ly food" (I shuddered at the
word) "will be brought to you, and after you have eaten well, if it is
your pleasure, the Kalubi and his councillors will receive you in yonder
feast-house and you can talk with them before you sleep. If you need
aught, strike upon that jar with a stick," and he pointed to what looked
like a copper cauldron that stood in the garden of the hut near the
place where the women were already lighting a fire, "and some will wait
on you. Look, here are your goods; none are missing, and here comes
water in which you may wash. Now I must go to make report to the
Kalubi," and with a courteous bow he departed.

So after a while did the silent, handsome women--to fetch our meal, I
understood one of them to say, and at length we were alone.

"My aunt!" said Stephen, fanning himself with his pocket-handkerchief,
"did you see that lady toasting? I have often heard of cannibals, those
slaves, for instance, but the actual business! Oh! my aunt!"

"It is no use addressing your absent aunt--if you have got one. What did
you expect if you would insist on coming to a hell like this?" I asked
gloomily.

"Can't say, old fellow. Don't trouble myself much with expectations as
a rule. That's why I and my poor old father never could get on. I always
quoted the text 'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof' to him,
until at length he sent for the family Bible and ruled it out with red
ink in a rage. But I say, do you think that we shall be called upon to
understudy St. Lawrence on that grid?"

"Certainly, I do," I replied, "and, as old Babemba warned you, you can't
complain."

"Oh! but I will and I can. And so will you, won't you, Brother John?"

Brother John woke up from a reverie and stroked his long beard.

"Since you ask me, Mr. Somers," he said, reflectively, "if it were a
case of martyrdom for the Faith, like that of the saint to whom you have
alluded, I should not object--at any rate in theory. But I confess that,
speaking from a secular point of view, I have the strongest dislike to
being cooked and eaten by these very disagreeable savages. Still, I
see no reason to suppose that we shall fall victims to their domestic
customs."

I, being in a depressed mood, was about to argue to the contrary, when
Hans poked his head into the hut and said:

"Dinner coming, Baas, very fine dinner!"

So we went out into the garden where the tall, impassive ladies were
arranging many wooden dishes on the ground. Now