t, white man?"

"Because this," said I, holding up the percussion cap, "is very powerful
magic, obedient only to the white man. Without it the fire weapon is as
harmless as a stick; with it the fire weapon is deadly, and not to be
handled with impunity by anyone but its rightful owner. Therefore,
since you wish to see my rifle, and take it into your own hands, I must
needs remove the magic, else would it turn upon you and do you a serious
hurt, possibly slay you."

"Au!" ejaculated the king, regarding the rifle doubtfully, and not
offering to take it into his own hands: "I like it not; take it away, I
will not touch it; the thing is more dangerous than a she leopard robbed
of her cubs! Yet I would fain see what it can do, therefore bring it
with thee, white man; it may be that, as we go, we may meet a leopard,
or a lion, or a buck for thee to slay."

"Nay," said I, "it is not likely that either of the beasts which thou
hast named will show in the open in the presence of so many men and
horses. Nevertheless I will take the rifle, for even though no beast
should show itself I may be able to shoot a bird or two." So saying, I
swung myself into the saddle, and, accepting the king's invitation to
ride beside him, proceeded at a gallop, with the thousand bodyguards
thundering along in the rear. And, watching my opportunity, it was not
long before I contrived to set my rifle to half-cock and replace the cap
on the nipple without attracting the king's attention.

Our way lay along what at the beginning was simply a very shallow
depression between two low ridges; but as we proceeded the depression
rapidly became deeper and the ridges higher, until, by the time that we
had ridden a mile, we were sweeping through a ravine with high, steep,
bush-clad slopes rising to right and left of us, these slopes
terminating about half a mile farther on in a couple of lofty,
perpendicular rocky cliffs, some six hundred feet high, and about three
hundred feet apart, forming a sort of natural gateway to a circular
basin about three miles in diameter, the floor of which was perfectly
level, clothed with long lush grass, still looking quite fresh and
green, and with only a few small, widely scattered clumps of bush here
and there.

"This," explained the king, as we dashed through the natural gateway at
the head of the galloping regiment, "is the exercise ground where I
bring my regiments from time to time to exercise them in the tactics