"Naya.'"
I glanced at the scrap of parchment, and saw appended a truly regal seal.
"And shall you go?" I asked with sorrow.
"Yes—if you will accompany me."
"Accompany you!" I cried. "How can I? I have no money to go to Africa, besides——"
"Besides what?" he answered smiling. "Kouaga has money sufficient to pay both our passages. Remember, I am Prince of Mo, and this man is my slave. If I command him to take you with me he will obey. Will you go?"
The prospect of adventure in an unknown land was indeed enticing. In a few brief words he recalled my dismal forebodings of the life in an underground office in London, and contrasted it with a free existence in a fertile and abundant land, where I should be the guest and perhaps an official of its ruler. He urged me most strongly to go as his companion, and in conclusion said:
"Your presence in Mo will be unique, for you will be the first stranger who has ever set foot within its capital."
"But your mother may object to me, as she did to the entrance of the white man of whom you just now spoke."
"Ah! he came to make trade palaver. You are my friend and confidant," he said.