though
the Kidi people are such savages they obey no man's orders--and you are
great men also, sitting on chairs before kings; it therefore ill becomes
us to talk of such trifles as beads, especially as I know if you ever
return this way I shall get more from you." "Begging your majesty's
pardon," I said, "the mention of beads only fell in the way of our talk
like stones in a walk; our motive being to get at the truth of what
Baraka did and said here, as his conduct in returning after receiving
strict orders from Rumanika and ourselves to open the road, is a perfect
enigma to us. We could not have entered Unyoro at all excepting through
Uganda, and we could not have put foot in Uganda without visiting its
king." Without deigning to answer, Kamrasi, in the metaphorical language
of a black man, said, "It would be unbecoming of me to keep secrets from
you, and therefore I will tell you at once; I am sadly afflicted with a
disorder which you alone can cure." "What is it, your majesty? I can see
nothing in your face; it may perhaps require a private inspection." "My
heart," he said, "is troubled, because you will not give me your magic
horn--the thing, I mean, in your pocket, which you pulled out one day
when Budja and Vittagura were discussing the way; and you no sooner
looked at it than you said, 'That is the way to the palace.'"

So! the sly fellow has been angling for the chronometer all this time,
and I can get nothing out of him until he has got it--the road to the
lake, the road to Gani, everything seemed risked on his getting my
watch--a chronometer worth L50, which would be spoilt in his hands
in one day. To undeceive him, and tell him it was the compass which I
looked at and not the watch, I knew would only end with my losing
that instrument as well; so I told him it was not my guide, but a
time-keeper, made for the purpose of knowing what time to eat my dinner
by. It was the only chronometer I had with me; and I begged he would
have patience until Bombay returned from Gani with another, when he
should have the option to taking this or the new one. "No; I must have
the one in your pocket; pull it out and show it." This was done, and I
placed it on the ground, saying, "The instrument is yours, but I must
keep it until another one comes." "No; I must have it now, and will send
it you three times every day to look at."

The watch went, gold chain and all, without any blessings following it;
and the horrid king asked