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His eyes were bright but crafty, and his features denoted both sensuality and

cruelness. In his youth he may have been a rather fine looking black, but when I

saw him his appearance was revolting--to me, at least.

Following the emperor came regiment after regiment from the various branches of

the service, among them batteries of field guns mounted on elephants.

In the center of the troops following the imperial elephant marched a great

caravan of slaves. The old street sweeper at my elbow told me that these were the

gifts brought in from the far outlying districts by the commanding officers of the

frontier posts. The majority of them were women, destined, I was told, for the

harems of the emperor and his favorites. It made my old companion clench his

fists to see those poor white women marching past to their horrid fates, and,

though I shared his sentiments, I was as powerless to alter their destinies as he.

For a week the troops kept pouring in and out of New Gondar--in, always, from

the south and west, but always toward the east. Each new contingent brought its

gifts to the emperor. From the south they brought rugs and ornaments and

jewels; from the west, slaves; for the commanding officers of the western frontier

posts had naught else to bring.

From the number of women they brought, I judged that they knew the weakness

of their imperial master.

And then soldiers commenced coming in from the east, but not with the gay

assurance of those who came from the south and west--no, these others came in

covered wagons, blood-soaked and suffering. They came at first in little parties of

eight or ten, and then they came in fifties, in hundreds, and one day a thousand

maimed and dying men were carted into New Gondar.

It was then that Menelek XIV became uneasy. For fifty years his armies had

conquered wherever they had marched. At first he had led them in person, lately

his presence within a hundred miles of the battle line had been sufficient for large

engagements--for minor ones only the knowledge that they were fighting for the

glory of their sovereign was necessary to win victories.

One morning, New Gondar was awakened by the booming of cannon. It was the

first intimation that the townspeople had received that the enemy was forcing the

imperial troops back upon the city. Dust covered couriers galloped in from the

front. Fresh troops hastened from the city, and about noon Menelek rode out

surrounded by his staff.

For three days thereafter we could hear the cannonading and the spitting of the

small arms, for the battle line was scarce two leagues from New Gondar. The city

The Lost Continent