years there was little about his acts and
life in the African wilds that was not known directly or by hearsay to
them all.

And so, knowing his master and many of his past deeds, knowing, too, a
great deal about the plans of Malbihn and Baynes that had been
overheard by himself, or other servants; and knowing well from the
gossip of the head-men that half of Malbihn's party lay in camp by the
great river far to the west, it was not difficult for the boy to put
two and two together and arrive at four as the sum--the four being
represented by a firm conviction that his master had deceived the other
white man and taken the latter's woman to his western camp, leaving the
other to suffer capture and punishment at the hands of the Big Bwana
whom all feared. Again the boy bared his rows of big, white teeth and
laughed aloud. Then he resumed his northward way, traveling at a
dogged trot that ate up the miles with marvelous rapidity.

In the Swede's camp the Hon. Morison had spent an almost sleepless
night of nervous apprehension and doubts and fears. Toward morning he
had slept, utterly exhausted. It was the headman who awoke him shortly
after sun rise to remind him that they must at once take up their
northward journey. Baynes hung back. He wanted to wait for "Hanson"
and Meriem. The headman urged upon him the danger that lay in
loitering. The fellow knew his master's plans sufficiently well to
understand that he had done something to arouse the ire of the Big
Bwana and that it would fare ill with them all if they were overtaken
in Big Bwana's country. At the suggestion Baynes took alarm.

What if the Big Bwana, as the head-man called him, had surprised
"Hanson" in his nefarious work. Would he not guess the truth and
possibly be already on the march to overtake and punish him? Baynes
had heard much of his host's summary method of dealing out punishment
to malefactors great and small who transgressed the laws or customs of
his savage little world which lay beyond the outer ramparts of what men
are pleased to call frontiers. In this savage world where there was no
law the Big Bwana was law unto himself and all who dwelt about him. It
was even rumored that he had extracted the death penalty from a white
man who had maltreated a native girl.

Baynes shuddered at the recollection of this piece of gossip as he
wondered what his host would exact of the man who had attempted to
steal his young, white ward. The thoug