ondar."

"Who will win?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows?" he said. "I hope it will be
the yellow men, but Menelek is powerful--it will take many yellow men
to defeat him."

Crowds were gathering along the sidewalks to view the emperor's entry
into the city. I took my place among them, although I hate crowds, and
I am glad that I did, for I witnessed such a spectacle of barbaric
splendor as no other Pan-American has ever looked upon.

Down the broad main thoroughfare, which may once have been the historic
Unter den Linden, came a brilliant cortege. At the head rode a
regiment of red-coated hussars--enormous men, black as night. There
were troops of riflemen mounted on camels. The emperor rode in a
golden howdah upon the back of a huge elephant so covered with rich
hangings and embellished with scintillating gems that scarce more than
the beast's eyes and feet were visible.

Menelek was a rather gross-looking man, well past middle age, but he
carried himself with an air of dignity befitting one descended in
unbroken line from the Prophet--as was his claim.

His eyes were bright but crafty, and his features denoted both
sensuality and cruelness. In his youth he may have been a rather fine
looking black, but when I saw him his appearance was revolting--to me,
at least.

Following the emperor came regiment after regiment from the various
branches of the service, among them batteries of field guns mounted on
elephants.

In the center of the troops following the imperial elephant marched a
great caravan of slaves. The old street sweeper at my elbow told me
that these were the gifts brought in from the far outlying districts by
the commanding officers of the frontier posts. The majority of them
were women, destined, I was told, for the harems of the emperor and his
favorites. It made my old companion clench his fists to see those poor
white women marching past to their horrid fates, and, though I shared
his sentiments, I was as powerless to alter their destinies as he.

For a week the troops kept pouring in and out of New Gondar--in,
always, from the south and west, but always toward the east. Each new
contingent brought its gifts to the emperor. From the south they
brought rugs and ornaments and jewels; from the west, slaves; for the
commanding officers of the western frontier posts had naught else to
bring.

From the number of women they brought, I judged that they knew the
weakness