bydawn, and how were we to do it with one horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had forgotten the old Zulu's extraordinary running powers. 

Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began tohoist me into it. 

'What wilt thou do?' I asked. 

'Run, ' he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather. 

Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, therelief it was to me to get that change of horses! Anybody whohas ever ridden against time will know what it meant. 

Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, givingthe gaunt Zulu a lift at every stride. It was a wonderful thingto see old Umslopogaas run mile after mile, his lips slightlyparted and his nostrils agape like the horse's. Every five milesor so we stopped for a few minutes to let him get his breath, and then flew on again. 

'Canst thou go farther, ' I said at the third of these stoppages, 'or shall I leave thee to follow me?'

He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us. It was theTemple of the Sun, now not more than five miles away. 

'I reach it or I die, ' he gasped. 

Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the insideof my legs, and every movement of my horse gave me anguish. Nor was that all. I was exhausted with toil, want of food andsleep, and also suffering very much from the blow I had receivedon my left side; it seemed as though a piece of bone or somethingwas slowly piercing into my lung. Poor Daylight, too, was prettynearly finished, and no wonder. But there was a smell of dawnin the air, and we might not stay; better that all three of usshould die upon the road than that we should linger while therewas life in us. The air was thick and heavy, as it sometimesis before the dawn breaks, and -- another infallible sign incertain parts of Zu-Vendis that sunrise is at hand -- hundredsof little spiders pendant on the end of long tough webs werefloating about in it. These early-rising creatures, or rathertheir webs, caught upon the horse's and our own forms by scores, and, as we had neither the time nor the energy to brush themoff, we rushed along covered with hundreds of long grey threadsthat streamed out a yard or more behind us -- and a very strangeappearance they must have given us. 

And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wallof the Frowning City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me:What if they will not let us in?

'_Open! open!_' I shout imperiously, at the same time givingthe royal password. '_Open! open!_ a messenger, a messengerwith tidings of the war!'

'What news?' cried the guard. 'And who art thou that ridestso madly, and who is that whose tongue lolls out' -- and it actuallydid -- 'and who runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?'

'It is the Lord Macumazahn, and with him is his dog, his black dog. _Open! open!_ I bring tidings. '

The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridgefell with a rattling crash, and we dashed on through the oneand over the other. 

'What news, my lord, what news?' cried the guard. 

'Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud, ' I answered, and was gone. 

One more effort, gallant horse, and yet more gallant man!

So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteenshort minutes more, old Zulu war-dog, and ye shall both livefor ever in the annals of the land. 

On, clattering through the sleeping streets. We are passingthe Flower Temple now -- one mile more, only one little mile-- hold on, keep your life in thee, see the houses run past ofthemselves. Up, good horse, up, there -- but fifty yards now. Ah! you see your stables and stagger on gallantly. 

'Thank God, the palace at last!' and see, the first arrows ofthe dawn are striking on the Temple's golden dome. {Endnote 21}But shall I get in here, or is the deed done and the way barred?

Once more I give the password and shout '_Open! open!_'

No answer, and my heart grows very faint. 

Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to myjoy I recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer ofNyleptha's guards, a man I know to be as honest as the light-- indeed, the same whom Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais onthe day she fled to the temple. 

'Is it thou, Kara?' I cry; 'I am Macumazahn. Bid the guard letdown the bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick, quick!'

Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at lengththe bridge fell and one half of the gate opened and we got intothe courtyard, where at last poor Daylight fell down beneathme, as I thought, dead. Except Kara, there was nobody to beseen, and his look was wild, and his garments were all torn. He had opened the gate and let down the bridge alone, and wasnow getting them up and shut again (as, owing to a very ingeniousarrangement of cranks and levers, one man could easily do, andindeed generally did do). 

'Where are the guard?' I gasped, fearing his answer as I neverfeared anything before. 

'I know not, ' he answered; 'two hours ago, as I slept, was Iseized and bound by the watch under me, and but now, this verymoment, have I freed myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatlyfear, that we are betrayed. '

His words gave me fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered, followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man, through the courtyards, up the great hall, which was silent asthe grave, towards the Queen's sleeping-place. 

We reached the first ante-room -- no guards; the second, stillno guards. Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late afterall, too late! The silence and solitude of those great chamberswas dreadful, and weighed me down like an evil dream. On, rightinto Nyleptha's chamber we rushed and staggered, sick at heart, fearing the very worst; we saw there was a light in it, ay, anda figure bearing the light. Oh, thank God, it is the White Queenherself, the Queen unharmed! There she stands in her night gear, roused, by the clatter of our coming, from her bed, the heavinessof sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of fear and shame mantlingher lovely breast and cheek. 

'Who is it?' she cries. 'What means this? Oh, Macumazahn, isit thou? Why lookest thou so wildly? Thou comest as one bearingevil tidings -- and my lord -- oh, tell me not my lord is dead-- not dead!' she wailed, wringing her white hands. 

'I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Soraislast night at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest. Sorais is beaten back all along her lines, and thy arms prevail. '

'I knew it, ' she cried in triumph. 'I knew that he would win;and they called him Outlander, and shook their wise heads whenI gave him the command! Last night at sundown, sayest thou, and it is not yet dawn? Surely --'

'Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha, ' I broke in, 'and giveus wine to drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldstsave thyself alive. Nay, stay not. '

Thus adjured she ran and called through the curtains towardssome room beyond, and then hastily put on her sandals and a thickcloak, by which time a dozen or so of half-dressed women werepouring into the room. 

'Follow us and be silent, ' I said to them as they gazed withwondering eyes, clinging one to another. So we went into thefirst ante-room. 

'Now, ' I said, 'give us wine to drink and food, if ye have it, for we are near to death. '

The room was used as a mess-room for the officers of the guards, and from a cupboard some flagons of wine and some cold fleshwere brought forth, and Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt lifeflow back into our veins as the good red wine went down. 

'Hark to me, Nyleptha, ' I said, as I put down the empty tankard. 'Hast thou here among these thy waiting-ladies any two of discretion?'

'Ay, ' she said, 'surely. '

'Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whomthou canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray themcome armed, with all honest folk that they can gather, to rescuethee from death. Nay, question not; do as I say, and quickly. Kara here will let out the maids. '

She turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeatedthe words I had uttered, giving them besides a list of the namesof the men to whom each should run. 

'Go swiftly and secretly; go for your very lives, ' I added. 

In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoinus at the door leading from the great courtyard on to the stairwayas soon as he had made fast behind the girls. Thither, too, Umslopogaas and I made our way, followed by the Queen and herwomen. As we went we tore off mouthfuls of food, and betweenthem I told her what I knew of the danger which encompassed her, and how we found Kara, and how all the guards and men-servantswere gone, and she was alone with her women in that great place;and she told me, too, that a rumour had spread through the townthat our army had been utterly destroyed, and that Sorais wasmarching in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence thereofall men had fallen away from her. 

Though all this takes some time to tell, we had not been butsix or seven minutes in the palace; and notwithstanding thatthe golden roof of the temple being very lofty was ablaze withthe rays of the rising sun, it was not yet dawn, nor would befor another ten minutes. We were in the courtyard now, and heremy wound pained me so that I had to take Nyleptha's arm, whileUmslopogaas rolled along after us, eating as he went. 

Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow doorway throughthe palace wall that opened on to the mighty stair. 

I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might. The doorwas gone, and so were the outer gates of bronze -- entirely gone. They had been taken from their hinges, and as we afterwardsfound, hurled from the stairway to the ground two hundred feetbeneath. There in front of us was the semicircular standing-space, about twice the size of a large oval dining-table, and the tencurved black marble steps leading on to the main stair --and that was all. 

CHAPTER XXIIHOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR

We looked at one another. 

'Thou seest, ' I said, 'they have taken away the door. Is thereaught with which we may fill the place? Speak quickly for theywill be on us ere the daylight. ' I spoke thus, because I knewthat we must hold this place or none, as there were no innerdoors in the palace, the rooms being separated one from anotherby curtains. I also knew that if we could by any means defendthis doorway the murderers could get in nowhere else; for thepalace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since the secret doorby which Sorais had entered on that memorable night of attemptedmurder had, by Nyleptha's order, been closed up with masonry. 

'I have it, ' said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to theemergency in a wonderful way. 'On the farther side of the courtyardare blocks of cut marble -- the workmen brought them there forthe bed of the new statue of Incubu, my lord; let us block thedoor with them. '

I jumped at the idea; and having despatched one of the remainingmaidens down the great stair to see if she could obtain assistancefrom the docks below, where her father, who was a great merchantemploying many men, had his dwelling-place, and set another towatch through the doorway, we made our way back across the courtyardto where the hewn marble lay; and here we met Kara returningfrom despatching the first two messengers. There were the marbleblocks, sure enough, broad, massive lumps, some six inches thick, and weighing about eighty pounds each, and there, too, were acouple of implements like small stretchers, that the workmenused to carry them on. Without delay we got some of the blockson to the stretchers, and four of the girls carried them to thedoorway. 

'Listen, Macumazahn, ' said Umslopogaas, 'if those low fellowscome, it is I who will hold the stair against them till the dooris built up. Nay, nay, it will be a man's death: gainsay menot, old friend. It has been a good day, let it now be goodnight. See, I throw myself down to rest on the marble there;when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me, not before, forI need my strength, ' and without a word he went outside and flunghimself down on the marble, and was instantly asleep. 

At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit downby the doorway, and content myself with directing operations. The girls brought the block, while Kara and Nyleptha built themup across the six-foot-wide doorway, a triple row of them, forless would be useless. But the marble had to be brought fortyyards and then there were forty yards to run back, and thoughthe girls laboured gloriously, even staggering along alone, eachwith a block in her arms, it was slow work, dreadfully slow. 

The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, weheard a commotion at the far-bottom of the stair, and the faintclinking of armed men. As yet the wall was only two feet high, and we had been eight minutes at the building of it. So theyhad come. Alphonse had heard aright. 

The clanking sound came nearer, and in the ghostly grey of thedawning we could make out long files of men, some fifty or soin all, slowly creeping up the stair. They were now at the half-waystanding place that rested on the great flying arch; and here, perceiving that something was going on above, they, to our greatgain, halted for three or four minutes and consulted, then slowlyand cautiously advanced again. 

We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, andit was almost three feet high. 

Then I woke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself, and swung Inkosi-kaas round his head. 

'It is well, ' he said. 'I feel as a young man once more. Mystrength has come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up beforeit dies. Fear not, I shall fight a good fight; the wine andthe sleep have put a new heart into me. 

'Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou andI stood together on a star, and looked down on the world, andthou wast as a spirit, Macumazahn, for light flamed through thyflesh, but I could not see what was the fashion of mine own face. The hour has come for us, old hunter. So be it: we have hadour time, but I would that in it I had seen some more such fightsas yesterday's. 

'Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn, and set my eyes towards Zululand;' and he took my hand and shook it, and then turned to face the advancing foe. 

Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clamberedover our improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way, and took his stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he didso. 

'What, comest thou too?' laughed out the old warrior. 'Welcome-- a welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the man who can dielike a man; ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel. Ow! we are ready. We wet our beaks like eagles, our spearsflash in the sun; we shake our assegais, and are hungry to fight. Who comes to give greeting to the Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]?Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit is death? I, theWoodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I, Umslopogaas, of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu, acaptain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, theson of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze, I of the royal blood of T'Chaka, I of the King's House, I theRinged Man, I the Induna, I call to them as a buck calls, I challengethem, I await them. Ow! it is thou, it is thou!'

As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armedmen, among whom in the growing light I recognized both Nastaand Agon, came streaming up the stair with a rush, and one bigfellow, armed with a heavy spear, dashed up the ten semicircularsteps ahead of his comrades and struck at the great Zulu withthe spear. Umslopogaas moved his body but not his legs, so thatthe blow missed him, and next instant Inkosi-kaas crashed throughheadpiece, hair and skull, and the man's corpse was rattlingdown the steps. As he dropped, his round hippopotamus-hide shieldfell from his hand on to the marble, and the Zulu stooped downand seized it, still chanting as he did so. 

In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and thenbegan a scene the like of which has not been known to me. 

Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fastas they came, the axe crashed and the sword swung, and down theyrolled again, dead or dying. And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu's eye seemed to get quicker and his arm stronger. He shouted out his war-cries and the names of chiefs whom hehad slain, and the blows of his awful axe rained straight andtrue, shearing through everything they fell on. There was noneof the scientific method he was so fond of about this last immortalfight of his; he had no time for it, but struck with his fullstrength, and at every stroke a man sank in his tracks, and wentrattling down the marble steps. 

They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, woundinghim in a dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but theshield protected his head and the chain-shirt his vitals, andfor minute after minute, aided by the gallant Zu-Vendi, he stillheld the stair. 

At last Kara's sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and theyrolled down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like thebrave man that he was. 

Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned. Shouting out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay, and another, and another, till at last they drew back from theslippery blood-stained steps, and stared at him with amazement, thinking that he was no mortal man. 

The wall of marble block was four feet six high now, and hoperose in my teeth as I leaned there against it a miserable helplesslog, and ground my teeth, and watched that glorious struggle. I could do no more for I had lost my revolver in the battle. 

And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faintas he was with wounds, he mocked them, he called them 'women'-- the grand old warrior, standing there one against so many!And for a breathing space none would come against him, notwithstandingNasta's exhortations, till at last old Agon, who, to do him justice, was a brave man, mad with baffled rage, and seeing that thewall would soon be built and his plans defeated, shook the greatspear he held, and rushed up the dripping steps. 

'Ah, ah!' shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest's flowingwhite beard, 'it is thou, old "witch-finder"! Come on! I awaitthee, white "medicine man"; come on! come on! I have sworn toslay thee, and I ever keep my faith. '

On he came, taking him at his word, and drave the big spear withsuch force at Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the toughshield and pierced him in the neck. The Zulu cast down the transfixedshield, and that moment was Agon's last, for before he couldfree his spear and strike again, with a shout of '_There's forthee, Rain-maker!_' Umslopogaas gripped Inkosi-kaas with bothhands and whirled on high and drave her right on to his venerablehead, so that Agon rolled down dead among the corpses of hisfellow-murderers, and there was an end to him and his plots altogether. And even as he fell, a great cry rose from the foot of the stair, and looking out through the portion of the doorway that was yetunclosed, we saw armed men rushing up to the rescue, and calledan answer to their shouts. Then the would-be murderers who yetremained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw several priests, turned to fly, but, having nowhere to go, were butchered as theyfled. Only one man stayed, and he was the great lord Nasta, Nyleptha's suitor, and the father of the plot. For a momentthe black-bearded Nasta stood with bowed face leaning on hislong sword as though in despair, and then, with a dreadful shout, he too rushed up at the Zulu, and, swinging the glittering swordaround his head, dealt him such a mighty blow beneath his guard, that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through thechain armour and deep into Umslopogaas' side, for a momentparalysing him and causing him to drop his axe. 

Raising the sword again, Nasta sprang forward to make an endof him, but little he knew his foe. With a shake and a yellof fury, the Zulu gathered himself together and sprang straightat Nasta's throat, as I have sometimes seen a wounded lion spring. He struck him full as his foot was on the topmost stair, andhis long arms closing round him like iron bands, down they rolledtogether struggling furiously. Nasta was a strong man and adesperate, but he could not match the strongest man in Zululand, sore wounded though he was, whose strength was as the strengthof a bull. In a minute the end came. I saw old Umslopogaasstagger to his feet -- ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effortswing up the struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurlhim straight over the parapet of the bridge, to be crushed topowder on the rocks two hundred feet below. 

The succour which had been summoned by the girl who had passeddown the stair before the assassins passed up was at hand, andthe loud shouts which reached us from the outer gates told usthat the town was also aroused, and the men awakened by the womenwere calling to be admitted. Some of Nyleptha's brave ladies, who in their night-shifts and with their long hair streamingdown their backs, just as they had been aroused from rest, wentoff to admit them at the side entrance, whilst others, assistedby the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down the marbleblocks they had placed there with so much labour. 

Soon the wall was down again, and through the doorway, followedby a crowd of rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and, in a way, a glorious figure. The man was a mass of wounds, anda glance at his wild eye told me that he was dying. The 'keshla'gum-ring upon his head was severed in two places by sword-cuts, one just over the curious hole in his skull, and the blood poureddown his face from the gashes. Also on the right side of hisneck was a stab from a spear, inflicted by Agon; there was adeep cut on his left arm just below where the mail shirt-sleevestopped, and on the right side of his body the armour was severedby a gash six inches long, where Nasta's mighty sword had bittenthrough it and deep into its wearer's vitals. 

On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendidsavage, and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and cheered him, as well they might, but he never stayed or heeded. With outstretched arms and tottering gait he pursued his way, followed by us all along the broad shell-strewn walk that ranthrough the courtyard, past the spot where the blocks of marblelay, through the round arched doorway and the thick curtainsthat hung within it, down the short passage and into the greathall, which was now filling with hastily-armed men, who pouredthrough the side entrance. Straight up the hall he went, leavingbehind him a track of blood on the marble pavement, till at lasthe reached the sacred stone, which stood in the centre of it, and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped andleaned upon his axe. Then suddenly he lifted up his voice andcried aloud --

'I die, I die -- but it was a kingly fray. Where are they whocame up the great stair? I see them not. Art thou there, Macumazahn, or art thou gone before to wait for me in the dark whither Igo? The blood blinds me -- the place turns round -- I hear thevoice of waters. '

Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the redaxe and kissed the blade. 

'Farewell, Inkosi-kaas, ' he cried. 'Nay, nay, we will go together;we cannot part, thou and I. We have lived too long one withanother, thou and I. 

'One more stroke, only one! A good stroke! a straight stroke!a strong stroke!' and, drawing himself to his full height, witha wild heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirlthe axe round his head till it looked like a circle of flaming steel. Then, suddenly, with awful force he brought it down straighton to the crown of the mass of sacred stone. A shower of sparksflew up, and such was the almost superhuman strength of the blow, that the massive marble split with a rending sound into a scoreof pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas there remained but some fragmentsof steel and a fibrous rope of shattered horn that had been thehandle. Down with a crash on to the pavement fell the fragmentsof the holy stone, and down with a crash on to them, still graspingthe knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old Zulu -- _dead_. 

And thus the hero died. 

A gasp of wonder and astonishment rose from all those who witnessedthe extraordinary sight, and then somebody cried, '_The prophecy!the prophecy!_ He has shattered the sacred stone!' and at oncea murmuring arose. 

'Ay, ' said Nyleptha, with that quick wit which distinguishesher. 'Ay, my people, he has shattered the stone, and beholdthe prophecy is fulfilled, for a stranger king rules in Zu-Vendis. Incubu, my lord, hath beat Sorais back, and I fear her no more, and to him who hath saved the Crown it shall surely be. Andthis man, ' she said, turning to me and laying her hand upon myshoulder, 'wot ye that, though wounded in the fight of yesterday, he rode with that old warrior who lies there, one hundred miles'twixt sun set and rise to save me from the plots of cruel men. Ay, and he has saved me, by a very little, and therefore becauseof the deeds that they have done -- deeds of glory such as ourhistory cannot show the like -- therefore I say that the nameof Macumazahn and the name of dead Umslopogaas, ay, and the nameof Kara, my servant, who aided him to hold the stair, shall beblazoned in letters of gold above my throne, and shall be gloriousfor ever while the land endures. I, the Queen, have said it. '

This spirited speech was met with loud cheering, and I said thatafter all we had only done our duty, as it is the fashion ofboth Englishmen and Zulus to do, and there was nothing to makean outcry about; at which they cheered still more, and then Iwas supported across the outer courtyard to my old quarters, in order that I might be put to bed. As I went, my eyes litupon the brave horse Daylight that lay there, his white headoutstretched on the pavement, exactly as he had fallen on enteringthe yard; and I bade those who supported me take me near him, that I might look on the good beast once more before he was draggedaway. And as I looked, to my astonishment he opened his eyesand, lifting his head a little, whinnied faintly. I could haveshouted for joy to find that he was not dead, only unfortunatelyI had not a shout left in me; but as it was, grooms were sentfor and he was lifted up and wine poured down his throat, andin a fortnight he was as well and strong as ever, and is thepride and joy of all the people of Milosis, who, whenever theysee him, point him out to the little children as the 'horse whichsaved the White Queen's life'. 

Then I went on and got off to bed, and was washed and had mymail shirt removed. They hurt me a great deal in getting itoff, and no wonder, for on my left breast and side was a blackbruise the size of a saucer. 

The next thing that I remember was the tramp of horsemen outsidethe palace wall, some ten hours later. I raised myself and askedwhat was the news, and they told me that a large body of cavalrysent by Curtis to assist the Queen had arrived from the sceneof the battle, which they had left two hours after sundown. When they left, the wreck of Sorais' army was in full retreatupon M'Arstuna, followed by all our effective cavalry. Sir Henrywas encamping the remains of his worn-out forces on the site(such is the fortune of war) that Sorais had occupied the nightbefore, and proposed marching to M'Arstuna on the morrow. Havingheard this, I felt that I could die with a light heart, and theneverything became a blank. 

When next I awoke the first thing I saw was the round disc ofa sympathetic eyeglass, behind which was Good. 

'How are you getting on, old chap?' said a voice from theneighbourhood of the eyeglass. 

'What are you doing here?' I asked faintly. 'You ought to beat M'Arstuna -- have you run away, or what?'

'M'Arstuna, ' he replied cheerfully. 'Ah, M'Arstuna fell lastweek -- you've been unconscious for a fortnight, you see -- withall the honours of war, you know -- trumpets blowing, flags flying, just as though they had had the best of it; but for all that, weren't they glad to go. Israel made for his tents, I can tellyou -- never saw such a sight in my life. '

'And Sorais?' I asked. 

'Sorais -- oh, Sorais is a prisoner; they gave her up, the scoundrels, 'he added, with a change of tone -- 'sacrificed the Queen to savetheir skins, you see. She is being brought up here, and I don'tknow what will happen to her, poor soul!' and he sighed. 

'Where is Curtis?' I asked. 

'He is with Nyleptha. She rode out to meet us today, and therewas a grand to-do, I can tell you. He is coming to see you tomorrow;the doctors (for there is a medical "faculty" in Zu-Vendis aselsewhere) thought that he had better not come today. '

I said nothing, but somehow I thought to myself that notwithstandingthe doctors he might have given me a look; but there, when aman is newly married and has just gained a great victory, heis apt to listen to the advice of doctors, and quite right too. 

Just then I heard a familiar voice informing me that 'Monsieurmust now couch himself, ' and looking up perceived Alphonse'senormous black mustachios curling away in the distance. 

'So you are here?' I said. 

'Mais oui, Monsieur; the war is now finished, my military instinctsare satisfied, and I return to nurse Monsieur. '

I laughed, or rather tried to; but whatever may have been Alphonse'sfailings as a warrior (and I fear that he did not come up tothe level of his heroic grandfather in this particular, showingthereby how true is the saying that it is a bad thing to beovershadowed by some great ancestral name), a better or kindernurse never lived. Poor Alphonse! I hope he will always thinkof me as kindly as I think of him. 

On the morrow I saw Curtis and Nyleptha with him, and he toldme the whole history of what had happened since Umslopogaas andI galloped wildly away from the battle to save the life of theQueen. It seemed to me that he had managed the thing exceedinglywell, and showed great ability as a general. Of course, however, our loss had been dreadfully heavy -- indeed, I am afraid tosay how many perished in the desperate battle I have described, but I know that the slaughter has appreciably affected the malepopulation of the country. He was very pleased to see me, dearfellow that he is, and thanked me with tears in his eyes forthe little that I had been able to do. I saw him, however, startviolently when his eyes fell upon my face. 

As for Nyleptha, she was positively radiant now that 'her dearlord' had come back with no other injury than an ugly scar onhis forehead. I do not believe that she allowed all the fearfulslaughter that had taken place to weigh ever so little in thebalance against this one fact, or even to greatly diminish herjoy; and I cannot blame her for it, seeing that it is the natureof loving woman to look at all things through the spectaclesof her love, and little does she reck of the misery of the manyif the happiness of the _one_ be assured. That is human nature, which the Positivists tell us is just perfection; so no doubtit is all right. 

'And what art thou going to do with Sorais?' I asked her. 

Instantly her bright brow darkened to a frown. 

'Sorais, ' she said, with a little stamp of the foot;'ah, but Sorais!'

Sir Henry hastened to turn the subject. 

'You will soon be about and all right again now, old fellow, 'he said. 

I shook my head and laughed. 

'Don't deceive yourselves, ' I said. 'I may be about for a little, but I shall never be all right again. I am a dying man, Curtis. I may die slow, but die I must. Do you know I have been spittingblood all the morning? I tell you there is something workingaway into my lung; I can feel it. There, don't look distressed;I have had my day, and am ready to go. Give me the mirror, will you?I want to look at myself. '

He made some excuse, but I saw through it and insisted, and atlast he handed me one of the discs of polished silver set in awooden frame like a hand-screen, which serve as looking-glassesin Zu-Vendis. I looked and put it down. 

'Ah, ' I said quietly, 'I thought so; and you talk of my gettingall right!' I did not like to let them see how shocked I reallywas at my own appearance. My grizzled stubby hair was turnedsnow-white, and my yellow face was shrunk like an aged woman'sand had two deep purple rings painted beneath the eyes. 

Here Nyleptha began to cry, and Sir Henry again turned the subject, telling me that the artists had taken a cast of the dead bodyof old Umslopogaas, and that a great statue in black marble wasto be erected of him in the act of splitting the sacred stone, which was to be matched by another statue in white marble ofmyself and the horse Daylight as he appeared when, at the terminationof that wild ride, he sank beneath me in the courtyard of thepalace. I have since seen these statues, which at the time ofwriting this, six months after the battle, are nearly finished;and very beautiful they are, especially that of Umslopogaas, which is exactly like him. As for that of myself, it is good, but they have idealized my ugly face a little, which is perhapsas well, seeing that thousands of people will probably look atit in the centuries to come, and it is not pleasant to look atugly things. 

Then they told me that Umslopogaas' last wish had been carriedout, and that, instead of being cremated, as I shall be, afterthe usual custom here, he had been tied up, Zulu fashion, withhis knees beneath his chin, and, having been wrapped in a thinsheet of beaten gold, entombed in a hole hollowed out of themasonry of the semicircular space at the top of the stair hedefended so splendidly, which faces, as far as we can judge, almost exactly towards Zululand. There he sits, and will sitfor ever, for they embalmed him with spices, and put him in anair-tight stone coffer, keeping his grim watch beneath the spothe held alone against a multitude; and the people say that atnight his ghost rises and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaasat phantom foes. Certainly they fear during the dark hours topass the place where the hero is buried. 

Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in theland in that unaccountable way in which such things to ariseamong barbarous and semi-civilized people, blowing, like thewind, no man knows whence. According to this saying, so longas the old Zulu sits there, looking down the stairway he defendedwhen alive, so long will the New House of the Stairway, springingfrom the union of the Englishman and Nyleptha, endure and flourish;but when he is taken from thence, or when, ages after, his bonesat last crumble into dust, the House will fall, and the Stairwayshall fall, and the Nation of the Zu-Vendi shall cease to bea Nation. 

CHAPTER XXIIII HAVE SPOKEN

It was a week after Nyleptha's visit, when I had begun to getabout a little in the middle of the day, that a message cameto me from Sir Henry to say that Sorais would be brought beforethem in the Queen's first antechamber at midday, and requestingmy attendance if possible. Accordingly, greatly drawn by curiosityto see this unhappy woman once more, I made shift, with the helpof that kind little fellow Alphonse, who is a perfect treasureto me, and that of another waiting-man, to reach the antechamber. I got there, indeed, before anybody else, except a few of thegreat Court officials who had been bidden to be present, butI had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was brought in bya party of guards, looking as beautiful and defiant as ever, but with a worn expression on her proud face. She was, as usual, dressed in her royal 'kaf', emblazoned with the emblem of theSun, and in her right hand she still held the toy spear of silver. A pang of admiration and pity went through me as I looked ather, and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply, at the same timeexpressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my condition, to remain standing before her. 

She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. 'Thou dostforget, Macumazahn, ' she said, 'I am no more a Queen, save inblood; I am an outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men shouldscorn, and none show deference to. '

'At least, ' I replied, 'thou art still a lady, and thereforeone to whom deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case, and therefore it is doubly due. '

'Ah!' she answered, with a little laugh, 'thou dost forget thatI would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee tothe angel's trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple. '

'No, ' I answered, 'I assure thee that I forgot it not; indeed, I often thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle ofthe Pass was turning against us; but the trumpet is there, andI am still here, though perchance not for long, so why talk ofit now?'

'Ah!' she went on, 'the battle! the battle! Oh, would that Iwere once more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I wouldtake such a vengeance on those accursed jackals who desertedme in my need; that it should only be spoken of in whispers;those woman, those pigeon-hearted half-breeds who sufferedthemselves to be overcome!' and she choked in her wrath. 

'Ay, and that little coward beside thee, ' she went on, pointingat Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked veryuncomfortable; 'he escaped and betrayed my plans. I tried tomake a general of him, telling the soldiers it was Bougwan, and to scourge valour into him' (here Alphonse shivered atsome unhappy recollection), 'but it was of no avail. He hidbeneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans. I would that I had slain him, but, alas! I held my hand. 

'And thou, Macumazahn, I have heard of what thou didst; thou artbrave, and hast a loyal heart. And the black one too, ah, he wasa _man_. I would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway. '

'Thou art a strange woman, Sorais, ' I said; 'I pray thee nowplead with the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercyunto thee. '

She laughed out loud. 'I plead for mercy!' she said and atthat moment the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good, and took her seat with an impassive face. As for poor Good, he looked intensely ill at ease. 

'Greeting, Sorais!' said Nyleptha, after a short pause. 'Thouhast rent the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands ofmy people to the sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroymy life by murder, thou hast sworn to slay my lord and his companionsand to hurl me from the Stairway. What hast thou to say whythou shouldst not die? Speak, O Sorais!'

'Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief countof the indictment, ' answered Sorais in her slow musical tones. 'It runs thus: "Thou didst strive to win the love of my lordIncubu. " It is for this crime that my sister will slay me, notbecause I levied war. It is perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha, that I fixed my mind upon his love too late. 

'Listen, ' she went on, raising her voice. 'I have nought tosay save that I would I had won instead of lost. Do thou withme even as thou wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there'(pointing to Sir Henry) -- 'for now will he be King -- carryout the sentence, as it is meet he should, for as he is the beginningof the evil, let him also be the end. ' And she drew herselfup and shot one angry glance at him from her deep fringed eyes, and then began to toy with her spear. 

Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something thatI could not catch, and then the Queen spoke. 

'Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee. When our fatherdied, and there was much talk in the land as to whether thoushouldst sit upon the throne with me, I being the elder, I gavemy voice for thee and said, "Nay, let her sit. She is twin withme; we were born at a birth; wherefore should the one be preferredbefore the other?" And so has it ever been 'twixt thee and me, my sister. But now thou knowest in what sort thou hast repaidme, but I have prevailed, and thy life is forfeit, Sorais. Andyet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me, and we playedtogether when we were little and loved each other much, and atnight we slept in the same cot with our arms each around theother's neck, and therefore even now does my heart go out tothee, Sorais. 

'But not for that would I spare thy life, for thy offence hasbeen too heavy; it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercyeven to the ground. Also, while thou dost live the land willnever be at peace. 

'Yet shalt thou not die, Sorais, because my dear lord here hathbegged thy life of me as a boon; therefore as a boon and as amarriage gift give I it to him, to do with even as he wills, knowing that, though thou dost love him, he loves thee not, Sorais, for all thy beauty. Nay, though thou art lovely as the nightin all her stars, O Lady of the Night, yet it is me his wifewhom he loves, and not thee, and therefore do I give thy lifeto him. '

Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing, and I do notthink that I ever saw a man look more miserable than did SirHenry at that moment. Somehow, Nyleptha's way of putting thething, though true and forcible enough, was not altogether pleasant. 

'I understand, ' stammered Curtis, looking at Good, 'I understoodthat he were attached -- eh -- attached to -- to the Queen Sorais. I am -- eh -- not aware what the -- in short, the state of yourfeelings may be just now; but if they happened to be that wayinclined, it has struck me that -- in short, it might put a satisfactoryend to an unpleasant business. The lady also has ample privateestates, where I am sure she would be at liberty to live unmolestedas far as we are concerned, eh, Nyleptha? Of course, I onlysuggest. '

'So far as I am concerned, ' said Good, colouring up, 'I am quitewilling to forget the past; and if the Lady of the Night thinksme worth the taking I will marry her tomorrow, or when she likes, and try to make her a good husband. '

All eyes were now turned to Sorais, who stood with that sameslow smile upon her beautiful face which I had noticed the firsttime that I ever saw her. She paused a little while, and clearedher throat, and then thrice she curtseyed low, once to Nyleptha, once to Curtis, and once to Good, and began to speak in measured tones. 

'I thank thee, most gracious Queen and royal sister, for theloving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up, and especiallyin that thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fateas a gift to the Lord Incubu -- the King that is to be. Mayprosperity, peace and plenty deck the life-path of one so mercifuland so tender, even as flowers do. Long mayst thou reign, Ogreat and glorious Queen, and hold thy husband's love in boththy hands, and many be the sons and daughters of thy beauty. And I thank thee, my Lord Incubu -- the King that is to be --I thank thee a thousand times in that thou hast been pleasedto accept that gracious gift, and to pass it on to thy comradein arms and in adventure, the Lord Bougwan. Surely the act isworthy of thy greatness, my Lord Incubu. And now, lastly, Ithank thee also, my Lord Bougwan, who in thy turn hast deignedto accept me and my poor beauty. I thank thee a thousand times, and I will add that thou art a good and honest man, and I putmy hand upon my heart and swear that I would that I could saythee "yea". And now that I have rendered thanks to all in turn'-- and again she smiled -- 'I will add one short word. 

'Little can you understand of me, Queen Nyleptha and my lords, if ye know not that for me there is no middle path; that I scornyour pity and hate you for it; that I cast off your forgivenessas though it were a serpent's sting; and that standing here, betrayed, deserted, insulted, and alone, I yet triumph over you, mock you, and defy you, one and all, and _thus_ I answer you. 'And then, of a sudden, before anybody guessed what she intendedto do, she drove the little silver spear she carried in her handinto her side with such a strong and steady aim that the keenpoint projected through her back, and she fell prone upon thepavement. 

Nyleptha shrieked, and poor Good almost fainted at the sight, while the rest of us rushed towards her. But Sorais of the Nightlifted herself upon her hand, and for a moment fixed her gloriouseyes intently on Curtis' face, as though there were some messagein the glance, then dropped her head and sighed, and with a sobher dark but splendid spirit passed. 

Well, they gave her a royal funeral, and there was an end of her. 

It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy thata great ceremony was held in the Flower Temple, and Curtis wasformally declared King-Consort of Zu-Vendis. I was too ill togo myself; and indeed, I hate all that sort of thing, with thecrowds and the trumpet-blowing and banner-waving; but Good, whowas there (in his full-dress uniform), came back much impressed, and told me that Nyleptha had looked lovely, and Curtis had bornehimself in a right royal fashion, and had been received withacclamations that left no doubt as to his popularity. Also hetold me that when the horse Daylight was led along in the procession, the populace had shouted '_Macumazahn, Macumazahn!_' till theywere hoarse, and would only be appeased when he, Good, rose inhis chariot and told them that I was too ill to be present. 

Afterwards, too, Sir Henry, or rather the King, came to see me, looking very tired, and vowing that he had never been so boredin his life; but I dare say that that was a slight exaggeration. It is not in human nature that a man should be altogether boredon such an extraordinary occasion; and, indeed, as I pointedout to him, it was a marvellous thing that a man, who but littlemore than one short year before had entered a great country asan unknown wanderer, should today be married to its beautifuland beloved Queen, and lifted, amidst public rejoicings, to itsthrone. I even went the length to exhort him in the future notto be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute power, butalways to strive to remember that he was first a Christian gentleman, and next a public servant, called by Providence to a great andalmost unprecedented trust. These remarks, which he might fairlyhave resented, he was so good as to receive with patience, andeven to thank me for making them. 

It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself tobe moved to the house where I am now writing. It is a very pleasantcountry seat, situated about two miles from the Frowning City, on to which it looks. That was five months ago, during the wholeof which time I have, being confined to a kind of couch, employedmy leisure in compiling this history of our wanderings from myjournal and from our joint memories. It is probable that itwill never be read, but it does not much matter whether it isor not; at any rate, it has served to while away many hours ofsuffering, for I have suffered a deal of pain lately. Thank God, however, there will not be much more of it. 

It is a week since I wrote the above, and now I take up my penfor the last time, for I know that the end is at hand. My brainis still clear and I can manage to write, though with difficulty. The pain in my lung, which has been very bad during the lastweek, has suddenly quite left me, and been succeeded by a feelingof numbness of which I cannot mistake the meaning. And justas the pain has gone, so with it all fear of that end has departed, and I feel only as though I were going to sink into the armsof an unutterable rest. Happily, contentedly, and with the samesense of security with which an infant lays itself to sleep inits mother's arms, do I lay myself down in the arms of the AngelDeath. All the tremors, all the heart-shaking fears which havehaunted me through a life that seems long as I looked back uponit, have left me now; the storms have passed, and the Star ofour Eternal Hope shines clear and steady on the horizon thatseems so far from man, and yet is so very near to me tonight. 

And so this is the end of it -- a brief space of troubling, a few restless, fevered, anguished years, and then the arms ofthat great Angel Death. Many times have I been near to them, and now it is my turn at last, and it is well. Twenty-four hoursmore and the world will be gone from me, and with it all itshopes and all its fears. The air will close in over the spacethat my form filled and my place know me no more; for the dullbreath of the world's forgetfulness will first dim the brightnessof my memory, and then blot it out for ever, and of a truth Ishall be dead. So is it with us all. How many millions havelain as I lie, and thought these thoughts and been forgotten!-- thousands upon thousands of years ago they thought them, thosedying men of the dim past; and thousands on thousands of yearshence will their descendants think them and be in their turnforgotten. 'As the breath of the oxen in winter, as the quickstar that runs along the sky, as a little shadow that loses itselfat sunset, ' as I once heard a Zulu called Ignosi put it, suchis the order of our life, the order that passeth away. 

Well, it is not a good world -- nobody can say that it is, savethose who wilfully blind themselves to facts. How can a worldbe good in which Money is the moving power, and Self-interestthe guiding star? The wonder is not that it is so bad, but thatthere should be any good left in it. 

Still, now that my life is over, I am glad to have lived, gladto have known the dear breath of woman's love, and that truefriendship which can even surpass the love of woman, glad tohave heard the laughter of little children, to have seen thesun and the moon and the stars, to have felt the kiss of thesalt sea on my face, and watched the wild game trek down to thewater in the moonlight. But I should not wish to live again!

Everything is changing to me. The darkness draws near, and thelight departs. And yet it seems to me that through that darknessI can already see the shining welcome of many a long-lost face. Harry is there, and others; one above all, to my mind the sweetestand most perfect woman that ever gladdened this grey earth. But of her I have already written elsewhere, and at length, sowhy speak of her now? Why speak of her after this long silence, now that she is again so near to me, now that I go where shehas gone?

The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Templeto a fiery flame, and my fingers tire. 

So to all who have known me, or known of me, to all who can thinkone kindly thought of the old hunter, I stretch out my hand fromthe far-off shore and bid a long farewell. 

And now into the hands of Almighty God, who sent it, do I commitmy spirit. 

'_I have spoken, _' as the Zulus say. 

CHAPTER XXIV

BY ANOTHER HAND

A year has elapsed since our most dear friend Allan Quatermainwrote the words '_I have spoken_' at the end of his record ofour adventures. Nor should I have ventured to make any additionsto the record had it not happened that by a most strange accidenta chance has arisen of its being conveyed to England. The chanceis but a faint one, it is true; but, as it is not probable thatanother will arise in our lifetimes, Good and myself think thatwe may as well avail ourselves of it, such as it is. During thelast six months several Frontier Commissions have been at workon the various boundaries of Zu-Vendis, with a view of discoveringwhether there exists any possible means of ingress or egress fromthe country, with the result that a channel of communicationwith the outer world hitherto overlooked has been discovered. This channel, apparently the only one (for I have discovered thatit was by it that the native who ultimately reached Mr Mackenzie'smission station, and whose arrival in the country, together withthe fact of his expulsion -- for he _did_ arrive about threeyears before ourselves -- was for reasons of their own kept adead secret by the priests to whom he was brought), is aboutto be effectually closed. But before this is done, a messengeris to be despatched bearing with him this manuscript, and alsoone or two letters from Good to his friends, and from myselfto my brother George, whom it deeply grieves me to think I shallnever see again, informing them, as our next heirs, that theyare welcome to our effects in England, if the Court of Probatewill allow them to take them {Endnote 22}, inasmuchas we havemade up our minds never to return to Europe. Indeed, it wouldbe impossible for us to leave Zu-Vendis even if we wished to do so. 

The messenger who is to go -- and I wish him joy of his journey-- is Alphonse. For a long while he has been wearied to deathof Zu-Vendis and its inhabitants. 'Oh, oui, c'est beau, ' hesays, with an expressive shrug; 'mais je m'ennuie; ce n'est paschic. ' Again, he complains dreadfully of the absence of cafesand theatres, and moans continually for his lost Annette, ofwhom he says he dreams three times a week. But I fancy his secretcause of disgust at the country, putting aside the homesicknessto which every Frenchman is subject, is that the people here laughat him so dreadfully about his conduct on the occasion of thegreat battle of the Pass about eighteen months ago, when he hidbeneath a banner in Sorais's tent in order to avoid being sentforth to fight, which he says would have gone against his conscience. Even the little boys call out at him in the streets, therebyoffending his pride and making his life unbearable. At any rate, he has determined to brave the horrors of a journey of almostunprecedented difficulty and danger, and also to run the riskof falling into the hands of the French police to answer fora certain little indiscretion of his own some years old (thoughI do not consider that a very serious matter), rather than remainin ce triste pays. Poor Alphonse! we shall be very sorry topart with him; but I sincerely trust, for his own sake and alsofor the sake of this history, which is, I think, worth givingto the world, that he may arrive in safety. If he does, andcan carry the treasure we have provided him with in the shapeof bars of solid gold, he will be, comparatively speaking, arich man for life, and well able to marry his Annette, if sheis still in the land of the living and willing to marry her Alphonse. 

Anyhow, on the chance, I may as well add a word or two todear old Quatermain's narrative. 

He died at dawn on the day following that on which he wrote thelast words of the last chapter. Nyleptha, Good and myself werepresent, and a most touching and yet in its way beautiful sceneit was. An hour before the daybreak it became apparent to usthat he was sinking, and our distress was very keen. Indeed, Good melted into tears at the idea -- a fact that called fortha last gentle flicker of humour from our dying friend, for evenat that hour he could be humorous. Good's emotion had, by looseningthe muscles, naturally caused his eyeglass to fall from its accustomedplace, and Quatermain, who always observed everything, observedthis also. 

'At last, ' he gasped, with an attempt at a smile, 'I have seenGood without his eyeglass. '

After that he said no more till the day broke, when he askedto be lifted up to watch the rising of the sun for the last time. 

'In a very few minutes, ' he said, after gazing earnestly at it, 'I shall have passed through those golden gates. '

Ten minutes afterwards he raised himself and looked us fixedlyin the face. 

'I am going a stranger journey than any we have ever taken together. Think of me sometimes, ' he murmured. 'God bless you all. I shall wait for you. ' And with a sigh he fell back dead. 

And so passed away a character that I consider went as near perfectionas any it has ever been my lot to encounter. 

Tender, constant, humorous, and possessing of many of the qualitiesthat go to make a poet, he was yet almost unrivalled as a manof action and a citizen of the world. I never knew any one socompetent to form an accurate judgment of men and their motives. 'I have studied human nature all my life, ' he would say, 'andI ought to know something about it, ' and he certainly did. He had but two faults -- one was his excessive modesty, and theother a slight tendency which he had to be jealous of anybodyon whom he concentrated his affections. As regards the firstof these points, anybody who reads what he has written will beable to form his own opinion; but I will add one last instance of it. 

As the reader will doubtless remember, it is a favourite trickof his to talk of himself as a timid man, whereas really, thoughvery cautious, he possessed a most intrepid spirit, and, whatis more, never lost his head. Well, in the great battle of thePass, where he got the wound that finally killed him, one wouldimagine from the account which he gives of the occurrence thatit was a chance blow that fell on him in the scrimmage. As amatter of fact, however, he was wounded in a most gallant andsuccessful attempt to save Good's life, at the risk and, as itultimately turned out, at the cost of his own. Good was downon the ground, and one of Nasta's highlanders was about to dispatchhim, when Quatermain threw himself on to his prostrate form andreceived the blow on his own body, and then, rising, killed thesoldier. 

As regards his jealousy, a single instance which I give in justiceto myself and Nyleptha will suffice. The reader will, perhaps, recollect that in one or two places he speaks as though Nylepthamonopolized me, and he was left by both of us rather out in thecold. Now Nyleptha is not perfect, any more than any other womanis, and she may be a little exigeante at times, but as regardsQuatermain the whole thing is pure imagination. Thus when hecomplains about my not coming to see him when he is ill, thefact was that, in spite of my entreaties, the doctors positivelyforbade it. Those little remarks of his pained me very muchwhen I read them, for I loved Quatermain as dearly as thoughhe were my own father, and should never have dreamed of allowingmy marriage to interfere with that affection. But let it pass;it is, after all, but one little weakness, which makes no greatshow among so many and such lovable virtues. 

Well, he died, and Good read the Burial Service over him in thepresence of Nyleptha and myself; and then his remains were, indeference to the popular clamour, accorded a great public funeral, or rather cremation. I could not help thinking, however, asI marched in that long and splendid procession up to the Temple, how he would have hated the whole thing could he have been thereto see it, for he had a horror of ostentation. 

And so, a few minutes before sunset, on the third night afterhis death, they laid him on the brazen flooring before the altar, and waited for the last ray of the setting sun to fall upon hisface. Presently it came, and struck him like a golden arrow, crowning the pale brows with glory, and then the trumpets blew, and the flooring revolved, and all that remained of our belovedfriend fell into the furnace below. 

We shall never see his like again if we live a hundred years. He was the ablest man, the truest gentleman, the firmest friend, the finest sportsman, and, I believe, the best shot in all Africa. 

And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life ofHunter Quatermain. 

Since then things have gone very well with us. Good has been, and still is, busily employed in the construction of a navy onLake Milosis and another of the large lakes, by means of whichwe hope to be able to increase trade and commerce, and also toovercome some very troublesome and warlike sections of the populationwho live upon their borders. Poor fellow! he is beginning toget over the sad death of that misguided but most attractivewoman, Sorais, but it is a sad blow to him, for he was reallydeeply attached to her. I hope, however, that he will in timemake a suitable marriage and get that unhappy business out ofhis head. Nyleptha has one or two young ladies in view, especiallya daughter of Nasta's (who was a widower), a very fine imperial-lookinggirl, but with too much of her father's intriguing, and yet haughty, spirit to suit my taste. 

As for myself, I should scarcely know where to begin if I setto work to describe my doings, so I had best leave them undescribed, and content myself with saying that, on the whole, I am gettingon very well in my curious position of King-Consort -- better, indeed, than I had any right to expect. But, of course, it isnot all plain sailing, and I find the responsibilities very heavy. Still, I hope to be able to do some good in my time, and I intendto devote myself to two great ends -- namely, to the consolidationof the various clans which together make up the Zu-Vendi people, under one strong central government, and to the sapping of thepower of the priesthood. The first of these reforms will, ifit can be carried out, put an end to the disastrous civil warsthat have for centuries devastated this country; and the second, besides removing a source of political danger, will pave theroad for the introduction of true religion in the place of thissenseless Sun worship. I yet hope to see the shadow of the Crossof Christ lying on the golden dome of the Flower Temple; or, if I do not, that my successors may. 

There is one more thing that I intend to devote myself to, andthat is the total exclusion of all foreigners from Zu-Vendis. Not, indeed, that any more are ever likely to get here, butif they do, I warn them fairly that they will be shown the shortestway out of the country. I do not say this from any sense ofinhospitality, but because I am convinced of the sacred dutythat rests upon me of preserving to this, on the whole, uprightand generous-hearted people the blessings of comparative barbarism. Where would all my brave army be if some enterprising rascalwere to attack us with field-guns and Martini-Henrys? I cannotsee that gunpowder, telegraphs, steam, daily newspapers, universalsuffrage, etc. , etc. , have made mankind one whit the happierthan they used to be, and I am certain that they have broughtmany evils in their train. I have no fancy for handing overthis beautiful country to be torn and fought for by speculators, tourists, politicians and teachers, whose voice is as the voiceof Babel, just as those horrible creatures in the valley of theunderground river tore and fought for the body of the wild swan;nor will I endow it with the greed, drunkenness, new diseases, gunpowder, and general demoralization which chiefly mark theprogress of civilization amongst unsophisticated peoples. Ifin due course it pleases Providence to throw Zu-Vendis open tothe world, that is another matter; but of myself I will not takethe responsibility, and I may add that Good entirely approvesof my decision. Farewell. 

Henry Curtis

December 15, 18--. 

PS -- I quite forgot to say that about nine months ago Nyleptha(who is very well and, in my eyes at any rate, more beautifulthan ever) presented me with a son and heir. He is a regularcurly-haired, blue-eyed young Englishman in looks, and, thoughhe is destined, if he lives, to inherit the throne of Zu-Vendis, I hope I may be able to bring him up to become what an Englishgentleman should be, and generally is -- which is to my mindeven a prouder and a finer thing than being born heir apparentto the great House of the Stairway, and, indeed, the highestrank that a man can reach upon this earth. 

H. C. 

NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq. 

The MS of this history, addressed to me in the handwriting ofmy dear brother Henry Curtis, whom we had given up for dead, and bearing the Aden postmark, reached me in safety on December20, 18--, or a little more than two years after it left his handsin the far centre of Africa, and I hasten to give the astonishingstory it contains to the world. Speaking for myself, I haveread it with very mixed feelings; for though it is a great reliefto know that he and Good are alive and strangely prosperous, I cannot but feel that for me and for all their friends theymight as well be dead, since we can never hope to see them more. 

They have cut themselves off from old England and from theirhomes and their relations for ever, and perhaps, under thecircumstances, they were right and wise to do so. 

How the MS came to be posted I have been quite unable to discover;but I presume, from the fact of its being posted at all, thatthe little Frenchman, Alphonse, accomplished his hazardous journeyin safety. I have, however, advertised for him and caused variousinquiries to be made in Marseilles and elsewhere with a viewof discovering his whereabouts, but so far without the slightestsuccess. Possibly he is dead, and the packet was posted by anotherhand; or possibly he is now happily wedded to his Annette, butstill fears the vengeance of the law, and prefers to remain incognito. I cannot say, I have not yet abandoned my hopes of finding him, but I am bound to say that they grow fainter day by day, andone great obstacle to my search is that nowhere in the wholehistory does Mr Quatermain mention his surname. He is alwaysspoken of as 'Alphonse', and there are so many Alphonses. The letters which my brother Henry says he is sending with thepacket of manuscript have never arrived, so I presume that theyare lost or destroyed. 

George Curtis

AUTHORITIES

A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian, for his 'Quellen'. As I have, however, judging from certain experiences in thepast, some reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledgemy indebtedness to Mr Thomson's admirable history of travel 'ThroughMasai Land' for much information as to the habits and customsof the tribes inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, andthe country where they live; also to my brother, John G. Haggard, RN, HBM's consul at Madagascar, and formerly consul at Lamu, for many details furnished by him of the mode of life and warof those engaging people the Masai; also to my sister-in-law, Mrs John Haggard, who kindly put the lines of p. 183 into rhyme forme; also to an extract in a review from some book of travel ofwhich I cannot recollect the name, to which I owe the idea ofthe great crabs in the valley of the subterranean river. {Endnote 23}But if I remember right, the crabs in the book when irritatedprojected their eyes quite out of their heads. I regret that Iwas not able to 'plagiarize' this effect, but I felt that, although crabs may, and doubtless do, behave thus in real life, in romance they 'will not do so. '

There is an underground river in 'Peter Wilkins', but at thetime of writing the foregoing pages I had not read that quaintbut entertaining work. 

It has been pointed out to me that there exists a similaritybetween the scene of Umslopogaas frightening Alphonse with hisaxe and a scene in Far from the Madding Crowd. I regret thiscoincidence, and believe that the talented author of that workwill not be inclined to accuse me of literary immorality onits account. 

Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain's little Frenchman appearsto belong to the same class of beings as those English ladieswhose long yellow teeth and feet of enormous size excite ourhearty amusement in the pages of the illustrated Gallic press. 

The Writer of 'Allan Quatermain'

Endnote 1

Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made of a speciesof black gum twisted in with the hair, and polished a brilliantblack, when he has reached a certain dignity and age, or is thehusband of a sufficient number of wives. Till he is in a positionto wear a ring he is looked on as a boy, though he may be thirty-fiveyears of age, or even more. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 2

One of the fleetest of the African antelopes. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 3

Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach of a deadfoe. They have a superstition that, if this is not done, asthe body of their enemy swells up so will the bodies of thosewho killed him swell up. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 4

No doubt this owl was a wingless bird. I afterwards learnt thatthe hooting of an owl is a favourite signal among the Masai tribes. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 5

Since I saw the above I have examined hundreds of these swords, but have never been able to discover how the gold plates wereinlaid in the fretwork. The armourers who make them in Zu-vendisbind themselves by oath not to reveal the secret. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 6

The Masai Elmoran or young warriors can own no property, so allthe booty they may win in battle belongs to their fathersalone. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 7

As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas's Zulu nameswas the 'Woodpecker'. I could never make out why he was calledso until I saw him in action with Inkosi-kaas, when I at oncerecognized the resemblance. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 8

By a sad coincidence, since the above was written by Mr Quatermain, the Masai have, in April 1886, massacred a missionary and hiswife -- Mr and Mrs Houghton -- on this very Tana River, and atthe spot described. These are, I believe, the first white peoplewho are known to have fallen victims to this cruel tribe. -- Editor. 

Endnote 9

Mr Allan Quatermain misquotes -- Pleasure sat at the helm. -- Editor. 

Endnote 10

Where Alph the sacred river ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea

Endnote 11

Mr Quatermain does not seem to have been aware that it is commonfor animal-worshipping people to annually sacrifice the beaststhey adore. See Herodotus, ii. 45. -- Editor. 

Endnote 12

There is another theory which might account for the origin ofthe Zu-Vendi which does not seem to have struck my friend MrQuatermain and his companions, and that is, that they are descendantsof the Phoenicians. The cradle of the Phoenician race is supposedto have been on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Thence, as there is good evidence to show, they emigrated in twostreams, one of which took possession of the shores of Palestine, while the other is supposed by savants to have immigrated downthe coast of Eastern Africa where, near Mozambique, signs andremains of their occupation are not wanting. Indeed, it wouldhave been very extraordinary if they did not, when leaving thePersian Gulf, make straight for the East Coast, seeing that thenorth-east monsoon blows for six months in the year dead in thatdirection, while for the other six months it blows back again. And, by the way of illustrating the probability, I may add thatto this day a very extensive trade is carried on between thePersian Gulf and Lamu and other East African ports as far southas Madagascar, which is of course the ancient Ebony Isle of the'Arabian Nights'. -- Editor. 

Endnote 13

There are twenty-two letters in the Phoenician alphabet(see Appendix, Maspero's Histoire ancienne des peuples del'Orient, p. 746, etc. ) Unfortunately Mr Quatermain gives usno specimen of the Zu-Vendi writing, but what he here statesseems to go a long way towards substantiating the theory advancedin the note on p. 149. -- Editor. 

Endnote 14

These are internal measurements. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 15

Light was also admitted by sliding shutters under the eaves ofthe dome and in the roof. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 16

This line is interesting as being one of the few allusions tobe found in the Zu-Vendi ritual to a vague divine essence independentof the material splendour of the orb they worship. 'Taia', the word used here, has a very indeterminate meaning, and signifiesessence, vital principle, spirit, or even God. 

Endnote 17

Alluding to the Zulu custom. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 18

In Zu-Vendis members of the Royal House can only be married bythe High Priest or a formally appointed deputy. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 19

Alluding to the Zu-Vendi custom of carrying dead officers ona framework of spears. 

Endnote 20

The Zu-Vendi people do not use bows. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 21

Of course, the roof of the Temple, being so high, caught thelight some time before the breaking of the dawn. -- A. Q. 

Endnote 22

Of course the Court of Probate would allow nothing of thesort. -- Editor. 

Endnote 23

It is suggested to me that this book is The Cruise of the "Falcon", with which work I am personally unacquainted.