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Updated: May 23, 2025
Harry did his best to carry out Charley's wishes, Aboh interpreting the words of the king. He said that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, that if we got away we might forget the promise we had made, or that if we sent the things, they might be lost long before they could reach him.
In a short time Harry and Aboh came back with the saucepan of water, from which we filled our mugs, for the tough elephant-meat made us thirsty. We were all suffering from hunger, and as we expected to find Aboh's dish as unpalatable as ours, we had made up our minds to lie down, if not exactly supperless, as hungry almost as before.
We told him, however, when we camped in the evening, that we would divide them, so as to give him a separate package, and thus we should all have an equal load to carry. Aboh pointed out the direction in which, from the appearance of the trees, he believed we should find water, and eagerly led the way.
"Tell him that to-morrow we must go," said Charley. The king smiled benignantly, so Harry declared, although he appeared to me to make a very hideous grimace. The next day, early in the morning, we all four loaded our muskets, and asked Aboh if he was ready to accompany us. "King, he give him leave, him go at once," he answered.
Not knowing how far Aboh might be trusted, we did not ask him. Before sitting down we collected a further supply of fuel, and cut down some boughs, with which we constructed a rude arbour to shelter our heads and bodies from the night dew, although it would have been of little service in case of a fall of tropical rain. Tom suggested that, as Charley was leader, he ought not to keep watch.
Charley and I waited on the lower branches, my brother being beneath me, watching for the return of Aboh. At last we saw him coming along with Charley's rifle in his hand. At the same instant Harry shouted out "Here come the elephants with their trunks turned up, but they are walking leisurely along, as if they had forgotten all about us."
Poor Aboh looked very downcast. "What's the matter?" asked Charley. "Me try run 'way, and king bind him hands with odder prisoners." "I'm sorry to hear that," said Charley, "it would have been better not to have attempted it. Now, we want you to ask the king to let us go back and get our knapsacks, and our companion and we will faithfully return to him as soon as we have done so."
Our captor made a speech and described to the king how he had taken us prisoners. "Him tell big lie," whispered Aboh, who stood near me. "Him say great fight, we run 'way, him kill us." "What's the fellow's name?" I asked, meaning that of our first captor. "Him callee Mundungo." "And the King?" "Him King Kickubaroo." His majesty seemed perfectly satisfied with his general's statement.
On arriving at our house, we found Shimbo keeping faithful watch and ward over our property. By his account more than one attempt had been made to steal it, but he had driven away the thieves, so he said, by presenting a stick at them, which they mistook for one of our guns. He could give us no information as to the visitor, nor could Aboh, who went out, learn more than his brother.
After this we were left unmolested for the remainder of the night, although Tom once in each watch shrieked and shouted, as he said, "Just to keep the people from forgetting us." Though no one came into the house for several days after this, Aboh was allowed to go out and purchase provisions for us, which we were frequently able to do, with some of the beads and trinkets we possessed.
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