or is
higher now than it was. There was a step here at the door, and the mud
has nearly covered it.'

"'It is but the smearing,' he said, half contemptuously.

"That roused me. Of course I know the native habit of cleaning a house
by putting down a fresh layer of mud mixed with a little dung, which in
time raises the floor considerably. But I was not to be put off by
that. Below the smearing of the old man's time might be a layer of earth
thrown in to hide something. I glanced round. 'May I borrow a spear?' I
asked.

"He nodded, and I selected one from the corner with a long thin blade.
Then I went into the inner room, and he came and stood again to watch me
with his peering old eyes. Under his scrutiny, I began in the apse and
thrust downward as far as I could. The blade sank to its hilt fairly
easily, and that was all.

"Thus I stabbed until I came to the string of the apse, and then, almost
at once, I made a discovery. The point of the blade struck a stone. A
foot to the left, it touched again, and a foot more. In a few minutes I
was all but certain that a stone slab was buried there. You may imagine
my excitement.

"Mwezi called his sons and sent one for a native hoe. When he returned,
we all gathered about the place while he slowly dug up the trampled mud.
In a few minutes a stone slab was being exposed to view, and with my
spear I got to work scraping off the earth while he dug free the other
end. Suddenly, as I scraped, I made out a cross, and to cut the story
short, we laid bare at length what had undoubtedly been an altar-stone.
Every one of the five crosses were plainly visible, and left no room for
question.

"We stopped out of breath, and I explained something of its use. At that
Mwezi spoke suddenly, calling our attention to him. 'Lift it, lift it,'
he cried. 'Lift it at once.'

"The old man was a striking spectacle. His withered face was simply
alive with emotion. He was kneeling on hands and knees, and his thin
fingers worked at the edge of the slab. Something in his voice compelled
us, and we got at once to work. After all it was an easy task, for it
was soon apparent that the stone was fitted into brick, with which
the whole place was paved, and with spade and spear we levered it up a
little. Then two of Mwezi's sons got their fingers under it, and without
any great effort raised it completely. They staggered aside with it and
the rest of us peered within. For a second we looked, and then Mwezi