“I say! What’s the White Swallow doing?” cried Jack suddenly. “It’s going down! Is it going to land, Ranni?”
“It looks like it,” said Ranni. “I wonder what’s the matter! My word, I hope nothing has gone wrong. This plane is large but it won’t take everyone.”
The White Swallow flew lower still. Below was a fine flat stretch of grass, and the plane was making for that. It landed easily and came to a stop.
“We must land too, and see what’s up,” said Ranni, looking worried. So the blue and silver plane circled round too, and flew slowly towards the flat piece of grass. It let down its wheels and landed gently and smoothly, running along for a little way and then stopping.
Captain Arnold was already out of his plane and was helping little Mafumu down.
“What’s the matter? Anything wrong?” yelled Ranni, climbing from his cockpit. “Let me come and help!”
Goodbye To Mafumu — And Home At Last!
Captain Arnold looked round and shook his head. “No — there’s nothing wrong,” he said. “But we can’t take Mafumu to England with us! He would be miserable away from his own people. His own folk live near here — look, you can see the village over there — and I am taking him home.
“The children will want to say good-bye to him,” said Ranni at once. “Little Mafumu has been a good friend to us. We couldn’t have rescued you without his help. Hie, Jack — bring Paul and the girls to say good-bye to Mafumu. We’re leaving him here.”
Everyone climbed from the two aeroplanes. The children were sad to say good-bye to their small friend. They had grown very fond of cheeky Mafumu, and they did not want to leave him behind at all.