Funny though it may seem, this was quite enough to keep these savage negroes at bay. There was magic in it, they thought, and they gave that wood a wide berth.
Well, our heroes had, after a manner of speaking, to buy their lives.
The king had them before him at daybreak, not to order them to execution, but to give them his royal commands. They were to teach his people to do all the clever things that white men could do; if they failed, the king told them death would be the fate of their teachers.
“We do not fear to die, King ’Ntango,” said Kenneth.
The king looked at him with a merry twinkle in his eye; then he took a sip of “geen” and said, through the interpreter Keebo,—
“You do not fear death? No, you think you go straight to your glorious land of sunshine; but listen, you will not. I will arrange it differently. I will cut from you a leg, an arm, and an ear,—ha! ha! what think you? will the leg, and arm, and ear go first to the land of sunshine, and wait you? Take care, I am a great king, and I have twenty thousand ways to torture without killing.”
Poor Kenneth confessed to himself that the king had the best of the argument, but he replied,—
“If you cut from me an arm or leg, how then shall I teach your people?”
The king smiled grimly, and said, “Go.”
They must propitiate this king, that was evident, in order to gain his favour and their eventual liberty, for slaves they now undoubtedly were to all intents and purposes.