with a hard
floor. Herein were but two buildings, a shed supported on posts and open
from the eaves to the ground, where sales of slaves were carried on,
and further to the north, almost continuous with the line of the Nest
itself, but separate from it, a small erection, very strongly built
of brick and stone, and having a roof made from the tin linings
of ammunition and other cases. This was a magazine. All round this
enclosure stood rows of straw huts of a native build, evidently occupied
as a camp by the Arabs and half-breed slave-traders of the baser sort.

The second enclosure, which was to the west of the Nest, comprised
the slave camp. It may have covered an acre of ground, and the only
buildings in it were four low sheds, similar in every respect to that
where the slaves were sold, only much longer. Here the captives lay
picketed in rows to iron bars which ran the length of the sheds, and
were fixed into the ground at either end. This camp was separated from
the Nest enclosure by a deep canal, thirty feet in width and spanned
at one point by a slender and primitive drawbridge that led across the
canal to the gate of the camp. Also it was protected on the Nest side by
a low wall, and on the slave-camp side by an earthwork, planted as
usual with prickly-pears. On this earthwork near the gate and little
guard-house a six-pounder cannon was mounted, the muzzle of which
frowned down upon the slave camp, a visible warning to its occupants of
the fate that awaited the froward. Indeed, all the defences of this part
of the island were devised as safeguards against a possible _emeute_ of
the slaves, and also to provide a second line of fortifications should
the Nest itself chance to be taken by an enemy.

Beyond the slave camp, lay the garden that could only be approached
through it. This also was fortified by water and earthworks, but not so
strongly.

Such is a brief description of what was in those days the strongest
slave-hold in Africa.

CHAPTER X

LEONARD MAKES A PLAN

The road which Leonard and his companions were following led them to the
edge of the main and southernmost canal, debouching exactly opposite the
water-gate that gave access to the Nest. But Otter did not venture to
guide them to this point, for there they should be seen by the sentries,
and, notwithstanding their masquerade dress, awkward questions might
be asked which they could not answer. Therefore when they had arrived
within five hun