risoners comfortable.

As the huge ship settled quietly down in the centre of the great square
a profound and deathlike silence suddenly succeeded the confused
babbling sound which had hitherto prevailed, and when the four
travellers stepped out from the pilot-house to the deck and appeared at
the gangway a visible shudder ran through the entire concourse of people
there assembled. They dreaded they knew not what, and their fears were
only in a very trifling degree allayed by the promise of intercession on
their behalf which Seketulo had made to them.

The professor was of course to be spokesman for the occasion; it was he,
therefore, who broke the terrible silence by exclaiming, in a loud,
commanding tone of voice:

"Seketulo, we are your friends. Advance, therefore, and listen to the
commands which we are about to lay upon you!"

The reassured and now happy chief struck with his spurred heels the
sides of his charger, and the animal, bounding and caracoling, advanced
to within a few yards of the ship's side, where his rider dismounted
and, with bowed head and bended knee, waited for such communication as
might be vouchsafed him.

"Listen, O Seketulo!" continued the professor. "We entered this country
animated by feelings of the most amicable nature to its king and to
every one of its inhabitants. We showed this by distributing presents
of beads, cloth, and other matters when Lualamba and his warriors first
visited us. And we asked for nothing in return save permission to
examine and explore the ruins on yonder plain; offering to pay promptly
and liberally for whatever assistance we might need. Is not this the
truth?"

"It is, O most mighty wizard," answered Seketulo humbly; some of the
braver warriors also venturing to murmur:

"It is! It is!"

"And how have we been treated?" asked the professor. "Your king, not
satisfied with our friendship and the presents we gave him, wickedly and
treacherously devised a scheme to get us into his power--a scheme which,
in order to try him, we permitted to succeed. And, having done that, he
further attempted to gain possession of this ship,"--this fact having
leaked out in Seketulo's previous conversations--"profanely and
audaciously thinking he could subdue her to his will and control her as
we do. Now, therefore, be it understood by all present that, for his
base treachery, _M'Bongwele is dethroned_, and Seketulo will, from this
moment, reign in his stead. Let