in charge shall
be nailed, head downward, to the crucifixion tree!"

Gouroo smiled a smile of triumphant malice as, in reply to her summons,
two guards entered, and, seizing me roughly, hurried me away; while Ama,
bathed in tears, flung herself upon her knees beside her father's couch
and vainly besought him to have mercy upon me. As I passed out of the
room I saw the king, writhing in agony, rise upon his couch and strike
the poor girl a violent blow, while he bellowed a fierce command to her
to withdraw from his sight.

It was nearly noon when I was conducted back to my hut after my futile
attempt to cure the king; and it was not until close upon sunset that I
got any further news, when one of the guards who had me in charge
informed me, as he brought in my supper, that Mafuta had completely
cured the king within an hour of the moment when he was first summoned
to his Majesty's bedside; that Banda had already risen from his couch;
and that, in requital for his service, Mafuta had claimed--and been
granted--the right to dispose of me as he pleased upon the occasion of
the forthcoming festival of the Customs! Which meant, of course, that I
was to die by some exquisite refinement of torture, the nature of which
would probably be too dreadful for description. For I very shrewdly
suspected that Gouroo and Mafuta were equally interested in my
downfall--might, indeed, have conspired in some mysterious manner to
bring it about--and would probably take care that it should be as
complete and disastrous as savage vindictiveness could make it.

The days now dragged themselves away upon leaden feet, yet--apparent
paradox--with frightful rapidity; for I now no longer had a household to
attend to my wants; my meals were brought to me with unfailing
regularity by my guards, but they had apparently been forbidden to
communicate with me, for not a word could I get out of them, good, bad,
or indifferent. I was not permitted to show myself in the doorway of my
dwelling, or even to approach it nearly enough to see what was going on;
and in this dreadful solitude, waiting and hoping for I knew not what
impossible happening to occur and effect my deliverance, each day seemed
to drag itself out to the length of a month--until the darkness came;
and then, with the realisation of the fact that I was so much nearer to
a hideous fate, the hours seemed suddenly to have sped with lightning
swiftness. The excited buzz and bustle of preparat