Chapter 11 And now I come to perhaps the strangest adventure that happened to us in all this strange business, and one which shows how wonderfully things are brought about.I was walking along quietly, some way in front of the other two, down the banks of the stream which runs from the oasis till it […]
Chapter 10 “Good,” said Sir Henry’s voice at last, and it sounded awful in the intense stillness, “how many matches have you in the box?”“Eight, Curtis.”“Strike one and let us see the time.”He did so, and in contrast to the dense darkness the flame nearly blinded us. It was five o’clock by my watch. The
Chapter 9 While we were engaged in recovering from our fright, and in examining the grisly wonders of the Place of Death, Gagool had been differently occupied. Somehow or other—for she was marvellously active when she chose—she had scrambled on to the great table, and made her way to where our departed friend Twala was
Chapter 8 For an hour and a half or more we tramped on up the heather-fringed way, going so fast in our excitement that the bearers of Gagool’s hammock could scarcely keep pace with us, and its occupant piped out to us to stop.“Walk more slowly, white men,” she said, projecting her hideous shrivelled countenance
Chapter 7 Slowly, and without the slightest appearance of haste or excitement, the three columns crept on. When within about five hundred yards of us, the main or centre column halted at the root of a tongue of open plain which ran up into the hill, to give time to the other divisions to circumvent
Chapter 6 Luckily for us, Infadoos and the chiefs knew all the paths of the great town perfectly, so that we passed by side-ways unmolested, and notwithstanding the gloom we made fair progress.For an hour or more we journeyed on, till at length the eclipse began to pass, and that edge of the moon which
Chapter 5 All that afternoon we travelled along the magnificent roadway, which trended steadily in a north-westerly direction. Infadoos and Scragga walked with us, but their followers marched about one hundred paces ahead.“Infadoos,” I said at length, “who made this road?”“It was made, my lord, of old time, none know how or when, not even
Chapter 4 Now I do not propose to narrate at full length all the incidents of our long travel up to Sitanda’s Kraal, near the junction of the Lukanga and Kalukwe Rivers. It was a journey of more than a thousand miles from Durban, the last three hundred or so of which we had to
Chapter 3 It takes from four to five days, according to the speed of the vessel and the state of the weather, to run up from the Cape to Durban. Sometimes, if the landing is bad at East London, where they have not yet made that wonderful harbour they talk so much of, and sink
Chapter 2 “What was it that you heard about my brother’s journey at Bamangwato?” asked Sir Henry, as I paused to fill my pipe before replying to Captain Good.“I heard this,” I answered, “and I have never mentioned it to a soul till to-day. I heard that he was starting for Solomon’s Mines.”“Solomon’s Mines?” ejaculated
Chapter 1 It is eighteen months or so ago since first I (Allan Quatermain, of Durban, Natal )met Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good. It was in this way. I had been up elephant hunting beyond Bamangwato, and had met with bad luck. Everything went wrong that trip, and to top up with I got
Chapter 11 On the sixth of the following month the king, in compliance with the promise he had made the cardinal to return to La Rochelle, left his capital still in amazement at the news which began to spread itself of Buckingham’s assassination.Although warned that the man she had loved so much was in great
Chapter 10 Execution It was near midnight; the moon, lessened by its decline, and reddened by the last traces of the storm, arose behind the little town of Armentières, which showed against its pale light the dark outline of its houses, and the skeleton of its high belfry. In front of them the Lys rolled
Chapter 9 It was a stormy and dark night; vast clouds covered the heavens, concealing the stars; the moon would not rise till midnight.Occasionally, by the light of a flash of lightening which gleamed along the horizon, the road stretched itself before them, white and solitary; the flash extinct, all remained in darkness.Every minute Athos
Chapter 8 The despair of Athos had given place to a concentrated grief which only rendered more lucid the brilliant mental faculties of that extraordinary man.Possessed by one single thought—that of the promise he had made, and of the responsibility he had taken—he retired last to his chamber, begged the host to procure him a