"Yes, Captain," he answered; "but the point is, who'll pay? You can't
buy hell-fire in bulk for nothing. I calculate that, allowing for
the purchase of the explosives and, say, fifty military rifles with
ammunition and all other necessaries, not including camels, the outfit
of this expedition can't come to less than £1,500."

"I think I have that amount in gold," I answered, "of which the lady of
the Abati gave me as much as I could carry in comfort."

"If not," said Orme, "although I am a poor man now, I could find £500
or so in a pinch. So don't let us bother about the money. The question
is--Are we all agreed that we will undertake this expedition and see it
through to the end, whatever that may be?"

We answered that we were.

"Then has anybody anything more to say?"

"Yes," I replied; "I forgot to tell you that if we should ever get to
Mur, none of you must make love to the Walda Nagasta. She is a kind of
holy person, who can only marry into her own family, and to do so might
mean that our throats would be cut."

"Do you hear that, Oliver?" said the Professor. "I suppose that the
Doctor's warning is meant for you, as the rest of us are rather past
that kind of thing."

"Indeed," replied the Captain, colouring again after his fashion. "Well,
to tell you the truth, I feel a bit past it myself, and, so far as I
am concerned, I don't think we need take the fascinations of this black