"Lead on," said Crouch. "We're coming home with you, for a cup of tea and a talk."
For a moment the man was too stupefied to answer. He had never expected this kind of reception from an individual who could have walked under his outstretched arm. What surprised him most of all was Crouch's absolute self-confidence. The Negro and Bantu races are all alike in this: they are extraordinarily simple-minded and impressionable. The Fan chieftain looked at Crouch, and then dropped his eyes. When he lifted them, a broad grin had extended across his face.
"Good," said he. "My village. Palaver. You come."
Crouch turned and winked at Max, and then followed the chief towards the jungle.
[CHAPTER III--THE WHITE WIZARD]
When both parties were gathered together on the edge of the marsh, Max felt strangely uncomfortable. Both Crouch and Edward seemed thoroughly at home, and the former was talking to the chief as if he had found an old friend whom he had not seen for several years. Putting aside the strangeness of his surroundings, Max was not able to rid his mind of the thought that these men were cannibals. He looked at them in disgust. There was nothing in particular to distinguish them from the other races he had seen upon the coast, except, perhaps, they were of finer physique and had better foreheads. It was the idea which was revolting. In the country of the Fans there are no slaves, no prisoners, and no cemeteries; a fact which speaks for itself.
Crouch and the chief, whose name was M'Wané, led the way through the jungle. They came presently to the body of the wounded leopard, which lay with an arrow in its heart. It was the "twang" of the bowstring that Max had heard in the jungle. And now took place an incident that argued well for the future.
M'Wané protested that the leopard belonged to Crouch, since the Englishman had drawn first blood. This was the law of his tribe. Crouch, on the other hand, maintained that the law of his tribe was that the game was the property of the killer. The chief wanted the leopard-skin, and it required little persuasion to make him accept it, which he was clearly delighted to do.
Crouch skinned the leopard himself, and presented the skin to M'Wané. And then the whole party set forth again, and soon came to a track along which progress was easy.
It was approaching nightfall when they reached the extremity of the forest, and came upon a great range of hills which, standing clear of the mist that hung in the river valley, caught the full glory of the setting sun. Upon the upper slopes of the hills was a village of two rows of huts, and at each end of the streets thus formed was a guard-house, where a sentry stood on duty. M'Wané's hut was larger than the others, and it was into this that the Europeans were conducted. In the centre of the floor was a fire, and hanging from several places in the roof were long sticks with hooks on them, the hooks having been made by cutting off branching twigs. From these hooks depended the scant articles of the chief's wardrobe and several fetish charms.