e fire-brands, and slew the offending
wanderer.

"The guardians of Mo shall be appeased," Omar assured them. "Not a hair
on the head of any of our party shall be injured, although the way is
still long and full of terrors and pitfalls. But I will lead, and those
who obey will enter Mo. Those who depart from my words will assuredly
perish. Omar, Prince of Mo, has spoken."

"May the fetish be good," they all cried aloud. "We will follow and
attend to each word that falleth from thy lips."

Then in a few minutes we moved on again down the long beautiful valley
through which a clear river wound among green swards and clumps of trees,
forming a park-like scene such as might have been witnessed in England.
Presently, however, the character of the country suddenly changed, and we
were passing through a rocky defile, arid and waterless, while at the end
could be seen a wide open country without rock or tree stretching away as
far as the eye could reach to the misty horizon.

It appeared like a great limitless wilderness, and those in front
quickened their pace in order to fully view the character of the land we
were approaching.

For their haste, however, they received an unpleasant reward.

When those who ran forward emerged into the open plain, they suddenly
found the soft earth give way beneath their feet without warning, and ere
they realized their danger a dozen of them were struggling up to their
arm-pits in the sea of fine ever-shifting sand that seemed kept in
constant motion by some unknown natural cause. With each movement they
sank deeper, until, fearing that the sandy quagmire would envelop and
suffocate them, they cried aloud for assistance. Help was ready at hand,
for the remainder of our followers ran forward, and stretching forth
ropes of monkey-creeper were enabled to drag out their intrepid
companions, much to Omar's amusement.

"Those who deviate from the course that I myself take will assuredly
perish," he exclaimed a moment later. Then, turning to me, he added:
"This desert you see before you is one of the barriers dividing my land
from those of our enemies. To those who know not the secret it is
impassable."

"Yes," I answered, surprised at the strange treacherous character of the
sand. "Those who ventured upon it had narrow escapes."

"Exactly. Any weight upon its surface will sink to the depth of many
feet, sucked down as swiftly and surely as a piece of wood is drawn down
by a whirlpool. In a