"_Bietu_!" answered the chief, saluting in token of his submission to the will of these strange beings. He stood deeply considering for a moment, and then said, hesitatingly: "Since the Great Spirits are about to right the wrongs which we have suffered at the hands of M'Bongwele and his witch-doctors, it may be that they would be willing to save the life of Siswani, one of the chiefs who was opposed to the reinstatement of M'Bongwele. Like myself, he has been a marked man from the hour when he held back from joining those who supported M'Bongwele, and it was but yesterday that the witch-doctors found a cause against him. His punishment was to begin this morning at sunrise." "Oh, horror! and it is now nearly noon," exclaimed the professor, in horrified accents. "Why did you not mention it before, man? What is the nature of the punishment?" "His eyelids were to be cut off, and he was then to be pegged down on an ants' nest and smeared with honey, that the insects might devour him alive," was the calm answer. "Ah!" ejaculated the professor. "Yes, I know that punishment; I have seen it inflicted!" And he shuddered and turned sick at the memory. "Do you know where the place of punishment is?" demanded the professor, sharply. "Yes, I know it," answered Lobelalatutu. "It is that much beyond the village on its far side." And, pointing to the sun, he described with his finger a small arc representing the apparent travel of that luminary across the sky during a quarter of an hour. The professor turned to the pilot-house, through one of the windows of which the baronet was seen looking out, with his hands on the controlling levers, waiting the conclusion of the conference between his friend and the savage. "Quick, Elphinstone!" he exclaimed, "make for the village at once, but do not stop there. Pass on about a mile beyond it, to a spot which Lobelalatutu will point out to us. If we are quick we may be in time to save a man's life!" Sir Reginald needed no second bidding. With one hand he threw back the levers controlling the grip-anchors that held the ship to the ground, while with the other he opened the valve that admitted vapour into the air-chambers and created a vacuum sufficient to raise the ship about a thousand feet into the air, from which elevation a wide extent of country became visible. Then he sent the engines ahead at a speed of about twenty-knots, and put the helm over to turn the ship's head in the direction of the distant village, now in clear sight from the deck. Meanwhile the professor beckoned to Mildmay, and said-- "My friend, I think you had better persuade the ladies to go below for a few minutes, for the chances are that we shall presently behold a sight that would haunt them for ever, should they happen to see it." Then he turned to Lobelalatutu and said-- "Now, if you can see the place of punishment, point it out to me."