So far from Mrs. Weldon and Jack¹ having succumbed² to the hardships to which they had been exposed, they were both alive, and together with Cousin Benedict were now in Kazonndé. After the assault upon the ant-hill they had all three been conveyed beyond the encampment to a spot where a rude palanquin was in readiness for Mrs. Weldon and her son. The journey hence to Kazonndé was consequently accomplished³ without much difficulty; Cousin Benedict, who performed it on foot, was allowed to entomologize as much as he pleased upon the road, so that to him the distance was a matter of no concern. The party reached their destination a week sooner than Ibn Hamish's caravan⁴, and the prisoners were lodged⁵ in Alvez' quarters.  
Jack was much better. After leaving the marshy⁶ districts he had no return of fever, and as a certain amount of indulgence had been allowed them on their journey, both he and his mother, as far as their health was concerned, might be said to be in a satisfactory condition.
 
Of the rest of her former companions Mrs. Weldon could hear nothing. She had herself been a witness of the escape of Hercules, but of course knew nothing further of his fate; as for Dick Sands, she entertained a sanguine⁷ hope that his white skin would protect him from any severe treatment; but for Nan and the other poor negroes, here upon African soil, she feared the very worst.
 
Being entirely⁸ shut off from communication with the outer world, she was quite unaware⁹ of the arrival of the caravan; even if she had heard the noisy commotion¹⁰ of the market she would not have known what it meant, and she was in ignorance alike of the death of Harris, of the sale of Tom and his companions, of the dreadful end of the king, and of the royal obsequies in which poor Dick had been assigned so melancholy¹¹ a share. During the journey from the Coanza to Kazonndé, Harris and Negoro had held no conversation with her, and since her arrival she had not been allowed to pass the inclosure of the establishment, so that, as far as she knew, she was quite alone, and being in Negoro's power, was in a position from which it seemed only too likely nothing but death could release her.
 
From Cousin Benedict, it is needless to repeat, she could expect no assistance; his own personal pursuits engrossed¹² him, and he had no care nor leisure to bestow¹³ upon external circumstances. His first feeling, on being made to understand that he was not in America, was one of deep disappointment that the wonderful things he had seen were no discoveries at all; they were simply African insects common on African soil. This vexation, however, soon passed away, and he began to believe that "the land of the Pharaohs" might possess as much entomological wealth as "the land of the Incas."
 
"Ah," he would exclaim to Mrs. Weldon, heedless that she gave him little or no attention, "this is the country of the manticoræ, and wonderful coleoptera they are, with their long hairy legs, their sharp elytra and their big mandibles; the most remarkable¹⁴ of them all is the tuberous manticora. And isn't this, too, the land of the golden-tipped calosomi? and of the prickly-legged goliaths of Guinea and Gabon? Here, too, we ought to find the spotted¹⁵ anthidia, which lay their eggs in empty snail-shells; and the sacred atenchus, which the old Egyptians used to venerate¹⁶ as divine."
 
"Yes, yes;" he would say at another time, "this is the proper habitat of those death's-head sphinxes which are now so common everywhere; and this is the place for those 'Idias Bigoti,' so formidable to the natives of Senegal.
 
There must be wonderful discoveries to be made here if only those good people will let me."
 
The "good people" referred to were Negoro and Harris, who had restored him much of the liberty of which Dick Sands had found it necessary to deprive him. With freedom to roam and in possession of his tin box, Benedict would have been amongst the most contented¹⁷ of men, had it not been for the loss of his spectacles and magnifying-glass, now buried with the King of Kazonndé. Reduced to the necessity of poking¹⁸ every insect almost into his eyes before he could discover its characteristics, he would have sacrificed much to recover or replace his glasses, but as such articles were not to be procured¹⁹ at any price, he contented himself with the permission to go where he pleased within the limits of the palisade. His keepers knew him well enough to be satisfied that he would make no attempt to escape, and as the enclosure was nearly a mile in circumference²⁰, containing many shrubs²¹ and trees and huts with thatched roofs, besides being intersected by a running stream, it afforded him a very fair scope for his researches, and who should say that he would not discover some novel specimen²² to which, in the records of entomological science, his own name might be assigned?
 
If thus the domain²³ of Antonio Alvez was sufficient to satisfy Benedict, to little Jack it might well seem immense. But though allowed to ramble²⁴ over the whole place as he liked, the child rarely cared to leave his mother; he would be continually inquiring about his father, whom he had now so long been expecting to see: he would ask why Nan and Hercules and Dingo had gone away and left him; and perpetually he would be expressing his wonder where Dick could be, and wishing he would come back again. Mrs. Weldon could only hide her tears and answer him by caresses²⁵.
 
Nothing, however, transpired²⁶ to give the least intimation that any of the prisoners were to be treated otherwise than they had been upon the journey from the Coanza. Excepting such as were retained for old Alvez' personal service, all the slaves had been sold, and the storehouses were now
 
[Illustration: He contented himself with the permission to go where he pleased within the limits of the pal............