you came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so, please, begin at
once."

"Yes," said everybody, "go on, please."

Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not
seem to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
head, "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is this
way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written down a
true and plain account of King Solomon's Mines and how we found them,
so you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful adventure
for yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it, not from
any wish to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself important, but
simply because the whole story partakes so much of the marvellous, that
I am afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion, for fear I should
be set down as one of those common fellows of whom there are so many in
my profession, who are not ashamed to narrate things they have not seen,
and even to tell wonderful stories about wild animals they have never
killed. And I think that my companions in adventure, Sir Henry Curtis
and Captain Good, will bear me out in what I say."

"Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right," said Sir Henry.
"Precisely the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold
our tongues. We did not wish to be bracketed with--well, with other
famous travellers."

There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.