Part 19 (1/2)
”It is enough,” he said ”Let way (for it was now very dark), when, in an instant, every one of the electric lights in the shi+p flashed out at their fullest brightness, brilliantly illuht into day for fully a mile round, and, under the clear steely radiance thus unexpectedly furnished hiround, alloped away at the head of his followers The illumination of the shi+p was maintained until the cavalcade ell clear of the ruins, when the side-ladder was drawn up, the lights extinguished, and M'Bongas left to make the remainder of his way as best he could in the darkness
”Well,” said the professor as the quartette wended their way below to dinner, ”how have I inald and the colonel together ”Never, surely,” continued the latter, ”was African king so completely overawed in so short a time as this fellow has been to-day”
”We all, and I especially, owe you thanks, colonel, for the subli froid_ hich you stood up and allowed yourself to be”Believe me, I would never have et would have been so cleverly transferred to someone else But the crafty fellow evidently suspected what you English call 'a plant'--a prearranged plan--and he thought that by adopting the course he did he would have us at advantage”
”Oh,” laughed the colonel scornfully, ”that was aI saw that the felloas confident of his skill as a marksman and anxious to show off, so I felt perfectly easy in my mind Had it been one of our ownof the shoulders finished the sentence
”Yes,” remarked the baronet reflectively, ”what a pity it is that they are not trained to individually select and aim at a particular object
If they were, no troops in the world could stand up for tenof troops, professor, what a ive the darkies an opportunity of co their own soldiers with ours How on earth did you hed the professor ”A ic lantern and a couple of slides did the whole business The throwing of the pictures upon the sood deal, but it is quite an old trick, which I have often done before with excellent results Everyone who is going ht to include a lantern and an assort slides in his outfit if possible”
”But how did you get the first of your two slides? That was surely a representation of M'Bongwele's own people”
”Certainly And our friend Mildmay very cleverly secured it with a camera which I set up and prepared for hi at the rightwas done He developed the picture whilst ereour little excursion out to sea and back Well, the whole thing was a farce; but I believe it has effectually secured us fro the ruins; and if so, it orth playing”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
KING M'BONGWELE TURNS THE TABLES UPON HIS VISITORS
In reaching his palace that night king M'Bongwele dismissed his folloith but scant ceremony, and at once retired to rest He passed a very disturbed night of alternate sleeplessness and harassing fitful drea in a particularly bad temper He was anxious, annoyed, and uneasy in the extreme at the unexpected and unwelcome presence of these extraordinary visitants to his dominions-- these spirits, or men, whichever they happened to be, who had taken such pains to show him that they despised his power, and were quite prepared to ride rough-shod over him unless he slavishly conforhtened and humiliated him in the presence of his immediate followers and e which it would be difficult if not ihtest interference with his supreme authority, and he fretted and chafed hi upon madness as he reflected upon the veiled nisable in every ers' extraordinary power on the preceding day He recognised that their deliberate intention had been to show hi their sojourn in his country he must in all respects conform to their wishes, and model his conduct strictly in accordance with their ideas of as right and proper, or take the consequences And ere those consequences likely to be? Judging from what he had already seen, his dethrone the least severe of future possibilities Instead of re the irresponsible autocrat he had hitherto been, he would, during the sojourn of these strangers in his vicinity, be obliged to carefully weigh and consider his every word and action, in order that hewhich could by any possibility prove distasteful to them And if this state of servile, abject, slavish sub the period of their stay-- which --his life would not be worth having, it would si, insupportable burden to hih his rew so madly ferocious that he issued orders for the instant execution of certain white prisoners which had fallen into his hands a fewthe order alood time--partly because they o present difficulties and frequent former failures, to add them to his harem; and partly because he was under the apprehension that, aht possess that of oe of the execution, object to and call him to account for it It was a si himself by the impalement of half a dozen or so of his principal ly lively ti infinitely thankful when they were at last dismissed hole skins
The question which harassed and perplexed M'Bongwele for the remainder of that day was: could the visit of these extraordinary beings be by any means shortened or terminated? And, if so, how? Or if the visit could not be cut short, was there any possibility of subjugating the visitors?
This particular African monarch possessed at least one virtue, that of perseverance under difficulties He was not at all the sort of ht there was even thethem He had, on a previous occasion, encountered certain fair-skinned men so similar in appearance, and in every other respect, except dress, to these present troublesoht well have been taken for beings of the sahlyof them True, he had shot an arrow at one of these visitants yesterday, striking hi hih, had fallen splintered to pieces at his feet Yet this very extraordinary incident was not, to M'Bongwele, wholly conclusive evidence as to their invulnerability Lualaestive rethen his monarch's belief that if these persons could by any e structure which seeht possibly prove to be very ordinary reat deal, if not the whole, of their poas centred in the gigantic fabric which they called a shi+p And, if that should indeed prove to be the case, all that they had done on the previous day could be done by anyone into whose hands the shi+p ht happen to fall It could be done by _him_ As this reflection flashed across his brain he pictured to hie which would come to him with the possession of that wonderful structure; of the conquests it would enable him to make, and of the boundless extension of his dominions which it would enable him to secure; and his eyes flashed and his bosom heaved with unsuppressed excitement as he inwardly vowed that he would achieve its possession or die in the atterily told hied by the incidents of the previous day; he had been publicly threatened; publicly terrified into a cowardly and disgraceful state of submission; and it was quite impossible that he could permanently continue as he then was He e and add immeasurably to it, or must be content to see sodoers had forced hiainst them, and they wele's most trusted chiefs, and shortly before sunset he and the head witch-doctor were su
Meanwhile the travellers, having enjoyed aand prepared for a thorough systeation of the ruins They bathed and breakfasted in due course, and then, areneral inspection, the professor carrying his cainald his sketch-block and colour-box, whilst Mildht h survey of the ruins and a portion of the surrounding country The tour of the ruins, the taking of an occasional sketch or photograph, and theof the survey, kept the party fully occupied for the whole of the first day; and they returned to the shi+p just before sunset, tired and hungry, but thoroughly satisfied with their day's work, and fully convinced that their success in penetrating to this interesting spot would alone more than repay them for all the trouble and expense connected with the outfit of the expedition One important fact at least had been clearly ascertained by them in the course of the day, which was, that the ruins were extre dees the soil had gradually accumulated about the ruins until they were nearly half buried Thethe day was that of an enor character of its architecture, they felt convinced , and it was resolved that their investigations should commence with it It was situated about aFish_, and their first intention had been to move the shi+p soround had shown it to be so encumbered with ruins that it was soon apparent that she e ae alone--would be necessary before the lower portion of the walls and the paveo over to M'Bongwele's village on the following e with him if possible for the hire of some fifty or a hundred men This, however, proved to be unnecessary, for whilst they were at breakfast next day the sound of a horn was heard without, and, going on deck, they discovered Luala a present of s, fowls, and fruit, and awhether his visitors required assistance of any kind in the pursuit of their investigations
”Capital!” exclai had translated the e ”This is as it should be Lower the ladder, professor, and ask Luala in return for that which he has sent us; and we can at the sa our wants”
Lualamba quicklya further small present for himself and a cast-off soldier's coat, battered cocked-hat, an old pair of uniforold braid, and half a dozen strings of beads, as a present for the king, the wants of the travellers were explained to him The chief shook his head; he feared it would be difficult, if not iers in the particular e were all warriors, to ork of any description would be an unspeakable degradation But he would see what could be done If woers' purpose as well as ed
Had the travellers been less experienced than they were this suggestion as to the employment of women would have come upon the , and therefore imposed solely upon the women; so they merely thanked Lualamba for his promise, and intimated that women would serve them equally as well asof at least fifty should be at the ruined temple-- or whatever it was--”before the sun reached the top of the sky;” in other words, before noon This promise was faithfully fulfilled, for at eleven o'clock the explorers saw the gang of labourers co the ruins, armed with rude wooden e baskets in which to convey away the soil as it was dug out They were as unprepossessing a lot of speciined Naked, save for a filthy ragged skin petticoat round their waists and reaching to the knee, their faces wore, without exception, an expression of sullen stupidity, and they looked as though they had never experienced a joyous moment in their lives; but they were active and hly understood how to use their clue They were led by and worked under the directorshi+p of a lean, shrunken, withered old grey-haired hag of superlative ugliness, who did no work herself, but went constantly back and forth along the line of workers, bearing in her hand a long thin pliant rattan, which she did not hesitate to smartly apply to the shoulders of those who see less than their fair share of the work in hand This bit of petty cruelty was, however, as a matter of course, promptly stopped by the professor, who thereby won for hilances of stupid wonder--in which in some cases could be also detected faint traces of an expression of gratitude--from the unfortunate sisterhood who laboured under her
The aht naturally be expected, nothing approaching to that which would have been accomplished in the sa of half a dozen good honest hard-working English navvies would have accomplished fully asthe ruins
But the explorers were quite satisfied; they were in no particular hurry; the cli large supplies of provisions, fruit, and milk to the shi+p daily, accoh Luala ith his visitors There was no attempt whatever, so far as they could discover, to pry into their doings, not a single warrior, save Luala's visit, and everything seeh and leisurely execution of their purpose