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As she recovered she took my hand and placed it, on her head as a sign, I supposed, that she was much obliged to me for saving her. I tried to make out whether the girls belonged to King Sanga Tanga's village. When I mentioned his name they all clapped their hands and pointed to the girl whom they called Iguma.
Aboh, who understood the chief part of what Charley had said, immediately translated it to the old gentleman, with a good many additions of his own. Iguma pouted a little at the thought, I suppose, of having to wait so long, on which I told Aboh to remind her of the quantity of beads I was to bring when I got our father's leave to marry a black wife.
"Why, I believe he's no other than the young fellow who married Miss Iguma," said Tom; "and if so, he ought to help us, for if it hadn't been for you, Mr Westerton, the young lady would have lost her life."
"Come to my house," he answered, "the canoes will be ready, and so will Iguma; but be prepared to fight, for if the people come and find out that we are going to carry her off, they will try to prevent it. Better fight than lose Iguma."
"If they are we must fight our way past them," observed Charley; "they have no firearms, and we can knock over several of them before they get up alongside, and should they do that we must fight them hand to hand; Iguma has shown that she is well able to defend herself; at all events, a few minutes will settle the matter."
We said nothing to Iguma, however, lest we should alarm her, but it was absolutely necessary that we should rest our arms and take some food, of which we had brought a supply in our knapsacks, some also had been put in the canoe. Not knowing how far off the shore we were, we allowed the canoe to drift down, while we took in our paddles and got out our provisions.
She lay all this time, I should have said, at the bottom of the boat, covered up with a piece of matting, but she uttered no expressions of terror now that she thought she was safe. Had we delayed another minute, not only would Iguma have been captured, but we should ourselves very likely have lost our lives.
We again took to our paddles, and I, making a sign to Iguma to sit down again in the canoe, took her place. We had not gone far before Charley shouted out, "Hurrah! it's all right, I see Harry's and Tom's broad-brimmed hats, and I make out two white men in the other canoe."
We were fortunate in killing two deer, several birds, and a couple of monkeys, and on our return we found that Iguma had not been idle, and had collected a supply of fruits and nuts, which, with the remainder of the plantain, gave us an abundant meal.
I wished that we had had our knapsacks and could have at once set off, without the pain of taking leave of King Sanga Tanga and the lovely Iguma. We told Aboh that we should like to secure the skin of the ape, but he replied that none of the young men would like the trouble of carrying it.
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