“I suppose he’s coming too,” said Jack, pleased. “I wonder what his name is. Ask him, Ranni.”
The boy grinned and showed all his white teeth when Ranni shouted to him. He answered in a shrill voice:
“Mafumu, Mafumu!”
“His name is Mafumu,” said Ranni. “All right, Mafumu, don’t shout your name at us any more!”
Mafumu was so overjoyed at being spoken to by the big Ranni that he kept shouting and wouldn’t stop.
“Mafumu, Mafumu, Mafumu!”
He was stopped in the usual way by his uncle, who slapped him hard on the head. Mafumu fell over, made a face at his uncle’s back, and got up again. The children were very glad he was coming with them. They really couldn’t help liking the cheeky little boy, with his twinkling black eyes and his flashing smile.
Ranni closed and locked the entrance door of the cockpit. Then, with a few backward glances at the two gleaming planes, the little company set off on their new adventure. They were silent as they left the camp, for all of them were wondering what might happen in the near future.
Then Mafumu broke the silence by lifting up his shrill voice and singing a strange slow song.
“Sounds a bit like one of the hymns we have in church,” said Mike. “Oh no — his uncle is going for him again. Golly, how I wish he’d stop — he is always hitting poor Mafumu.”