, and presently adjusted
gags with a neatness and solicitude worthy of the Inquisition.

"Throw them!" she ordered, and in a second our heels were struck from
under us and I was half stunned by the impact of my head against the
solid floor (for all the floors of that great place were built to
resist eternity).

"Now!" she said. "Show them knives!"

We were shown forthwith the ugliest, most suggestive weapons I have
ever seen--long sliver-thin blades sharper than razors. The Arabs
knelt on our chests (their knees were harder and more merciless than
wooden clubs) and laid the blades, edge-upward, on the skin of our
throats.

"Let them feel!" she ordered.

I felt a sharp cut, and the warm blood trickled down over my jugular to
the floor. I knew it was only a skin-cut, but did not pretend to
myself I was enjoying the ordeal.

"Now!" she said.

The Arabs stepped away and she came and stood between us, looking down
at one and then the other.

"There isn't a place in Africa," she said, "that you can hide in where
the Sultan's men can't find you! There isn't a British officer in
Africa who would believe you if you told what has happened in this room
tonight! Yet Lord Montdidier will believe you--he knows you
presumably, and certainly he knows me! So tell Lord Montdidier exactly
what has happened! Assure him with my compliments that his throat and
yours shall be cut as surely as you dare set out after that ivory
without signing my agreement first. Tell Lord Montdidier he may be
friends with me if he cares to. As his friend I will help make him
rich for life! As his enemy, I will make Africa too hot and dangerous
to hold him! Let him choose!"

She stepped back and, without troubling to turn away, put powder on her
nose and chin.

"Now let them up!" she said.

The Arabs lifted us to our feet.

"Loose them!"

The expert of the three slipped the knots like a wizard doing parlor
tricks; but I noticed that the other two held their knives extremely
cautiously. We should have been dead men if we had made a pugnacious
motion.

"Now you may go! Unless Lord Montdidier agrees with me, the only
safety for any of you is away from Africa! Go and tell him! Go!"

"I'll give you your answer now!" said Will.

"No, you don't!" said I, remembering Monty's urgent admonition to tell
her nothing and ask no questions. "Come away, Will! There's nothing
to be gained by talking back!"

"Right you are!" he said, laug