One very ludicrous incident occurred,however,which I rather welcomed,as it gave us something to laugh at.
Just before we got to the confines of the town a pretty young girl,with some beautiful lilies in her hand,came running forward and presented them to Good (somehow they all seemed to like Good;I think his eye-glass and solitary whisker gave him a fictitious value),and then said she had a boon to ask.
"Speak on."
"Let my lord show his servant his beautiful white legs,that his servant may look on them,and remember them all her days,and tell of them to her children;his servant has travelled four days'journey to see them,for the fame of them has gone throughout the land.""I'll be hanged if I do!"said Good,excitedly.
"Come,come,my dear fellow,"said Sir Henry,"you can't refuse to oblige a lady.""I won't,"said Good,obstinately;"it is positively indecent."However,in the end he consented to draw up his trousers to the knee,amidst notes of rapturous admiration from all the women present,especially the gratified young lady,and in this guise he had to walk till we got clear of the town.
Good's legs will,I fear,never be so greatly admired again.Of his melting teeth,and even of his "transparent eye,"they wearied more or less,but of his legs,never.
As we travelled,Infadoos told us that there was another pass over the mountains to the north of the one followed by Solomon's Great Road,or rather that there was a place where it was possible to climb down the wall of cliff that separated Kukuanaland from the desert,and was broken by the towering shapes of Sheba's breasts.It appeared,too,that rather more than two years previously a party of Kukuana hunters had descended this path into the desert in search of ostriches,whose plumes were much prized among them for war headdresses,and that in the course of their hunt they had been led far from the mountains,and were much troubled by thirst.Seeing,however,trees on the horizon,they made towards them,and discovered a large and fertile oasis of some miles in extent,and plentifully watered.It was by way of this oasis that he suggested that we should return,and the idea seemed to us a good one,as it appeared that we should escape the rigors of the mountain pass,and as some of the hunters were in attendance to guide us to the oasis,from which they stated,they could perceive more fertile spots far away in the desert.
Travelling easily,on the night of the fourth day's journey we found ourselves:once more on the crest of the mountain!that separate Kukuanaland from the desert,which rolled away in sandy billows at our feet,and about twenty-five miles to the north of Sheba's breasts.
At dawn on the following day we were led to the commencement of a precipitous descent,by which we were to descend the precipice,and gain the desert two thousand and more feet below.
Here we bade farewell to that true friend and sturdy old warrior,Infadoos,who solemnly wished all good upon us,and nearly wept with grief.
"Never,my lords,"he said,"shall mine old eyes see the like of ye again.
Ah!the way that Incubu cut his men down in the battle!Ah!for the sight of that stroke with which he swept off my brother Twala's head!It was beautiful -beautiful!I may never hope to see such another,except perchance in happy dreams."We were very sorry to part from him;indeed,Good was so moved that he gave him as a souvenir -what do you think?-an eye-glass .
(Afterwards we discovered that it was a spare one.)Infadoos was delighted,foreseeing that the possession of such an article would enormously increase his prestige,and after several vain attempts actually succeeded in screwing it into his own eye.Anything more incongruous than the old Warrior looked with an eye-glass I never saw.Eye-glasses don't go well with leopard-skin cloaks and black ostrich plumes.
Then,having seen that our guides were well laden with water and provisions,and having received a thundering farewell salute from the Buffaloes,we wrung the old warrior's hand,and began our downward climb.A very arduous business it proved to be,but somehow that evening we found ourselves at the bottom without accident.
"Do you know,"said Sir Henry that night,as we sat by our fire and gazed up at the beetling cliffs above us,"I think that there are worse places than Kukuanaland in the world,and that I have spent unhappier times than the last month or two,though I have never spent such queer ones.
Eh !you fellows?"
"I almost wish I were back,"said Good,with a sigh.
As for myself,I reflected that all's well that ends well;but in the course of a long life of shaves I never had such shaves as those I had recently experienced.The thought of that battle still makes me feel cold all over,and as for our experience in the treasure chamber -!
Next morning we started on a toilsome march across the desert,having with us a good supply of water carried by our five guides,and camped that night in the open,starting again at dawn on the morrow.
By midday of the third day's journey we could see the trees of the oasis of which the guides spoke,and by an hour before sundown we were once more walking upon grass and listening to the sound of running water.
