puts it, Marut, and if he does what he says and rushes us at
sundown, everyone of us will be killed. Also I am thirsty already and
there is nothing to drink. But will this king keep his word? There are
other ways of dying besides by steel."

"I think that he will keep his word, but as that messenger said, he will
not add to his word. Choose now, for see, they are beginning to hedge us
round."

"What do you say, men?" I asked of the three who had remained with us.

"We say, Lord, that we are in the hands of the Child, though we wish
now that we had died with our brothers," answered their spokesman
fatalistically.

So after Marut and I had consulted together for a little as to the form
of his reply, he beckoned to the messenger and said:

"We accept the offer of Simba, although it would be easy for this lord
to kill him now where he stands, namely, to yield ourselves as prisoners
on his oath that no harm shall come to us. For know that if harm does
come, the vengeance will be terrible. Now in proof of his good faith,
let Simba draw near and drink the cup of peace with us, for we thirst."

"Not so," said the messenger, "for then that white lord might kill him
with his tube. Give me the tube and Simba shall come."

"Take it," I said magnanimously, handing him the rifle, which he
received in a very gingerly fashion. After all, I reflected, there is
nothing much more useless than a rifle without ammunition.

Off he went holding the weapon at arm's length, and presently Simba
himself, accompanied by some of his men, one of whom carried a skin of
water and another a large cup hollowed from an elephant's tusk, rode up
to us. This Simba was a fine and rather terrifying person with a large
moustache and a chin shaved except for a little tuft of hair which
he wore at its point like an Italian. His eyes were big and dark,
frank-looking, yet now and again with sinister expression in the corners
of them. He was not nearly so black as most of his followers; probably
in bygone generations his blood had been crossed with that of the White
Kendah. He wore his hair long without any head-dress, held in place by a
band of gold which I suppose represented a crown. On his forehead was
a large white scar, probably received in some battle. Such was his
appearance.

He looked at me with great curiosity, and I have often wondered since
what kind of an impression I produced upon him. My hat had fallen off,
or I had knocked it off when I f