“I’ll slip behind that bush and pounce on whatever it is,” whispered Ranni. “I can move away from this side of the tree without being seen.”
So big Ranni slid away as silently as a cat, and crawled behind the nearest bush. From there he made his way to another bush and waited for the Something to come by.
He pounced on it — and there came a terrified yell, and a shrill voice that cried out something that sounded like “Yakka, longa, yakka, longa!”
Ranni picked up what he had caught and carried it to Pilescu. It was something very small — something that both men knew very well. They cried out in amazement.
“Mafumu!”
Yes — it was Mafumu. Poor Mafumu, crawling painfully along the bushes, searching for the friends he had left the day before.
“Mafumu! What has happened?” asked Ranni. The boy told him his story.
“I went back a long way with my uncle, but he was unkind to me, and he told me he would give me to the first crocodile he saw in a river. So I ran away from him to come back to my new friends. And a big thorn went into my foot — see — so I could not walk, I could only crawl.”
The poor little boy was so tired, and in such pain that tears fell out of his eyes. As dawn came stealing over the countryside, big Ranni took the poor little fellow into his arms, whilst Pilescu pulled out the great thorn from his foot. He bathed the hurt and bound it up with lint and gauze. He gave the boy something to eat and drink and then told him to sleep.
But comfortable though he was in Ranni’s arms, Mafumu would not stay there. He must go to his new friends, and especially Jack!