entrance
from the main door in front led directly into a hall, and at the rear
end of the hall was a large room the entire width of the building.

Several smaller rooms were on each side of the hall. It was, to all
appearance, arranged like an American or European dwelling, the entire
interior being finished in wood, but in a terribly dilapidated
condition.

The surprise was still greater when they found in the interior of the
great room a number of articles of furniture, such as chairs, tables,
settees, and articles which, in their younger days, might have been
rugs. Parts of bedsteads were littered around, broken articles of
furniture were scattered here and there, and everywhere the place was
lavish with dirt.

The boys had seen many native places where filth had accumulated, but
the atmosphere seemed to fairly reek. It appeared so to the boys, who
had lived so much in the open, and who had such vivid imaginations that
the wrecked condition of the interior suggested a worse atmosphere than
there really was.

It was not close or confined, that was certain; for the places which
once, evidently, had windows, did not contain even the suggestion of
glass. It was one mass of broken, misplaced, jumbled up belongings, that
would require the rebus manager of a magazine to assemble in order.

When Uraso returned, and the chiefs were placed before them, the boys
had an opportunity to study the famous chief of the Illyas. They took
occasion to compare him with the others, for the boys now knew all of
them.

He was a man, probably sixty years of age, with the most curious
headdress, which was worked to imitate, somewhat, the crown, to which
his position entitled him. He wore a brightly colored mantle, if it
could be called such, for it was simply thrown over one shoulder, and
its pendant ends were bound to the waist by a wide girdle.

He wore short trousers, or pantalets, and Harry could hardly keep from
laughing, as George suggested that he was ultra-English in the way his
trousers were rolled up. He had the face of a man of authority. His
every action and look betokened one who knew his authority, and the
first question, together with the imperious manner of uttering it,
indicated that he was a king, and he knew it.

He looked at Uraso and Muro, both chiefs, and equal to him in rank. He
did it with such an imperious air as plainly indicated that he
considered them his inferiors. Uraso and Muro stood there, with arms