the man come to
us, not we go to him. Among savages, you know, first impressions count
for a good deal, and it would never do to let those fellow think that we
halted because we were nervous."

"No, of course; you are quite right, it would not," agreed Grosvenor;
and sitting straight up in their saddles, and assuming an air of
absolute confidence which somewhat belied their inward feelings, they
patiently awaited the arrival of the solitary horseman.

In less than a minute he had arrived--a fine, stalwart man, of about
middle age, clean-limbed, broad chested, upright as a dart, of dauntless
aspect; his limbs and body showing many scars of battle. As he reached
a point some ten feet from where the two white travellers awaited him he
abruptly reined his horse to a standstill, and threw up his right hand
in salute.

"_'Nkosi_," he cried, in a full, deep, resonant tone of voice,
"Lobelalatutu, the King of the Makolo, salutes you by the mouth of me,
'Mpandula, and bids you welcome to his royal village. Behold a squadron
of his royal guard, which he has dispatched, under my command, to
conduct you in all honour to his presence. He awaits you now in his
palace. Does it please my lords that the squadron, approach to give
them the salute?"

Now, this speech was only very imperfectly understood by those to whom
it was addressed; a word or two here and there they comprehended because
of their similarity to those in the language spoken by Mafuta; the name
of the king also they recognised; and 'Mpandula's gestures and the tones
of his voice also told them a little. Thus in one way and another they
contrived to gain a sort of hazy general notion of the gist of the
chiefs speech. But how were they to reply to it, and what were they to
say? So early a summons to the king's presence was rather unexpected,
and, in the absence of Mafuta, who was behind, with the wagon, would be
rather embarrassing; for how were they to converse with the king without
the assistance of an interpreter? There was but one thing to be done,
and that was to reply to the best of their ability, which Dick undertook
to do in the only native tongue with which he was familiar, explaining
as well as he could the difficulty in which the pair found themselves.

It was evident at once, by the puzzled expression on the chiefs face,
that he understood Dick as little as Dick understood him; and for a
moment there seemed to be the possibility of a deadlock. Bu