King Solomon's Mines

I MEET SIR HENRY CURTIS It is a curious thing that at my age—fifty-five last birthday—I should find myself taking up a pen to try to write a history. I wonder what sort of a histo...

THE LEGEND OF SOLOMON’S MINES “What was it that you heard about my brother’s journey at Bamangwato?” asked Sir Henry, as I paused to fill my pipe before replying to Captain Good. ...

UMBOPA ENTERS OUR SERVICE It takes from four to five days, according to the speed of the vessel and the state of the weather, to run up from the Cape to Durban. Sometimes, if the ...

AN ELEPHANT HUNT Now I do not propose to narrate at full length all the incidents of our long travel up to Sitanda’s Kraal, near the junction of the Lukanga and Kalukwe Rivers. It...

OUR MARCH INTO THE DESERT We had killed nine elephants, and it took us two days to cut out the tusks, and having brought them into camp, to bury them carefully in the sand under a...

WATER! WATER! Two hours later, that is, about four o’clock, I woke up, for so soon as the first heavy demand of bodily fatigue had been satisfied, the torturing thirst from which ...

SOLOMON’S ROAD Outside the cavern we halted, feeling rather foolish. “I am going back,” said Sir Henry. “Why?” asked Good. “Because it has struck me that—what we saw—may be my ...

WE ENTER KUKUANALAND All that afternoon we travelled along the magnificent roadway, which trended steadily in a north-westerly direction. Infadoos and Scragga walked with us, but ...

TWALA THE KING It will not be necessary for me to detail at length the incidents of our journey to Loo. It took two full days’ travelling along Solomon’s Great Road, which pursued...

THE WITCH-HUNT On reaching our hut I motioned to Infadoos to enter with us. “Now, Infadoos,” I said, “we would speak with thee.” “Let my lords say on.” “It seems to us, Infadoo...

WE GIVE A SIGN For a long while—two hours, I should think—we sat there in silence, being too much overwhelmed by the recollection of the horrors we had seen to talk. At last, just...

BEFORE THE BATTLE Luckily for us, Infadoos and the chiefs knew all the paths of the great town perfectly, so that we passed by side-ways unmolested, and notwithstanding the gloom ...

THE ATTACK Slowly, and without the slightest appearance of haste or excitement, the three columns crept on. When within about five hundred yards of us, the main or centre column h...

THE LAST STAND OF THE GREYS In a few more minutes the regiments destined to carry out the flanking movements had tramped off in silence, keeping carefully to the lee of the rising...

like thunder against the mountains, and filled the air with heavy waves of sound. Then it decreased, and by faint degrees died away into nothing, and suddenly out crashed the royal...

GOOD FALLS SICK After the fight was ended, Sir Henry and Good were carried into Twala’s hut, where I joined them. They were both utterly exhausted by exertion and loss of blood, a...

THE PLACE OF DEATH It was already dark on the third day after the scene described in the previous chapter when we camped in some huts at the foot of the “Three Witches,” as the tr...

SOLOMON’S TREASURE CHAMBER While we were engaged in recovering from our fright, and in examining the grisly wonders of the Place of Death, Gagool had been differently occupied. So...

WE ABANDON HOPE I can give no adequate description of the horrors of the night which followed. Mercifully they were to some extent mitigated by sleep, for even in such a position ...

His is a beautiful character, very quiet, but very strong. And so somehow the day went as the night had gone, if, indeed, one can use these terms where all was densest night, and ...

IGNOSI’S FAREWELL Ten days from that eventful morning found us once more in our old quarters at Loo; and, strange to say, but little the worse for our terrible experience, except ...

FOUND And now I come to perhaps the strangest adventure that happened to us in all this strange business, and one which shows how wonderfully things are brought about. I was walk...