see us depart, we moved onward, our steps hastened by the heavy
whips of our masters who, mounted on wiry little ponies and heavily
armed, galloped up and down the line administering blows to the laggards
or the sick.

From the city away across the open grass-lands we wended our way, a
dismal, sorrowful procession, but Omar, now beside me again, briefly
related how, after being removed from the torture-frame, his wounds had
been dressed and he had been tenderly nursed by an old female slave who
had taken compassion upon him. A dozen times messengers from Samory had
come to offer him his liberty in exchange for the secret of the
Treasure-house, but he had steadfastly refused. Twice the scoundrel
Kouaga had visited him and made merry over his discomfiture.

"But," said my friend, "the boastings of the traitor are empty words.
When we laugh it shall be at his vain implorings for a speedy death."

"To him we owe all these misfortunes," I said.

"Yes, everything. But if only we get into Mo he shall render an account
of his misdeeds to my mother. No mercy will be shown him, for before the
Naya's wrath the nation trembles."

"But our position at the present moment is one of extreme gravity," I
observed. "We are actually on our way to another of your mother's
enemies, whose relentless cruelty is common talk throughout the world."

"True," he answered. "If we find the slightest loop-hole for escape we
must embrace it. But if not----" and he paused. "If not, then we must
meet our deaths with the calm indifference alike traditional of the
Sanoms and of Englishmen."

Whenever misfortune seemed to threaten he appeared only the more
composed. Each day showed me that, even though an African and a
semi-savage, yet his bearing in moments when others would have been
melancholy, was dignified and truly regal. Even though his only covering
was a loin-cloth and a piece of a white cotton garment wrapped about his
shoulders, Omar Sanom was every inch a prince.

"If we made a dash for liberty we should, I fear, be shot down like
dogs," I said.

"Yes," he answered. "The country we shall now traverse will not
facilitate our flight, but the reverse. From the edge of the Great Forest
to Buna, beyond the Kong mountains, it is mostly marshy hollows and
pestilential swamps, while the lands beyond Buna away to Koranza, in
Ashanti, are flat and open like your English pastures. We will, if
opportunity offers, endeavour to escape, but even if w