The next day, May 29th, the city of Kazounde presented a strange aspect. The natives, terrified, kept themselves shut up in their huts. They had never seen a king, who said he was of divine essence, nor a simple minister, die of this horrible death. They had already burned some of their fellow-beings, and the oldest could not forget certain culinary preparations relating to .  
They knew then how the incineration of a human body takes place with difficulty, and their king and his minister had burnt all alone! That seemed to them, and indeed ought to seem to them, .
 
Jose-Antonio Alvez kept still in his house. He might fear that he would be held responsible for the accident. Negoro had informed him of what had passed, warning him to take care of himself. To charge him with Moini Loungga's death might be a bad affair, from which he might not be able to himself without damage.
 
But Negoro had a good idea. By his means Alvez spread the report that the death of Kazounde's sovereign was supernatural; that the great Manitou only reserved it for his elect. The natives, so inclined to , accepted this lie. The fire that came out of the bodies of the king and his minister became a sacred fire. They had nothing to do but honor Moini Loungga by obsequies of a man elevated to the rank of the gods.
 
These obsequies, with all the ceremonial connected with them among the African tribes, was an occasion offered to Negoro to make Dick Sand play a part. What this death of Moini Loungga was going to cost in blood, would be believed with difficulty, if the Central Africa travelers, Cameron among others, had not related facts that cannot be doubted.
 
The King of Kazounde's natural heir was the Queen Moini. In without delay with the funeral ceremonies she acted with sovereign authority, and could thus distance the competitors, among others that King of the Oukonson, who tended to encroach upon the rights of Kazounde's sovereigns. Besides, Moini, even by becoming queen, avoided the cruel fate reserved for the other wives of the deceased; at the same time she would get rid of the youngest ones, of whom she, first in date, had necessarily to complain. This result would particularly suit the of that vixen. So she had it announced, with deer's horns and other instruments, that the obsequies of the king would take place the next evening with all the usual ceremony.
 
No protestation was made, neither at court nor from the natives. Alvez and the other traders had nothing to fear from the accession of this Queen Moini. With a few presents, a few flattering remarks, they would easily subject her to their influence. Thus the royal heritage was transmitted without difficulty. There was terror only in the harem, and not without reason.
 
The preparatory for the funeral were commenced the same day. At the end of the principal street of Kazounde flowed a deep and rapid stream, an of the Coango. The question was to turn this stream aside, so as to leave its bed dry. It was in that bed that the royal grave must be dug. After the burial the stream would be restored to its natural channel.
 
The natives were busily employed in constructing a dam, that forced the stream to make a provisional bed across the plain of Kazounde. At the last of this funeral ceremony the would be broken, and the would take its old bed again.
 
Negoro intended Dick Sand to complete the number of victims sacrificed on the king's tomb. He had been a witness of the young 's movement of anger, when Harris had acquainted him with the death of Mrs. Weldon and little .
 
Negoro, cowardly , had not exposed himself to the same fate as his . But now, before a prisoner firmly fastened by the feet and hands, he supposed he had nothing to fear, and resolved to pay him a visit. Negoro was one of those who are not satisfied with torturing their victims; they must also enjoy their sufferings.
 
Toward the middle of the day, then, he repaired to the barrack where Dick Sand was guarded, in sight of an overseer. There, closely bound, was lying the young novice, almost deprived of food for twenty-four hours, weakened by past , tortured by those bands that entered into his flesh; hardly able to turn himself, he was waiting for death, no matter how cruel it might be, as a limit to so many evils.
 
However, at the sight of Negoro he from head to foot. He made an effort to break the bands that prevented him from throwing himself on that miserable man and having revenge.
 
But Hercules himself would not succeed in breaking them. He understood that it was another kind of contest that was going to take place between the two, and arming himself with calmness, Dick Sand compelled himself to look Negoro right in the face, and not to honor him with a reply, no matter what he might say.
 
"I believed it to be my duty," Negoro said to him it first, "to come to my young captain for the last time, and to let him know how I regret, for his sake, that he does not command here any longer, as he commanded on board the 'Pilgrim.'"
 
And, seeing that Dick Sand did not reply:
 
"What, captain, do you no longer recognize your old cook? He comes, however, to take your orders, and to ask you what he ought to serve for your breakfast."
 
At the same time Negoro kicked the young novice, who was lying on the ground.
 
"Besides," added he, "I should have another question to address to you, my young captain. Could you yet explain to me, how, wishing to land on the American coast, you have ended by arriving in Angola, where you are?"
 
Certainly, Dick Sand had no more need of the 's words to understand what he had truly divined, when he knew at last that the "Pilgrim's" compass must have been made false by this . But Negoro's question was an . Still he only replied by a contemptuous silence.
 
"You will acknowledge, captain," continued Kegoro, "that it was fortunate for you that there was a on board—a real one, at that. Great God, where would we be without him? Instead of perishing on some breaker, where the tempest would have thrown you, you have arrived, thanks to him, in a friendly port, and if it is to any one that you owe being at last in a safe place, it is to that seaman whom you have wronged in despising, my young master!"
 
Speaking thus, Negoro, whose apparent calmness was only the result of an immense effort, had brought his form near Dick Sand. His face, suddenly become ferocious, touched him so closely that one would believe that he was going to him. This rascal could no longer contain his fury.
 
"Every dog has his day!" he exclaimed, in the paroxysm of fury excited in him by his victim's calmness. "To-day I am captain, I am master! Your life is in my hands!"
 
"Take it," Sand replied, without emotion. "But, know there is in heaven a God, of all crimes, and your punishment is not distant!"
 
"If God occupies himself with human beings, there is only time for Him to take care of you!"
 
"I am ready to appear before the Judge," replied Dick Sand, coldly, "and death will not make me afraid."
 
"We shall see about that!" howled Negoro. "You count on help of some kind, perhaps—help at Kazounde, where Alvez and I are all-powerful! You are a fool! You say to yourself, perhaps, that your companions are still there, that old Tom and the others. Undeceive yourself. It is a long time since they were sold and sent to Zanzibar—too fortunate if they do not die of on the way!"
 
"God has a thousand ways of doing justice," replied Dick Sand. "The smallest instrument is sufficient for him. Hercules is free."
 
"Hercules!" exclaimed Negoro, striking the ground with his foot; "he perished long ago under the lions' and panthers' teeth. I regret only one thing, that is, that those ferocious beasts should have my !"
 
"If Hercules is dead," replied Dick Sand, "Dingo is alive. A dog like that, Negoro, is more than enough to take revenge on a man of your kind. I know you well, Negoro; you are not brave. Dingo will seek for you; it will know how to find you again. Some day you will die under his teeth!"
 
"Miserable boy!" exclaimed the Portuguese, . "Miserable boy! Dingo died from a ball that I fired at it. It is dead, like Mrs. Weldon and her son; dead, as all the of the 'Pilgrim' shall die!"
 
"And as you yourself shall die before long," replied Dick Sand, whose look made the Portuguese grow pale.
 
Negoro, beside himself, was on the point of passing from words to deeds, and strangling his unarmed prisoner with his hands. Already he had sprung upon him, and was shaking him with fury, when a sudden reflection stopped him. He remembered that he was going to kill his victim, that all would be over, and that this would spare him the twenty-four hours of torture he intended for him. He then stood up, said a few words to the overseer, impassive, commanded him to watch closely over the prisoner, and went out of the barrack.
 
Instead of casting him down, this scene had restored all Dick Sand's moral force. His physical energy underwent a happy reaction, and at the same time the mastery. In bending over him in his rage, had Negoro slightly loosened the bands that till then had rendered all movement impossible? It was probable, for Dick Sand thought that his members had more play than before the arrival of his ex............