Read "The Great White Queen" by William le Queux online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
OUR troops had, we found, withdrawn from the burning city and were encamped about a mile away, taking a well-earned rest, and watching with satisfaction the destruction of the once powerful capital of the "Pirate of the Niger. " The presence of Liola, together with the announcement of the discovery of the treasure of the Sanoms, that we made to Kona secretly, caused him the wildest delight. His barbaric instinct overcame him, and seizing his spear he executed a kind of war-dance around us, bestowing upon us the most adulatory phrases of the Dagomba vocabulary. Afterwards he addressed the assembled soldiers, omitting at my desire all mention of the jewels of Mo, and three days later, having secured all the gems and golden ornaments, together with Samory's hidden wealth, we set forth on our triumphant return to the mysterious far-off land.
Rapidly and pleasantly we accomplished the long journey, re-crossing the treacherous Way of the Thousand Steps without a single mishap, and ascended to the lofty plateau of Omar's kingdom until, high up in the grey morning mist, we saw looming before us with almost spectral indistinctness the gigantic battlements and domes of the City in the Clouds. On ascending the rope steps at the Gate of Mo a few days previously we had ascertained that the expedition to the Hombori Mountains had been entirely successful, for the enemy had been met in the pass by the defenders and mercilessly overwhelmed and slaughtered.