there is neither gratitude nor
love in the people of Samory, and they shall be the first to curse thee.
When I enter Mo every day shall the knife of the executioner be fed with
blood; thy cities shall mourn the loss of their sages, husbands their
wives, wives their children, and children their fathers. The country
shall be devastated to its most northerly limits and it shall be
rendered a wilderness of silence and sorrow."

Then withdrawing his foot, amid the plaudits of his crowd of
fierce-looking courtiers, Omar sprang to his feet in rage, and facing
him, cried:

"The men of Mo are forewarned already against thy designs,
notwithstanding that our ex-Grand Vizier Kouaga, the son of a dungheap
who betrayed us hither, hath joined thine accursed ranks. The soldiers of
the Naya are still anxious for the fourth time to try conclusions with
thy white-cloaked rabble. Come, march forward into Mo--thou wilt never
return."

"Thou defiest me, even as thy mother hath done," he roared, his hand upon
the bejewelled hilt of his curved blade. "Were it not for one fact I
would smite thee dead."

"I fear thee not," Omar answered with a calmness that astounded me.
"Sooner or later thou wilt, I suppose, order my death, therefore the
sooner the better."

"Why insultest thou our race by bringing hither with thee this dog of a
Christian?" the chief enquired, looking at me with a terrible expression
of hatred.

"He cometh as my companion," replied Omar briefly.

"As thy companion he shall accompany thee to the grave," Samory cried
fiercely, his eyes swimming in malice.

"So be it," answered Omar, with a smile of contempt. "May Zomara curse
thy work."

"Speak, infidel!" Samory said, fixing his fiery glance upon me. "Whence
comest thou?"

"From England," I answered briefly, in fear.

"From that country where dwell the accursed of Allah," he said, as if to
himself. "They are pig-eaters who despise the Book of Everlasting Will
and declare our great Prophet--on whom may be everlasting peace--to be a
false one. Accursed be thy country, infidel! May thy people suffer every
torment of Al-Hawiyat; may their food be offal, and may they slake their
thirst with boiling pitch. The white men have sent their messengers to me
time after time to urge me to ally myself with them, but it shall never
be recorded that Samory besought the assistance of infidels to extend his
kingdom. We fight beneath the green banner of Al-Islam, and will continue
t