ased at my words, and said no more and gave me no weapons.
Next morning, however, when we set out before daylight, I made the
discovery that he was carrying my revolver fastened to his waist. He
had concealed it carefully under the one simple garment he wore, but it
bulged slightly, and so the secret was betrayed. I had never believed
that he had lost it, and I was convinced that he took it now with the
object of putting it into my hands at the last moment in case of meeting
with an enemy.

From the village we travelled in a north-westerly direction, and before
noon camped in a grove of dwarf trees, where we remained until the sun
was low, then continued our walk through a rather barren country. At
night we camped again beside a small stream, only a few inches deep,
and after a meal of smoked meat and parched maize prepared to sleep till
dawn on the next day.

Sitting by the fire I resolved to make a first attempt to discover from
Kua-ko anything concerning Rima which might be known to him. Instead
of lying down when the others did, I remained seated, my guardian also
sitting--no doubt waiting for me to lie down first. Presently I moved
nearer to him and began a conversation in a low voice, anxious not to
rouse the attention of the other men.

"Once you said that Oalava would be given to me for a wife," I began.
"Some day I shall want a wife."

He nodded approval, and remarked sententiously that the desire to
possess a wife was common to all men.

"What has been left to me?" I said despondingly and spreading out my
hands. "My pistol gone, and did I not give Runi the tinder-box, and the
little box with a cock painted on it to you? I had no return--not even
the blow-pipe. How, then, can I get me a wife?"

He, like the others--dull-witted savage that he was--had come to the
belief that I was incapable of the cunning and duplicity they practiced.
I could not see a green parrot sitting silent and motionless amidst the
green foliage as they could; I had not their preternatural keenness of
sight; and, in like manner, to deceive with lies and false seeming was
their faculty and not mine. He fell readily into the trap. My return to
practical subjects pleased him. He bade me hope that Oalava might yet be
mine in spite of my poverty. It was not always necessary to have things
to get a wife: to be able to maintain her was enough; some day I would
be like one of themselves, able to kill animals and catch fish. Besides,
did no