alls of clouds,
poised upon the topmost mountain, are a feature in Central Africa; they
seem to stand a moment in their precarious position, when a furious
wind, which flurries everything in its way, tears along with a mighty
sound, reaches the monstrous ball, lifts it up a moment above the
mountains, and then hurls it upon the quiet sunlit valleys with
thunder-crash and lightning, and great floods of rain.

These were of daily, sometimes hourly, occurrence, while our travellers
journeyed slowly to where they conceived friends might be found. Owing
to Simba's wounds, their progress was necessarily slow, and this gave
them ample opportunities to watch the phenomena we have described.

At the end of a week they were not forty miles from the Rungwa Plain,
and at the termination of that period Simba declared he felt as strong
and as well as ever, and the eighth day he led the way as formerly, and
twenty-five miles were marched.

This day's journey brought the travellers to a long, straight, narrow
valley, which was converted through alluvial deposits and vegetable
mould of centuries into a quagmire of extraordinary profundity. On the
opposite side of the oozy valley to that on which they stood, there was
some cultivation, and in a circular jungle they descried a few huts,
probably a village. On their side the ground rose up gradually to an
ancient clearing, from which disused roads ramified in all directions,
which were a sufficient evidence that at one time the country was well
populated.

They were striking up one of these roads leading to the old clearing,
called Tongoni in the language of Zanzibar, when an arrow whistled close
to Simba's ear, followed by another and another.

Kalulu's trained ear detected the sound at once, and casting his eyes
hastily around he saw a group of men wearing cloth round their loins,
hidden in a thick bush; how many men he could not tell, nor did he wait
to count them, but shouted to his friends:

"Up, up! Simba--Moto--up, my brother! up, Niani! run towards that peak
beyond the clearing. I will follow you. I shall stop to bring these
fellows out, and to show them how a Mtuta and a chief can fight."

"No," said Simba, "we will not go up without you. Come with us,
Kalulu."

"Fear not for me, but think of the Arab boys and yourselves. They
cannot catch me. Go on to the peak. Go, Selim, Abdullah; Kalulu begs
of you."

"Let him be, Simba," said Moto; "Kalulu knows what he is