ere at last dismissed with whole skins.

The question which harassed and perplexed M'Bongwele for the remainder
of that day was: could the visit of these extraordinary beings be by any
means shortened or terminated? And, if so, how? Or if the visit could
not be cut short, was there any possibility of subjugating the visitors?
This particular African monarch possessed at least one virtue, that of
perseverance under difficulties. He was not at all the sort of man to
sit down and tamely submit to evils if he thought there was even the
most remote and slender possibility of overcoming them. He had, on a
previous occasion, encountered certain fair-skinned men so similar in
appearance, and in every other respect, except dress, to these present
troublesome visitors of his that they might well have been taken for
beings of the same race; yet _they_ had proved so thoroughly mortal that
he had had no difficulty whatever in disposing of them. True, he had
shot an arrow at one of these visitants yesterday, striking him fair
upon the breast, and the arrow, instead of piercing him through and
through, had fallen splintered to pieces at his feet. Yet this very
extraordinary incident was not, to M'Bongwele, wholly conclusive
evidence as to their invulnerability. Lualamba had on the previous day
made certain suggestive remarks tending to strengthen his monarch's
belief that if these persons could by any means be separated from the
huge structure which seemed to be their home they might possibly prove
to be very ordinary mortals after all. He was inclined to believe that
a great deal, if not the whole, of their power was centred in the
gigantic fabric which they called a ship. And, if that should indeed
prove to be the case, all that they had done on the previous day could
be done by anyone into whose hands the ship might happen to fall. It
could be done by _him_. As this reflection flashed across his brain he
pictured to himself the immense accession of power and prestige which
would come to him with the possession of that wonderful structure; of
the conquests it would enable him to make, and of the boundless
extension of his dominions which it would enable him to secure; and his
eyes flashed and his bosom heaved with unsuppressed excitement as he
inwardly vowed that he would achieve its possession or die in the
attempt. All the conditions of his life, he angrily told himself, had
been violently and permanently disarranged by