"Where did you go?" asked Harden.
"Into Cæsar's hut," said Crouch, winking with his only eye. "I searched everywhere, but could find nothing. As I told you before, this man has a secret, and that secret is locked up in his chest. In Central Africa a man doesn't have a chest like that to keep his clothes in. It's iron-bound, and locked with three padlocks, and I suppose he keeps the key in his pocket. It would have been sheer waste of time to have tried to open it. I couldn't lift it. It's as heavy as if it were filled with lead. That's why I'm sorry we've got to clear out. I mean to discover what that chest contains."
"We've got to go," said Max. "I wouldn't stay here another hour for all the secrets in the universe."
"You're quite right," said Crouch. "As the natives say on the Ogowe, 'a bad man's bread is poison.' We'll sheer off at once."
Edward went out, and returned in a few minutes with M'Wané and the four Fans.
"M'Wané," said Crouch, still seated on the ground, "we're going back to Hippo Pool."
M'Wané smiled as though he were glad to hear it.
"That is good news," said he. "I do not like this place."
"Why?" asked Crouch, looking up.
"We have been told," said M'Wané, "that if we try to leave the camp, we shall be shot by the Arab men."