u, Mahomet Ali, coming from a far land
and having seen such marvels as----"

He paused, seeking the Arabic for "gramaphone" and "motor-'bus," then he
went on wisely: "Such marvels as you cannot imagine."

"This I know of N'bosini," said the sergeant, "that all men along this
river believe in it; all save Bosambo of the Ochori who, as is well
known, believes in nothing, since he is a follower of the Prophet and
the one God."

Mahomet Ali salaamed devoutly.

"And men say that this land lies at the back of the N'gombi country; and
others that it lies near the territories of the old King; and some
others who say that it is a far journey beyond the French's territory,
farther than man can walk, that its people have wings upon their
shoulders and can fly, and that their eyes are so fierce that trees burn
when they look upon them. This only we know, lord, we, of your soldiers,
who have followed Sandi through all his high adventures, that when men
talk of N'bosini, there is trouble, for they are seeking something to
excuse their own wickedness."

All night long, as Bones turned from side to side in his hot cabin,
listening to the ineffectual buzzings of the flies that sought,
unsuccessfully, to reach the interior of the cabin through a fine meshed
screen, the problem of N'bosini revolved in his mind.

Was it likely, thought Bones, cunningly, that men should invent a
country, even erring men, seeking an excuse? Did not all previous
experience go to the support of the theory that N'bosini had some
existence? In other words that, planted in the secret heart of some
forest in the territory, barred from communication with the world by
swift rivers of the high tangle of forests, there was, in being, a
secret tribe of which only rumours had been heard--a tribe of white men,
perhaps!

Bones had read of such things in books; he knew his "Solomon's Mines"
and was well acquainted with his "Allan Quatermain." Who knows but that
through the forest was a secret path held, perchance, by armoured
warriors, which led to the mountains at the edge of the Old King's
territory, where in the folds of the inaccessible hills, there might be
a city of stone, peopled and governed by stern white-bearded men, and
streets filled with beautiful maidens garbed in the style of ancient
Greece!

"It is all dam' nonsense of course," said Bones to himself, though
feebly; "but, after all there may be something in this. There's no smoke
without fire."