I glanced about me and saw, amidst a grove of neglected orange trees that were surrounded with palms of some age, the ruins of a church.

About this there was no doubt, for there, surmounted by a stone cross, was a little pent-house in which still hung the bell that once summoned the worshippers to prayer.
"Tell the English lord," said Hassan to Sammy, "that these buildings were a mission station of the Christians, who abandoned them more than twenty years ago.

When I came here I found them empty." "Indeed," I answered, "and what were the names of those who dwelt in them ?" "I never heard," said Hassan; "they had been gone a long while when I came." Then we went up to the house, and for the next hour and more were engaged with our baggage which was piled in a heap in what had been the garden and in unpacking and pitching two tents for the hunters which I caused to be placed immediately in front of the rooms that were assigned to us.

Those rooms were remarkable in their way.

Mine had evidently been a sitting chamber, as I judged from some such broken articles of furniture, that appeared to be of American make.