were to start at dawn; and Infadoos, who was to accompany us,
expected that we should reach Loo on the night of the second day,
unless we were detained by accident or by swollen rivers.

When they had given us this information our visitors bade us
good-night; and, having arranged to watch turn and turn about, three of
us flung ourselves down and slept the sweet sleep of the weary, whilst
the fourth sat up on the look-out for possible treachery.

CHAPTER IX

TWALA THE KING

It will not be necessary for me to detail at length the incidents of
our journey to Loo. It took two full days' travelling along Solomon's
Great Road, which pursued its even course right into the heart of
Kukuanaland. Suffice it to say that as we went the country seemed to
grow richer and richer, and the kraals, with their wide surrounding
belts of cultivation, more and more numerous. They were all built upon
the same principles as the first camp which we had reached, and were
guarded by ample garrisons of troops. Indeed, in Kukuanaland, as among
the Germans, the Zulus, and the Masai, every able-bodied man is a
soldier, so that the whole force of the nation is available for its
wars, offensive or defensive. As we travelled we were overtaken by
thousands of warriors hurrying up to Loo to be present at the great
annual review and festival, and more splendid troops I never saw.

At sunset on the second day, we stopped to rest awhile upon the summit
of some heights over which the road ran, and there on a beautiful and
fertile plain before us lay Loo itself. For a native town it is an
enormous place, quite five miles round, I should say, with outlying
kraals projecting from it, that serve on grand occasions as cantonments
for the regiments, and a curious horseshoe-shaped hill, with which we
were destined to become better acquainted, about two miles to the
north. It is beautifully situated, and through the centre of the kraal,
dividing it into two portions, runs a river, which appeared to be
bridged in several places, the same indeed that we had seen from the
slopes of Sheba's Breasts. Sixty or seventy miles away three great
snow-capped mountains, placed at the points of a triangle, started out
of the level plain. The conformation of these mountains is unlike that
of Sheba's Breasts, being sheer and precipitous, instead of smooth and
rounded.

Infadoos saw us looking at them, and volunteered a remark.

"The road ends there," he said, pointing t