I FIND STRANGE FOOTPRINTS ON THE BANKS OF A RIVULET—ROGALA AND I SET OFF IN PURSUIT—WE FIND A MAN UNDER A KOOLA TREE—SURPRISE AND CAPTURE HIM—TERROR OF OUR CAPTIVE—WE TAKE HIM TO CAMP AND DISCOVER HE IS A CANNIBAL

One day I had not walked two hours when I was startled by the discovery of two human footprints on the banks of a little rivulet. They looked so fresh that I thought the man had been there but a short time before me. I looked around, but saw no one, and heard nothing. I held one of my revolvers ready to fire at sight.

I hurried back to the camp and told Rogala of my discovery. He listened attentively, and then said with much earnestness: "I wonder if the Bakalais of the village we left have sent a spy to see where we live and learn what we are doing."

"No fear of that, Rogala," I said; "no Bakalai would dare to follow the Oguizi. The man is either an elephant hunter or a runaway slave, or a man who has fled from his tribe or village on being accused of witchcraft."

Rogala got up and went for his gun; then he said: "Oguizi, let us go in search of that man. We must capture him, for who knows but he may have discovered our camp?"

Taking "Bulldog" with me, we started, Rogala whispering to me, as we went along, the well-known caution: "Let us not make more noise than a leopard in search of prey, or a fish swimming."

We came to the little stream where I had seen the footprints. Rogala said to me, after he had looked at them: "This man has taken this rivulet as a path, and followed the water."

With these words he did the same thing. I followed, and we waded down with the current. We had not walked more than one hour when Rogala gave a low click and pointed with his finger to a particular spot near a big tree. Looking in that direction, I saw a man under a koola tree picking up some of the nuts that had fallen on the ground, breaking them with a stone, and eating them voraciously. He had evidently been starving.

We hid behind a tree, and watched silently the movements of the stranger. We did not dare to whisper for fear of being heard.

Rogala, who was about two yards from me, came to my side, and made a sign to move away further. He was very much excited. His forehead was covered with perspiration. When we were at a safe distance, he whispered: "This man is not a Bakalai; he is from a far country. I think he has run away from his people. Let us surprise him, and if he runs away from us I will shoot at him and kill him."

I saw by the looks of Rogala that he was in earnest.

"No, Rogala," I replied, "we must not kill him if he runs away, but try to capture him. Then we shall find out where he comes from, and how far off his country is. As soon as we come near him we will shout to him to stand still. I will fire 'Bulldog,' and if he has never heard a gun fired in his life he will be so scared that he will not move. If he runs away, we will run after him. We are good runners, we can go quickly through the jungle. Now let us crawl towards him; you keep on his right, I on his left."

We walked so carefully that not one of our steps could be heard. Rogala once moved towards me just to whisper: "Oguizi, he must not escape from us."

We saw that the man had a bag of poisoned arrows hanging by his side, and on the ground lay his bow.

Nearer and nearer we came to the stranger, who was busy breaking the koola nuts, when suddenly he turned round and looked in our direction. Fortunately we crouched in time by a fallen tree. Had he heard us? We peeped above the tree. No, for he again began to crack koola nuts, and was putting the kernels in a little bag. We were within ten yards of him.

Suddenly, without a word of warning, Rogala jumped up, crossed the stream, and uttered a terrific war-cry, running towards the man. When I saw this, I fired "Bulldog" and ran also towards him. The poor fellow seemed to be spellbound and unable to get up. As we came up to him, he took hold of Rogala's feet, which meant that he put himself under his protection, and looked at me with great terror. He trembled all over, and could not utter a word.

I looked at him and smiled, but this did not seem to reassure him. Rogala spoke to him in several languages that he had learned from other slaves, but our prisoner shook his head to show that he did not understand. Then I spoke to him in several of the languages I had learned, but he understood me no better. Thereupon we made signs to try to find out from where he came. At this he looked up, trying to see from the light where the sun was. Then he pointed in the direction of the east.

"He must be from a far-off country," I said to Rogala, "for he seems not to understand any of the languages we have spoken to him."

Our captive was tall, and emaciated from hunger. His teeth were filed sharp to a point, and gave him a very savage appearance. Every part of his body except his legs was tattooed all over. On his stomach was the representation of a crocodile, showing that he must have lived on the shore of a lake or of a river. Upon his cheeks were spots of the size of large peas. His forehead was also tattooed.

"We must be very watchful," said Rogala; "perhaps the man understands some of the languages we spoke to him, after all."

Then he broke the man's bow, and buried his bag of poisoned arrows in the ground, for fear that man or beast would be hurt by them.

Our prisoner was very much frightened when he saw this, and looked at me with imploring eyes. He had divined instinctively that I was the master; his looks seemed to say: "Do not kill me!"

After a pause I said: "Rogala, if our prisoner tries to run away, let us spare his life and not shoot him; every man tries to run away from the people he fears in search of liberty. You would do likewise if Rotembo were not a good master."

Rogala looked at me in blank astonishment, and then said: "Oguizi, I will not try to kill him if he runs away; but," he added, "he must not run away."

We let our prisoner crack more koola nuts, and waited until his appetite was satisfied; then we started for our camp, our captive walking between Rogala, who led, and myself in the rear. Rogala had taken the precaution to tie his hands behind his back before starting. We walked silently, not one of us uttering a word until we came to our palisade. Our captive then showed signs of great fear.

I told Rogala to go over first and tie Andekko, for I was sure the dog would try to bite him. When we were all inside, we gave our prisoner a good warm meal of plantains—a few of which still remained—and a piece of monkey. Rogala washed his body with warm water and then rubbed it with oil, for his skin was dried and parched; he seemed very grateful. Soon he fell asleep on the bare ground.

Looking at him as he slept, I said to Rogala: "The poor fellow may have been days and weeks in the forest subsisting on nuts, berries, and fruit when he could find them, avoiding all the time the paths for fear of coming in contact with people. For you know," I continued, "that as soon as a man is out of his country, and comes out of his circle of friends belonging to another tribe, he is sure to be captured and made a slave."

"That is true," replied Rogala. "To-morrow morning we will try to learn something about him."

Andekko did not take kindly to our new-comer, and growled at him all the time. We agreed to watch in turn over the captive during the night, as his bonds were not very strong. We lighted several fires round him, and tied Andekko for fear that he might bite him.

When I awoke in the morning, I saw that he was still asleep, Andekko watching him and growling at him now and then. I looked for Rogala, but he was not there. I wondered where he had gone. Soon after I heard an axe. Rogala was cutting down a tree. After a while all became silent, and Rogala appeared before me and told me that he had cut two logs. After he had brought these inside, Rogala went to work on a "nchogo," and I guessed at once that it was to keep our prisoner captive and prevent him from running away. The nchogo is composed of two logs with holes,—the larger one to imprison the feet, the smaller for the hands.

The poor fellow was very much frightened when he saw the nchogo. He knew that it was for him. When I saw this, I said to Rogala: "This man belongs to a tribe living in the great forest, for he knows what a nchogo is. In a barren or prairie country they have no trees to make nchogos of. But we must treat our prisoner gently, give him plenty of food to show him that we care for him and that we are his friends. Then in a few days, after he has got accustomed to us, we will free him from the nchogo."

That day we gave him three meals, and ate by his side, and he saw that we had the same food.

When evening came, I said: "Rogala, you will go to sleep while I watch."

Soon both Rogala and our prisoner were asleep. Towards two o'clock I awoke Rogala for the watch and went to sleep myself.

In the morning I said: "Rogala, let us think over and see if you and I have spoken to our prisoner all the languages and dialects we know."

So we began to think, and finally Rogala said: "I did not speak to him in the Osheba language."

"Why," said I, "do you think he is a cannibal?"

"Perhaps he is," he replied.

Rogala spoke to him then in Osheba, and had uttered but a few words when the man's face brightened up, for he found that we should be able to understand him. He was a cannibal. There was no doubt about it.

Several days passed by. We got along very well with our captive, although he was kept in stocks. He seemed contented with his lot. He found that we treated him otherwise like one of ourselves. He ate with us, and consequently had the same food. When food was very scarce, we divided it equally among us, but of course when we had only nuts or berries he had only these to eat, and if we were hungry he had to go hungry also.

Several times I proposed to Rogala to take him out of the nchogo, but Rogala was always unwilling. Thinking that he was wiser than I in this matter, as he knew the native character better than I did, I let him have his own way.

We had given the name of Akenda-Mbani ("never go twice to the same place") to our prisoner, for we knew that he would never go back to his own country.

One afternoon Shinshooko and Alapai made their appearance, bringing with them four elephants' tusks. They had found two elephants in the pits they had dug in the forest for the purpose of entrapping the huge beasts.

They were very much astonished when they saw Akenda-Mbani and we told them how we had captured him.