Yet the time was to come when she would swallow that
hard, tetse-poisoned flesh with thankfulness.
At midday, after they had eaten, Mr. Clifford and Meyer went to the
Molimo, where he sat against the second wall, and, pointing to the men
with the guns, said:
"We have fulfilled our bargain. Now fulfil yours. Lead us to the holy
place that we may begin our search."
"So be it," he answered. "Follow me, white people."
Then, quite unattended, he guided them round the inner wall till they
came to a path of rock not more than a yard wide, beneath which was a
precipice fifty feet or so in depth that almost overhung the river. This
giddy path they followed for about twenty paces, to find that it ended
in a cleft in the wall so narrow that only one person could walk
through it at a time. That it must have been the approach to the second
stronghold was evident, however, since it was faced on either side with
dressed stones, and even the foundation granite had been worn by the
human feet which had passed here for ages upon ages. This path zigzagged
to and fro in the thickness of the wall till it brought them finally
within its circle, a broad belt of steeply-rising ground, covered like
that below with the tumbled ruins of buildings amidst which grew bush
and trees.
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