Whilst the soldiers and bearers, and, indeed, everybody who was capable of wielding an axe or tearing up the ground with his hands, were working for the common safety, de Morin was engaged in a careful survey of the mountain which rose up before him.
"What a nuisance it is," said he, "that this splendid wall is insuperable! If we could only get past it we could save ourselves without having to strike a blow, we could escape from the territory of the Walindis, and gain Lake Albert."
"Let us blow it up," replied Périères, laughing. "It is very likely stopping up the mouth of some extensive pass."
"My dear fellow," said de Morin. "I labour under a very decided impression that very soon we shall find another, and a better use for our powder."
The doctor was, meanwhile, composedly continuing his walk across the plain alone and unattended. He had been asked to take Nassar with him, but he distinctly refused, on the ground that if he saw the Queen he should see M. de Guéran also, and that he preferred having the Baron as interpreter.
He was not mistaken; his fellow countryman came to his rescue. Received at first by a heavy shower of arrows, Delange soon noticed that the missiles became fewer and farther between. They ceased at last altogether, and when he was about a hundred yards from the group he was attempting to reach, some one stepped forward and came to meet him.
CHAPTER XIX.
It was a man about forty years of age, tall, thin, and with a slight stoop. Despite his sunburnt skin, unkempt hair, long beard, and the tattered garments which barely covered him, you could tell from the whole contour of his face, his marked and aristocratic features, and his general bearing, that you were face to face with a man of birth and breeding.
He walked towards Delange, and, raising a cap, saved from the general shipwreck of his belongings, he said in French and in a broken voice—
"You, sir, are a member of that expedition which has so generously devoted itself to searching after me?"