A little back stood a silent group of young women, whose demeanor indicated that they were the girl’s attendants. Their eyes, I noticed, roved over the strange machine with eager curiosity.
Chief Ogo uttered an exclamation of impatience and strode quickly forward.
“This is no place for you, my Princess!” he said, addressing the girl. “You must retire at once to your rooms.”
She turned her head without altering her position and said in a calm, sweet tone:
“Does my lord Ogo command Ilalah, then?”
“When the king is not present it is my duty to guard his women,” he returned, brusquely.
With a contemptuous shrug as her only reply she looked toward Duncan again, and as if continuing a conversation already begun, she said to him in soft but awkward English:
“And shall it fly like a bird, too?”
“It can almost fly, but not quite, miss,” he answered.
“But it swims like a fish?”