in a pit in the ground. On the fourth side, that
facing the gate, a man stood alone with his arms outstretched and his
back towards us.

Of a sudden he heard our footsteps and turned round, springing to the
left, so that the light might fall on us. Now we saw by the glow of the
great fire, that over it was an iron grid not unlike a small bedstead,
and that on this grid lay some fearful object. Stephen, who was a little
ahead, stared, then exclaimed in a horrified voice:

"My God! it is a woman!"

In another second the blinds fell down, hiding everything, and the
singing ceased.

CHAPTER XIV

THE KALUBI'S OATH

"Be silent!" I whispered, and all understood my tone if they did not
catch the words. Then steadying myself with an effort, for this hideous
vision, which might have been a picture from hell, made me feel faint, I
glanced at Komba, who was a pace or two in front of us. Evidently he was
much disturbed--the motions of his back told me this--by the sense of
some terrible mistake that he had made. For a moment he stood still,
then wheeled round and asked me if we had seen anything.

"Yes," I answered indifferently, "we saw a number of men gathered round
a fire, nothing more."

He tried to search our faces, but luckily the great moon, now almost
at her full, was hidden behind a thick cloud, so that he could not read
them well. I heard him sigh in relief as he said:

"The Kalubi and the head men are cooking a sheep; it is their custom to
feast together on those nights when the moon is about to change. Follow
me, white lords."

Then he led us round the end of the long shed at which we did not even
look, and through the garden on its farther side to the two fine huts I
have mentioned. Here he clapped his hands and a woman appeared, I know
not whence. To her he whispered something. She went away and presently
returned with four or five other women who carried clay lamps filled
with oil in which floated a wick of palm fibre. These lamps were set
down in the huts that proved to be very clean and comfortable places,
furnished after a fashion with wooden stools and a kind of low table of
which the legs were carved to the shape of antelope's feet. Also there
was a wooden platform at the end of the hut whereon lay beds covered
with mats and stuffed with some soft fibre.

"Here you may rest safe," he said, "for, white lords, are you not the
honoured guests of the Pongo people? Present