ake-bite; and then, without
affording an opportunity for interruption, he went on to state, in full
detail, his further business.

The indignation excited in the breasts of his listeners by the cool
impudence of the king soon subsided under the influence of the
interesting news that four white women were captives in the village; and
when M'Bongwele closed his explanation and proffered his request, the
professor, instead of loading his captor with reproaches, followed the
latter's example of ignoring all cause for unpleasantness, and simply
stated that no promise of any kind could be made until the four friends
had been afforded an interview with the afflicted women. To this
proposition the king eagerly assented, overjoyed at so unexpected a
measure of success, indeed he volunteered to personally conduct the
quartette into the presence of his female prisoners; but this was
promptly negatived, the professor declaring that if he and his friends
went to see the women at all they must go entirely unattended, and at
such time as might be most convenient to themselves. It would have
suited M'Bongwele very much better to have been present at this
interview, for he was suspicious to a really absurd degree; but, finding
the white men firm upon this point, and, apparently, wholly indifferent
in the matter, and being also unable to discover any cause for suspicion
in their conduct, he at length yielded his assent and retired, giving
the necessary instructions to the guard as he passed out of the hut.

The next morning, about eleven o'clock, having previously talked this
curious matter carefully over together, they paid their promised visit;
the women's prison (to which they were carefully escorted by their
entire guard) being situated close to the principal opening in the
palisading which surrounded the village; the same guard being apparently
made to serve for both the prison and the gateway. The building was an
almost exact facsimile of their own place of confinement, both in shape
and dimensions; but at the very threshold the visitors encountered
evidences of female delicacy and refinement in the shape of finely woven
grass curtains or _portieres_ across the otherwise unclosed entrance,
and these trifling elegances were multiplied a hundred-fold in the
interior, converting the little building into a veritable miniature
palace in comparison with their own unadorned domicile.

But these little interior adornments did not attr