d
replied--

"We are all present, O most potent Spirit, save fifty of the king's
guards, who went forth this morning to execute the king's sentence upon
Siswani."

"Say you so?" retorted the professor. "Where, then, is M'Bongwele? How
is it that I do not see him?"

"_Au_!" exclaimed the chief, "the king abides in his palace. He comes
not forth at the bidding of strangers."

"Does he not?" retorted von Schalckenberg. "Yet shall he come forth at
my bidding. Go, now, Lobelalatutu; descend the ladder to your people;
take as many men as may be needful, and bring forth M'Bongwele, that we,
the Four Spirits, may judge him, and punish him for his crimes. Go, and
fear not,"--for Lobelalatutu rather hung back, as though somewhat
uncertain in regard to the matter of his safety--"you are under our
protection; and the man who foolishly dares to raise hand against you
incurs our displeasure, and will instantly fall dead!"

Thus assured, Lobelalatutu hesitated no longer, but, calling to certain
friends of his to support him, boldly descended the ladder--which
Mildmay took the precaution to draw up instantly--and, accompanied by
some eight or ten other chiefs, proceeded to push his way through the
throng toward the king's palace, while a confused hum and murmur of
excited conversation arose from the crowd.

Suddenly, the chief who had replied to von Schalckenberg's questions,
sprang forward, and raising his right hand, with a sheaf of spears in
its grasp, above his head, shouted--

"Warriors of the Makolo, what is this? Why stand ye, silent, before
these strangers, as cattle stand before a hungry lion? Who are they,
that they dare come hither to dictate to us and our king? Once before
have they been here, and--"

As though unexpectedly pushed by some one behind, he suddenly fell
forward on his face, dead! while von Schalckenberg composedly lowered
his rifle from his shoulder.

"It had to be done," he explained to his companions, meanwhile keeping
his gaze steadily fixed upon the crowd of savages beneath him. "In
another second or two those fellows down there would have been divided
into two parties, and we should have had a pitched battle raging at our
feet, with a loss of hundreds of lives. Evidently, the fellow was one
of the king's friends, and can, therefore, very well be spared."

"Quite right, Professor," answered Lethbridge. "You forestalled me by a
second or two only. If you had not fired, I should hav