To say the truth, it was the very vaguest of hopes to which Mrs. Weldon had been clinging, yet it was not without some thrill of disappointment that she heard from the lips of old Alvez himself that Dr. Livingstone had died at a little village on Lake Bangweolo. There had appeared to be a sort of a link binding¹ her to the civilized² world, but it was now abruptly³ snapped, and nothing remained for her but to make what terms she could with the base and heartless Negoro.  
On the 14th, the day appointed for the interview, he made his appearance at the hut, firmly resolved to make no abatement⁴ in the terms that he had proposed, Mrs. Weldon, on her part, being equally determined⁵ not to yield to the demand.
 
"There is only one condition," she avowed⁶, "upon which I will acquiesce⁷. My husband shall not be required to come up the country here."
 
Negoro hesitated; at length he said that he would agree to her husband being taken by ship to Mossamedes, a small port in the south of Angola, much frequented by slavers, whither also, at a date hereafter to be fixed⁸, Alvez should send herself with Jack⁹ and Benedict; the stipulation¹⁰ was confirmed that the ransom¹¹ should be 100,000 dollars, and it was further made part of the contract that Negoro should be allowed to depart as an honest man.
 
Mrs. Weldon felt she had gained an important point in thus sparing her husband the necessity of a journey to Kazonndé, and had no apprehensions¹² about herself on her way to Mossamedes, knowing that it was to the interest of Alvez and Negoro alike to attend carefully to her wants.
 
Upon the terms of the covenant¹³ being thus arranged, Mrs. Weldon wrote such a letter to her husband as she knew would bring him with all speed to Mossamedes, but she left it entirely¹⁴ to Negoro to represent himself in whatever light he chose. Once in possession of the document, Negoro lost no time in starting on his errand. The very next morning, taking with him about twenty negroes, he set off towards the north, alleging¹⁵ to Alvez as his motive¹⁶ for taking that direction, that he was not only going to embark¹⁷ somewhere at the mouth of the Congo, but that he was anxious to keep as far as possible from the prison-houses of the Portuguese¹⁸, with which already he had been involuntarily only too familiar.
 
After his departure, Mrs. Weldon resolved to make the best of her period of imprisonment²⁰, aware that it could hardly be less than four months before he would return. She had no desire to go beyond the precincts assigned her, even had the privilege been allowed her; but warned by Negoro that Hercules was still free, and might at any time attempt a rescue, Alvez had no thought of permitting her any unnecessary liberty. Her life therefore soon resumed its previous monotony.
 
The daily routine went on within the enclosure pretty much as in other parts of the town, the women all being employed in various labours for the benefit of their husbands and masters. The rice was pounded with wooden pestles²¹; the maize²² was peeled and winnowed²³, previously²⁴ to extracting the granulous substance for the drink which they call mtyellé; the sorghum²⁵ had to be gathered in, the season of its ripening²⁶ being marked by festive²⁷ observances; there was a fragrant²⁸ oil to be expressed from a kind of olive named the mpafoo; the cotton had to be spun²⁹ on spindles, which were hardly less than a foot and a half in length; there was the bark of trees to be woven into textures³⁰ for wearing; the manioc had to be dug up, and the cassava procured³² from its roots; and besides all this, there was the preparation of the soil for its future plantings, the usual productions of the country being the moritsané beans, growing in pods fifteen inches long upon stems twenty feet high, the arachides, from which they procure³¹ a serviceable oil, the chilobé pea, the blossoms of which are used to give a flavour to the insipid³³ sorghum, cucumbers, of which the seeds are roasted as chestnuts³⁴, as well as the common crops of coffee, sugar, onions, guavas, and sesame.
 
To the women's lot, too, falls the manipulation of all the fermented³⁵ drinks, the malafoo, made from bananas, the pombé, and various other liquors. Nor should the care of all the domestic animals be forgotten; the cows that will not allow themselves to be milked unless they can see their calf³⁶, or a stuffed representative of it; the short-horned heifers that not unfrequently have a hump; the goats that, like slaves, form part of the currency of the country; the pigs, the sheep, and the poultry³⁷.
 
The men, meanwhile, smoke their hemp³⁸ or tobacco, hunt buffaloes³⁹ or elephants, or are hired by the dealers⁴⁰ to join in the slave-raids; the harvest of slaves, in fact, being a thing of as regular and periodic recurrence⁴¹ as the ingathering of the maize.
 
In her daily strolls, Mrs. Weldon would occasionally pause to watch the women, but they only responded to her notice by a long stare or by a hideous⁴² grimace⁴³; a kind of natural instinct made them hate a white skin, and they had no spark of commiseration⁴⁴ for the stranger who had been brought among them; Halima, however, was a marked exception, she grew more and more devoted⁴⁵ to her mistress, and by degrees, the two became able to exchange many sentences in the native dialect.
 
Jack generally accompanied his mother. Naturally enough he longed to get outside the enclosure, but still he found considerable amusement in watching the birds that built in a huge baobab that grew within; there were maraboos making their nests with twigs⁴⁶; there were scarlet-throated souimangas with nests like weaver-birds; widow birds that helped themselves liberally to the thatch⁴⁷ of the
 
[Illustration: The insufferable heat had driven all the residents within the depót indoors.]
 
huts; calaos with their tuneful song; grey parrots, with bright red tails, called roufs by the Manyuema, who apply the same name to their reigning⁴⁸ chiefs; and insect-eating drongos, like grey linnets with large red beaks⁴⁹. Hundreds of butterflies flitted about, especially in the neighbourhood of the brooks⁵⁰; but these were more to the taste of Cousin Benedict than of little Jack; over and over again the child expressed his regret that he could not see over the walls, and more than ever he seemed to miss his friend Dick, who had taught him to climb a mast, and who he was sure would have fine fun with him in the branches of the trees, which were growing sometimes to the height of a hundred feet.
 
So long as the supply of insects did not fail, Benedict would have been contented⁵¹ to stay on without a murmur⁵² in his present quarters. True, without his glasses he worked at a disadvantage; but he had had the good fortune to discover a minute bee that forms its cells in the holes of worm-eaten wood, and a "sphex" that practises the craft of the cuckoo, and deposits its eggs in an abode⁵³ not prepared by itself. Mosquitos abounded⁵⁴ in swarms⁵⁵, and the worthy⁵⁶ naturalist⁵⁷ was so covered by their stings as to be hardly recognizable; but when Mrs. Weldon remonstrated⁵⁸ with him for exposing himself so unnecessarily, he merely scratched the irritated places on his skin, and said-
 
"It is their instinct, you............