a single warrior, save Lualamba, having been seen by them
since the day of the king's visit, and everything seemed to be
favourable to a thorough and leisurely execution of their purpose.

On the fourth day from the commencement of the excavation the explorers
were gratified by the uncovering of a yard or two of what appeared to be
a magnificent tesselated pavement of white and variegated marble; and by
the end of a fortnight fully half of its supposed area was exposed,
showing it to be of an entirely novel and exquisitely graceful design,
the intricate outline of the pattern being emphasised by the insertion
of plates of gold about a quarter of an inch wide between the tesserae.
The pavement was smooth, level, and in perfect preservation, and the
explorers were in the very highest of spirits at their exceptional good
luck.

At the outset of the work the four friends had been in the habit of
returning every day to the ship for luncheon, but as time passed on they
felt that to do this in the very hottest part of the day was a wholly
unnecessary waste of energy, and they accordingly transferred from the
ship to the scene of their operations a spacious umbrella-tent (that is
to say, a tent with a top but no sides), together with a small table and
four chairs. And under the shadow of this tent they were wont to
partake of the mid-day meal (usually a cold collation), which they
generally finished off with a cup of chocolate or coffee and a cigar,
the potables being prepared by a particular one of the women labourers,
who speedily developed quite a special aptitude for the task, and who at
length fell into the habit of regularly bringing with her, every day,
the milk needed for the purpose. The tent being pitched on a spot which
commanded a full view of the operations in progress, the quartette
gradually acquired the habit of lingering somewhat over their luncheon,
and especially over the final coffee and cigar, the inevitable result of
which was that, for the next hour or two, they experienced a feeling of
delicious languor and drowsiness, and an almost unconquerable
disinclination to exchange the grateful shade of the tent for the
scorching heat of the afternoon sun. At first they struggled resolutely
and manfully against this overpowering temptation to idleness; but
finding, or fancying, that they could supervise the work as efficiently
from the tent as they could at a yard or two from its shelter, they
gradually gave