r of the gods would continue.
Mackay felt he must press on with his work. He was slowly opening a
road through the jungle of cruelty and the marshes of dread of the
gods that made the life of the Baganda people dark and dreadful.

All Uganda waited breathless one day as though the end of the world
had come.

"King M'tesa is dead!" the cry went out through all the land.

The people waited in dread and on tiptoe of eagerness till the new
king was selected by the chiefs from the sons of the dead ruler.

At last a great cheer went up from the Palace. "M'wanga has eaten
Uganda!" they shouted.

By this the people meant that M'wanga, a young son of M'tesa--only
eighteen years old--had been made King. He was, however, a boy with no
power--the mere feeble tool of the Katikiro (the Prime Minister) and
of Mujasi, the Captain of the King's own bodyguard of soldiers. Both
of these great men of the kingdom fiercely hated Mackay, for they were
jealous of his power over the old King. So they whispered into the
young M'wanga's ears stories like this: "You know that men say that
Uganda will be eaten up by an enemy from the lands of the rising sun.
Mackay and the other white men are making ready to bring thousands of
white soldiers into your land to 'eat it up' and to kill you."

So M'wanga began to refuse to speak to Mackay. Then, because the King
was afraid to attack him, he began to lay plots against the boys.

One morning Mackay started out from his house with five or six boys
and the crew of his boat to march down to the lake. Among the boys
were young Lugalama--the fair-haired slave-boy, now a freed-slave and
a servant to Mackay--and Kakumba, who had (you remember) been baptised
Joseph. The King and the Katikiro had given Mackay permission to go
down to the lake and sail across it to take letters to a place called
Msalala from which the carriers would bear them down to the coast.

Down the hill the party walked, the crew carrying the baggage and the
oars on their heads. Mackay and his colleague Ashe, who had come out
from England to work with him, walked behind.

To their surprise there came running down the path behind them and
past them a company of soldiers.

"Where are you going?" asked Mackay of one of the soldiers.

"Mujasi, the Captain of the Bodyguard," he replied, "has sent us to
capture some of the King's wives who have run away."

Another and yet another body of soldiers rushed past them. Mackay
became more