He paused and we trembled, for if he chose to kill the poor Hottentot, how could we prevent him?  But Hans, who saw the great danger, called his cunning to his aid.

“O Motombo,” he squeaked, “you must not kill me for I am the servant of an ambassador.  You know well that all the gods of every land hate and will be revenged upon those who touch ambassadors or their servants, whom they, the gods, alone may harm.  If you kill me I shall haunt you.  Yes, I shall sit on your shoulder at night and jibber into your ear so that you cannot sleep, until you die.  For though you are old you must die at last, Motombo.”

“It is true,” said the Motombo.  “Did I not tell you that he was full of cunning?  All the gods will be avenged upon those who kill ambassadors or their servants.  That”—­here he laughed again in his dreadful way—­“is the rights of the gods alone.  Let the gods of the Pongo settle it.”

I uttered a sigh of relief, and he went on in a new voice, a dull, business-like voice if I may so describe it: 

“Say, O Kalubi, on what matter have you brought these white men to speak with me, the Mouth of the god?  Did I dream that it was a matter of a treaty with the King of the Mazitu?  Rise and speak.”

So the Kalubi rose and with a humble air set out briefly and clearly the reason of our visit to Pongo-land as the envoys of Bausi and the heads of the treaty that had been arranged subject to the approval of the Motombo and Bausi.  We noted that the affair did not seem to interest the Motombo at all.  Indeed, he appeared to go to sleep while the speech was being delivered, perhaps because he was exhausted with the invention of his outrageous falsehoods, or perhaps for other reasons.  When it was finished he opened his eyes and pointed to Komba, saying: 

“Arise, Kalubi-that-is-to-be.”

So Komba rose, and in his cold, precise voice narrated his share in the transaction, telling how he had visited Bausi, and all that had happened in connection with the embassy.  Again the Motombo appeared to go to sleep, only opening his eyes once as Komba described how we had been searched for firearms, whereon he nodded his great head in approval and licked his lips with his thin red tongue.  When Komba had done, he said: 

“The gods tell me that the plan is wise and good, since without new blood the people of the Pongo will die, but of the end of the matter the god knows alone, if even he can read the future.”

He paused, then asked sharply: 

“Have you anything more to say, O Kalubi-that-is-to-be?  Now of a sudden the god puts it into my mouth to ask if you have anything more to say?”