Empire of Ivory Page 0,109

answered cautiously, "These are dearer, sir, for the difficulty in their construction; and would do you very little good without the men who understand their operation. But some men might be found, willing to take service with you, and such an arrangement made possible; if there were peace between our countries."

Laurence thought this was not further than he could in justice go, and as much attempt at diplomacy as he knew how to make; he hoped as a hint, it would not be badly received. Moshueshue's intentions were not disguised; it was not wonderful that he, more than the king, should have taken to heart the advantages of modern weaponry, more easily grasped at musket-scale by men than by dragons, and should have cared to establish access to them.

Moshueshue put his hand on the map-table and gazed thoughtfully down upon it. At last he said, "You are not engaged in this trade, you say, but others of your tribe are. Can you tell me who they are, and where they may be found?"

"Sir, I am sorry to say, that there are too many engaged in the trade for me to know their names, or particulars," Laurence said awkwardly, and wished bitterly that he might have been able to say with honesty it had been lately banned. Instead he could only add, that he believed it soon would be; which was received with as much satisfaction as he had expected.

"We will ban it ourselves," the prince said, the more ominously for the lack of any deliberately threatening tone. "But that will not satisfy our ancestors." He paused. "You are Kefentse's captives. He wants to trade you for more of his tribe. Can you arrange such an exchange? Lethabo says you cannot."

"I have told them that most of the others cannot be found," Mrs. Erasmus added quietly. " - it was nearly twenty years ago."

"Perhaps some investigation could locate the survivors," Laurence said to her doubtfully. "There would be bills of sale, and I suppose some of them must yet be on the same estates, where they first were sold - you do not think it so?"

She said after a moment, "I was taken into the house when I was sold. Those in the fields did not live long, most of them. A few years; maybe ten. There were not many old slaves."

Laurence did not quarrel with her finality, and he thought she did not translate her own words, either; likely to shield him from the rage which they could provoke. She said enough to convince Moshueshue of the impossibility, however, and he shook his head. "However," Laurence said, trying, "we would be glad to ransom ourselves, if you would arrange a communication with our fellows at the Cape, and to carry an envoy with us, to England, to establish peaceful relations. I would give my own word, to do whatever could be done to restore his kin - "

"No," Moshueshue said. "There is nothing I can do with this, not now. The ancestors are too roused up; it is not Kefentse only who has been bereft, and even those who have not lost children of their own are angry. My father's temper was not long when he was a man, and it is shorter since his change of life. Perhaps after." He did not say, after what, but issued orders to the attending dragons: without a chance to speak, Laurence was snatched up, and carried out at once.

The dragon did not turn back for the prison-cave, however, but turned instead for the falls, rising up out of the gorge and to the level of the plateau across which the great river flowed. Laurence clung to the basketing talons as they flew along its banks and over another of the great elephant-herds, too quickly for him to recognize if any of his compatriots were among the followers tending the ground; and to a distance at which the sound of the falls was muted, although the fine cloud of smoke yet remained visible, hovering perpetual in place to mark their location. There were no roads below at all, but at regular intervals Laurence began to notice cairns of stones, in circles of cleared ground, which might have served as signposts; and they had flown ten minutes when there came rearing up before them a vast amphitheater.

It was near to nothing, in his own experience, but the Colosseum in Rome; built entirely of blocks of stone fitted so snugly that no mortar, visibly, held