nd
these people. Take, for example, the matter of the four Spirits of the
Winds. If we were to judiciously exhibit some knowledge of them and
their doings, this king might be inclined to be a great deal more
complaisant than he otherwise would be. Don't you think so?"

"Perhaps," conceded Dick; "it is impossible to say. But what knowledge
do we possess, or can we exhibit? Absolutely none, except what we can
remember through the perusal of those two books. And, for my own part,
I am inclined to believe that the alleged adventures of the four persons
therein referred to were purely fictitious, or at least had no more than
the slenderest connection with actual fact."

"Yet," contended Grosvenor, "it is remarkable, to say the least of it,
that in our very first communication with these Makolo--which, now I
come to think of it, was the actual name of the nation given in those
books--the four Spirits of the Winds should be mentioned. Isn't it?"

"Yes, it certainly is," agreed Dick, somewhat reluctantly. "And of
course," he continued, "if it should happen that those two yarns are a
record of actual occurrences presented in the guise of fiction, it will
not be by any means the first time that such a thing has occurred.
Anyhow," he concluded, "I do not see that we can possibly do any harm by
acting, as you suggest, upon the assumption that the yarns, however
extravagant they may have appeared to us when we read them, are records
of actual fact, and using our recollection of them in any manner that
may seem advantageous to us. Is that agreed?"

"Yes, certainly," assented Grosvenor. "We can but try it, and see how
it works. And now, to change the subject, what say you about
outspanning? This seems to be a good spot, eh?"

During the foregoing conversation the two speakers had been walking on
ahead of the wagon, with their rifles in the hollow of their arms, the
dogs and Leo, the lion cub, trotting amicably at their heels. They had
arrived at a spot about a mile from the village, and were now traversing
an open "flat" with plenty of grass, close to the margin of a small
stream. As Grosvenor had suggested, it was an excellent spot upon which
to outspan, for there were grass and water for the cattle, and it was
sufficiently far away from the village to prevent any of those
annoyances that a nearer approach might have subjected them to; they
therefore halted, and when the wagon came up the order to outspan was
given