any
comparison between a true story of adventure and the preposterous tales
which you invent about ibex hanging by their horns. No, it is not the
end of the story; the most exciting part is to come. But I have talked
enough for to-night; and if you go on in that way, Good, it will be some
time before I begin again."

"Sorry I spoke, I'm sure," said Good, humbly. "Let's have a split to
show that there is no ill-feeling." And they did.

V--THE MESSAGE OF MAIWA

On the following evening we once more dined together, and Quatermain,
after some pressure, was persuaded to continue his story--for Good's
remark still rankled in his breast.

"At last," he went on, "a few minutes before sunset, the task was
finished. We had laboured at it all day, stopping only once for dinner,
for it is no easy matter to hew out five such tusks as those which
now lay before me in a white and gleaming line. It was a dinner worth
eating, too, I can tell you, for we dined off the heart of the great
one-tusked bull, which was so big that the man whom I sent inside the
elephant to look for his heart was forced to remove it in two pieces.
We cut it into slices and fried it with fat, and I never tasted heart
to equal it, for the meat seemed to melt in one's mouth. By the way, I
examined the jaw of the elephant; it never grew but one tusk; the other
had not been broken off, nor was it present in a rudimentary form.

"Well, there lay the five beauties, or rather four of them, for Gobo and
another man were engaged in sawing the grand one in two. At last
with many sighs I ordered them to do this, but not until by practical
experiment I had proved that it was impossible to carry it in any other
way. One hundred and sixty pounds of solid ivory, or rather more in its
green state, is too great a weight for two men to bear for long across
a broken country. I sat watching the job and smoking the pipe of
contentment, when suddenly the bush opened, and a very handsome and
dignified native girl, apparently about twenty years of age, stood
before me, carrying a basket of green mealies upon her head.

"Although I was rather surprised to see a native girl in such a wild
spot, and, so far as I knew, a long way from any kraal, the matter did
not attract my particular notice; I merely called to one of the men, and
told him to bargain with the woman for the mealies, and ask her if there
were any more to be bought in the neighbourhood. Then I turned my head
an