The Makua doorkeeper or watchman returned within, and possibly an hour passed before anything further happened, during which Brentham had his tent erected, and arranged for his men—they were travelling very light—to make their sleeping-places around it. The small door was again reopened and there stepped out a remarkable-looking man of over six feet, with enormous recurved moustaches, a sombrero hat, jackboots and a general swashbuckling air and a visible revolver in the broad belt that held up his breeches. He walked slowly towards Roger who advanced to meet him. "Did you come to see me?" he asked in English. "I did," said Roger; "that is, if your name is Stolzenberg?" "It is ... for to-day—at any rate. Well: here I am. You come to tell me ’it is Easter Sunday, and Christ Is Risen,’ like the Russians do?" "Why, is it Easter Sunday? Dear me! I had no idea. If so, I might have chosen another time. Still, as I _am_ here and as you _are_ here—and I fancy you are often absent?—I should be obliged if we could have a talk, come to an understanding, don’t you know?" (There was no answering friendliness in the fierce face that looked into his, the face of a perfectly ruthless man, eyes with bloodshot whites, wide mouth with pale flaccid lips, showing strong tobacco-stained teeth, prominent cheek bones, lowering brows, a massive jaw, and here and there an old duelling scar.) "An unnerstanding?" he said sneeringly. "What about? _I_ unnerstand you. I know who you are, now I see your card. You are Captain Brentham. Once you were Consul ... at ... Unguja. Then you run away with missionary’s wife—and—you are ... no more Consul. You do somesing shocking, _nicht wahr_? It is so easy to shock your Gover’ment—and now von Wissmann—that Morphinsäufer—he gif you a Concession. An’ I suppose you come now to say I trespass on your Concession? Very well then, I _do_, an’ I don’ care a damn for you or for any Gover’ment you like to name. I make this my home six, seven years ago and no one come to turn me out now, unless they fight me first. "I haven’t come to turn you out," said Roger. Stolzenberg laughs noisily and contemptuously.... "It’s not my business to do so. I have come with a very small following to make your acquaintance, to find out for myself what you were like and to see whether it was possible to deal with you..." (As he is talking he sees that through the open doorway of the stronghold there are issuing a large number of armed black men, dressed like the coast people—perhaps a hundred), "to deal with you as one white man might deal with another. But before I can even put our case—our Concession’s case—before you, you commence by insulting me and making a lying statement about my wife—and you probably now intend threatening me by an attack with your Askari[#]—who I see are gathering up behind you." [#] Soldiers.