cordially invited the two Englishmen to enter his hut
and partake of his hospitality. George would fain have declined that
invitation; but he perceived that the moment was one when squeamishness
must yield to diplomacy; and, bowing gravely, he accepted the
invitation, and the two white men followed the black into the interior
of his hut.

The refreshment offered to the Englishmen was not of a very inviting
character, for it consisted chiefly of raw flesh--of what particular
animal it was difficult to say, but it was, luckily, supplemented by a
quantity of delicious fruit of different kinds, with a drink of pungent,
and slightly subacid flavour, inviting to the palate and wonderfully
refreshing in effect, so that, after all, George and Dyer were able to
do full justice to their host's hospitality. At the conclusion of the
meal Lukabela produced a bag of deerskin, from which he extracted some
dry leaves of a rich brown colour, out of which he deftly manufactured
three _cigarros_, and for the first time in his life George had an
opportunity to sample the delights of the curious herb now called
tobacco. Truth to tell, he did not altogether like the experience; the
smoke had a tendency to get into his throat and nostrils, choking him
and making him sneeze violently; but Dyer, who had sampled the weed on
his previous voyage, and liked it, smoked his _cigarros_ as avidly as
Lukabela himself; and after the tobacco had been solemnly consumed the
chief, who was now in a very placid humour, confessed himself ready to
talk and eager to afford his white brothers all the information and help
in his power.

It was not help, however, that George wanted just then, as he explained
with all the diplomacy he was able to summon to his aid; he informed
Lukabela that all he required at that moment was the fullest information
possible relative to the defences of Nombre de Dios and the strength of
its garrison; and this the Cimarrone was fortunately able to give, for
it chanced that he had been in the immediate neighbourhood of the town
only a week or two before, and, from a hiding-place beside the road, had
actually beheld some five hundred soldiers march out _en route_ for
Panama, to which place they were returning after having escorted the
last gold-train of the year across the isthmus and guarded it in Nombre
until it had been shipped and carried safely out to sea. The garrison
remaining to guard the town he estimated at less than two