both sold," he continued, "sold for the smallest coin, to be
taken to Kumassi as slaves for their pagan sacrifice."

At his words we both started. It was indeed a terrible doom to which this
villainous brute had consigned us. We were to be butchered with awful
rites for the edification of Prempeh and his wild hordes of fanatics!

"Rather kill us outright," Omar said boldly, his hands trembling
nevertheless.

"Death will seize thee quite soon enough," laughed the chief derisively.
"Mine ally Prempeh will have the satisfaction of offering a queen's son
to the fetish."

"Rest assured that the god Zomara will reward thee for this day's evil
work," Omar cried, with a fierce look in his eyes. "Thou hast spent
fiercest hatred upon me, but even if I die, word will sooner or later be
carried into Mo that thou wert the cause of the death of the last of my
race. Then every man capable of bearing arms will rise against thee.
Standing here, I make prophecy that this thy kingdom shall be uprooted as
a weed in the garden of peace, and that thine own blood shall make
satisfaction for thy cruelty."

"Begone!" cried Samory, in a tumult of wrath. And turning to the Arabs he
cried in a commanding tone: "Take the dog to the slaughterers. Let me
never look again upon his face."

But ere they could seize him, he had lifted his hand, invoking the curse
of Zomara, saying:

"Omar, Prince of Mo, has spoken. This kingdom of Samory shall, ere many
moons, be shaken to its foundations."

But the fierce Arabs quickly dragged us forth, bound us when out of sight
of the great chief, and led us beyond the gates of the Kasbah to where we
found a great slave caravan assembled in readiness to depart. Fully one
hundred black slaves, each fastened in a long chain, were lying huddled
up in the shadow, seeking a brief rest after a long and tedious march.
Most of them were terrible objects, mere skin and bone, and all showed
signs of brutal ill-treatment, their backs bearing great festering sores
caused by the lashes of their pitiless captors. The majority of them had,
I ascertained, been captured in the forest wilds beyond the Niger, and
all preserved a stolid indifference, for they knew their terrible doom.
They were being hurried on to Kumassi to be sold to King Prempeh for
sacrificial purposes.

To this wretched perspiring crowd of hopeless humanity we were bound, and
amid the jeers of a number of Samory's officials who had crowded to the
gate to