e.
These two had fallen in love with each other, and the chances were that,
as soon as the news reached the ears of the already jealous nobles,
Grosvenor and Dick would be "removed", either openly or privately, while
the Queen would at once be ruthlessly forced into the kind of marriage
that she had all along regarded with such utter dread and detestation.

Here was a pretty kettle of fish! and occurring, too, at such a terribly
inopportune moment. Yet, as Dick moodily reflected, while being ferried
across to the mainland in one of Grosvenor's new, fast-sailing cutters,
perhaps the moment might not be so very inopportune after all. It was a
fact that, under the able leadership of Mokatto, the savages were
pressing Izreel as it had never before been pressed within its recorded
history. Izreel was now literally fighting for its life, its very
existence; and if, through the help of the two Englishmen, the country
should by any chance win out and achieve a decisive victory over her
combined enemies, it was just possible that gratitude, that rarest of
human sentiments, might take the form of forgiveness, if nothing more;
in which case there was perhaps a bare possibility that Grosvenor and
Dick might be released from their oath and permitted to return to their
own country. But it was doubtful, Dick decided, very doubtful; and his
meditations assumed a distinctly gloomy tone as, having arrived on the
mainland, he hunted up Mafuta and explained to that jubilant savage that
they were about to proceed to the front and take part in the fighting.

To attempt anything even remotely resembling a detailed account of Dick
Maitland's adventures during the ensuing three weeks would be
impossible, for they were numerous and exciting enough to demand an
entire volume to do justice to them. It must suffice to say that during
that eventful period the youngster saw enough fighting to satisfy him
for the remainder of his life--desperate, ferocious, hand-to-hand
fighting, in which neither side ever dreamed of asking or giving
quarter, in which a disabling wound was immediately followed by death
upon the spear-points of the enemy, and the salient characteristics of
which were continuous ear-splitting yells, the shrill whistling of the
savages, the rumbling thunder of thousands of fiercely rushing feet,
blinding clouds of dust through which there appeared a phantasmagoria of
ferocious countenances, gnashing teeth, glaring eyeballs, the rudd