magination at white-heat. I had to struggle
with a spell which gripped me equally with the wildest savage. I
forced myself to look round at the strained faces, the wall of the
cascade, the line of torches. It was the sight of Henriques that broke
the charm. Here was one who had no part in the emotion. I caught his
eye fixed on the rubies, and in it I read only a devouring greed. It
flashed through my mind that Laputa had a foe in his own camp, and the
Prester's collar a votary whose passion was not that of worship.

The next thing I remember was a movement among the first ranks. The
chiefs were swearing fealty. Laputa took off the collar and called God
to witness that it should never again encircle his neck till he had led
his people to victory. Then one by one the great chiefs and indunas
advanced, and swore allegiance with their foreheads on the ivory box.
Such a collection of races has never been seen. There were tall Zulus
and Swazis with ringkops and feather head-dresses. There were men from
the north with heavy brass collars and anklets; men with quills in
their ears, and earrings and nose-rings; shaven heads, and heads with
wonderfully twisted hair; bodies naked or all but naked, and bodies
adorned with skins and necklets. Some were light in colour, and some
were black as coal; some had squat negro features, and some thin,
high-boned Arab faces. But in all there was the air of mad enthusiasm.
For a day they were forsworn from blood, but their wild eyes and
twitching hands told their future purpose.

For an hour or two I had been living in a dream-world. Suddenly my
absorption was shattered, for I saw that my time to swear was coming.
I sat in the extreme back row at the end nearest the entrance, and
therefore I should naturally be the last to go forward. The crisis was
near when I should be discovered, for there was no question of my
shirking the oath.

Then for the first time since I entered the cave I realized the
frightful danger in which I stood. My mind had been strung so high by
the ritual that I had forgotten all else. Now came the rebound, and
with shaky nerves I had to face discovery and certain punishment. In
that moment I suffered the worst terror of my life. There was much to
come later, but by that time my senses were dulled. Now they had been
sharpened by what I had seen and heard, my nerves were already
quivering and my fancy on fire. I felt every limb shaking as 'Mwanga
went