She passed to the right under shelter of a cliff, and came very quickly to the door of a wide cave, that ran back some thirty feet.
"Here is your home, and in the morning the sun will look in at the door, and from the threshold, when you awake, you may sit and feast on such a sight as will gladden your eyes, for now the shadows hide it."
They threw their packages on the floor and sat down on a carpet of clean white sand.
"A little further there is water. Muata, my son, for the last time do woman's work and light the fire, while I go below for food."
"Say nothing to the people of my coming," said the chief. "Presently
I will go down secretly, and see how the men bear themselves."
"Wow! I see now it is the chief, and not a carrier of wood."
She went off into the gathering gloom, but was back in the hour with a great bunch of yellow bananas, a calabash of goats'-milk, and a young kid, showing no signs of weariness for all her toil. Those bananas, growing with an upward curve against the stem to relieve the dead weight on the branch as they grew, were just then a finer sight than the most magnificent scenery, and the travellers made a great feast, which done, they stretched themselves out on the clean dry sand up there in the clean, crisp air, and slept till the sun next morning streamed into the open cave.
They woke up to find themselves alone, but not forgotten; for outside there lay a little heap of good things, including fresh eggs, a calabash of milk, sweet potatoes, and a bundle of firewood.
"By Jove!" cried Compton; "look at the view. Isn't it splendid?"
"Well, it won't vanish," said Mr. Hume, "so we'll have breakfast first."