with. The colour of his skin and complexion was a rich deep brown, he
stood nearly six feet high on his naked feet, and, but for his somewhat
excessive corpulence, he would have been a man of magnificent
proportions. His lips were rather thick, and his nose somewhat
flattened, but not nearly as much so as in the case of the genuine
negro. His forehead was broad and lofty, though receding, his eyes
keen, restless, and piercing, and there was a crafty, cruel, resolute
look about the lower part of his face which taught his hosts that they
would have to be exceedingly cautious in their dealings with him. He
was accommodated with a chair between Sir Reginald and the professor,
the former being flanked by Lethbridge (Mildmay, in accordance with
previous arrangements, had ensconced himself in the pilothouse);
Lualamba and the rest of the suite were quietly allowed to squat in a
semicircle before them on the deck.

The king opened the conversation by somewhat abruptly demanding the
reason for the strangers' visit to his dominions; to which the professor
replied by pointing to the ruins, explaining that they were believed to
be the remains of a great city built many ages ago by a very interesting
race of people of whom but little was known, and he and his companions
were anxious to minutely examine and explore what was left, in the hope
of discovering some sculptured or other record bearing upon the origin,
habits, and history of the builders.

A few minutes of profound meditation on the part of the king followed
this announcement, and then he suddenly demanded where the travellers
had come from. The professor replied by a comprehensive sweep of the
hand skyward.

"But," objected M'Bongwele, "if you are spirits you should know all that
you want to know about these ruins without coming here to investigate.
The spirits know everything."

A low murmur of applause from the king's adherents followed this
enunciation, showing that they evidently considered their monarch to be
getting the better of the strangers, and a smile of gratification
flickered for an instant over M'Bongwele's features.

"Not everything," corrected the professor. "We know a great many
things, but not everything. And what we know we have been obliged to
find out by investigation. We spend the greater part of our existence
in passing from place to place investigating and finding out things."

"Then I have been misinformed, and the spirits are neithe