Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/411

 ROYAL OBSEQUIES. 383 was just the opportunîty that Negoro rcquircd for carrying out his designs against Dick, whom he intended to take a prominent part in it The natural successor to the king was the queen Moena. By inaugurating the funeral without delay and thus assum- îng the semblance of authority, she forestallcd the king of Ukusu or any other rival who mîght venture to dispute her sovereîgnty; and moreover, by taking the reins of govemment into her hands she avoided the fate reserved for the other wives who, had they been âllowed to h've, might prove somewhat troublesome to the shrew. Ac- cordingly, with the sound of coodoo horns and marimbas, she caused a proclamation to be made in the various quarters of the town, that the obsequies of the deceased monarch would be celebrated on the next evening with ail due solemnity. The announcement met with no opposition eîther from the officiais about the court or from the public at large. Alvez and the traders generally were quite satisfied with Moena's assumption of the supremacy, knowing that by a few présents and a little flattery they could make her sufficiently considerate for their own interests. Préparations began at once. At the end of the chief thoroughfare ilowed a deep and rapid brook, an affluent of the Coango, in the dry bed of which the royal grave was to be formed. Natives were immediatcly set to work to construct a dam by means of which the water should be diverted, until the burial was over, into a temporary channel across the plain ; the last act in the cérémonial being to undam the stream and allow it to résume its proper course. N^oro had formed the resolution that Dick Sands should be one of the victims to be sacrificed upon the king*s tomb. Thoroughly aware as he was that the indignation which had caused the death of Harris extended in at least an equal deg^ee to himself, the cowardly rascal would not haveventured toapproach Dick undersimilar circumstances at the risk of meeting a similar fate ; but knowing him to be a prisonerbound hand and foot, from whom there could be nothing to fear, he resolved to go to him in his dungeon.