Allan Quatermain

om the special favour of Providence than from our own care or prowess. At last it came, and I have not often been more grateful to see the light, though so far as my canoe was co

ving nothing but a train of bubbles behind him. Alas! when our time comes, most of us like him leave nothing but bubbles behind, to show that we have been, and the bubbles soon burst. The hand of his

o arrive at the 'Highlands' station by night. To make matters worse, within an hour of sunrise it came on to rain in torrents, wetting us to the skin, and even neces

en cover to five thousand Masai, and at first I thought that we were going to have another night of it in the canoes. Fortunately, however, we espied a little rocky islet, not more than fifteen miles or so square, situated nearly in the middle of the river. For this we paddled, and, making fast the canoes, landed and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, which was very uncomfortable indeed. As for the weather, it continued to be simply vile, the rain coming down in sheets till we were chilled to the marrow, and utterly preventing us from lighting a fire. There was, however, one consoling circumstance about this rain; our Askari declared that nothing would induce the Masai to make an attack in it, as they intensely disliked moving about in the wet, perhaps, as Good suggested, because they hate the idea of washing. We ate some insipid and sodden cold fish-that is, with the exception of Umslopogaas, who, like most Zulus, cannot bear fish-and took a pull of brandy, of which we fortunately had a few bottles left, and then began what, with one exception-when we same three white men nearly peris

cking up the mists and warming the chill air. Benumbed, and utterly exhausted, we dragged ourselves to our feet, and went and stood in the bright rays, and were tha

good wind. Our spirits had returned with the sunshine, and we were ready to laug

was an enormous pine, the top of which we had seen through a glass for the last two days, but of course without knowing that it marked the site of the mission station. I was the first to see the house, and could not restrain myself from giving a hearty cheer, in which the others, including the natives, joined lustily. There was no thought of halting now. On we laboured, for, unfortunately, thoug

hrough his eyeglass, 'walking in a civilized fashion, through a civilized garden, to

or an Italian opera than a real tangible fact; and the sense of unreality was not lessened

nd red cheeks; 'I hope I see you very well. My natives told me an hour ago they spied two

ite face again, let me tell you,' put in the

cknowledgment, and procee

gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see you. The last white who visi

y had only been planted ten years, had in the lovely climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of which is about 5,000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to imposing proportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit. After a stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so-for the hillside was steep-we came to a splendid quince fence, also covered with fruit, which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space of about four acres of ground that contained his private garden, house, church, and outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop. And what a garden it was!

garden!' I said, overpowered with

t it is the climate that I have to thank. If you stick a peach-stone into the ground it will

, on the other side of which was a loopholed stone wall eight feet

d twenty natives two years to dig the ditch and build the wall, but I never felt safe till it was done; and now I can defy all the savages in Africa, for the spring th

ce the overflow found its way by means of a drain to the moat round the outer wall, this moat in its turn serving as a reservoir, whence an unfailing supply of water was available to irrigate all the gardens below. The house itself, a massively built single-storied building, was roofed with slabs of stone, and had a handsome veranda in front. It was built on three sides of a square, the fourth side being taken up by the kitchens, which stood separate from the house-a very good plan in a hot country. In the centre of this square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable object that we had yet seen in this charming place, and that was a single tree of the conifer tribe, varieties of which grow freely on the highlands of this part of

ul tree!' excla

der fixed to the lowest bough; and if I want to see anything that is going on within fifteen miles or so, all I have to do is to run up it with a spyglass. But you must be hungry, and I am sure th

eranda from the house, a dapper little man, dressed in a neat blue cotton suit, with shoes made of tanned hide, and remarkable for a bustlin

was loitering along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threw up his hands in astonishment. 'Ah, mais quel hom

ie; 'what are you tal

d upon Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinate h

that he was the object of remark, frowned ferociously, for he

makes the grimace. I like not his air. I van

lged in. 'He is a queer character-Alphonse,' he said. 'By and by I

d eaten a most excellent dinner, 'how you

and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an application had been made by the French Government for his extradition. Whereupon he rushed off up-country, and fell in,

ry proceeded to give our host a description of our

nearly all my men have gone down to the coast with ivory and goods. There are two hundred of them in the caravan, and the consequence is that I have not more than twenty men available for defensive purposes in case they should attac

aid I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again. 'Rather than bring those

ere is an end on it; and I think we can give them a pretty warm greeti

e who reported that he had come across a white people in the interior. Do you think that there was any truth in his story? I ask, beca

ed into an ornamental pattern exactly as we work soft wood with a fret-saw, the steel, however, being invariably pierced in such a way as not to interfere with the strength of the sword. This in itself was sufficiently curious, bu

enzie, 'did you ever

ed it and sho

into a long rambling narrative about how he belonged to a tribe far in the north, and how his tribe was destroyed by another tribe, and he with a few other survivors driven still further north past a lake named Laga. Thence, it appears, he made his way to another lake that lay up in the mountains, "a lake without a bottom" he called it, and here his wife and brother died of an infectious sickness-probably smallpox-whereon the people drove him out of their villages into the wilderness, where he wandered miserably over mountai

een listening with breathless int

for I told him to return on the morrow, bidding one of my headmen look after him for the night. The headman took him away, but the poor man had the itch so badly that the headman's wife would not have him in the hut for fear of catching it, so he was given a blanket and told to sleep outside. As it happened, we had a lion hanging about here

should be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it. Anyhow, we mean to try and find out. We intend to journey to Lekakisera, a

le,' said Mr Mackenzie, with a