rtoise in winter, I said my prayers earnestly enough,
mourned over my sins which proved to be so many that at last I gave up
the job in despair, and then tried to occupy myself by reading the Old
Testament, a book to which I have always been extremely attached.

As a passage that I lit on described how the prophet Samuel for whom I
could not help reading "Imbozwi," hewed Agag in pieces after Bausi--I
mean Saul--had relented and spared his life, I cannot say that it
consoled me very much. Doubtless, I reflected, these people believe that
I, like Agag, had "made women childless" by my sword, so there remained
nothing save to follow the example of that unhappy king and walk
"delicately" to doom.

Then, as Stephen was still sleeping--how _could_ he do it, I wondered--I
set to work to make up the accounts of the expedition to date. It had
already cost L1,423. Just fancy expending L1,423 in order to be tied to
a post and shot to death with arrows. And all to get a rare orchid! Oh!
I reflected to myself, if by some marvel I should escape, or if I should
live again in any land where these particular flowers flourish, I would
never even look at them. And as a matter of fact I never have.

At length Stephen did wake up and, as criminals are reported to do in
the papers before execution, made an excellent breakfast.

"What's the good of worrying?" he said presently. "I shouldn't if it
weren't for my poor old father. It must have come to this one day, and
the sooner it is over the sooner to sleep, as the song says. When one
comes to think of it there are enormous advantages in sleep, for that's
the only time one is quite happy. Still, I should have liked to see that
Cypripedium first."

"Oh! drat the Cypripedium!" I exclaimed, and blundered from the hut to
tell Sammy that if he didn't stop his groaning I would punch his head.

"Jumps! Regular jumps! Who'd have thought it of Quatermain?" I heard
Stephen mutter in the intervals of lighting his pipe.

The morning went "like lightning that is greased," as Sammy remarked.
Three o'clock came and Mavovo and his following sacrificed a kid to
the spirits of their ancestors, which, as Sammy remarked again, was "a
horrible, heathen ceremony much calculated to prejudice our cause with
Powers Above."

When it was over, to my delight, Babemba appeared. He looked so pleasant
that I jumped to the conclusion that he brought the best of news
with him. Perhaps that the king had pardoned us, o