"Oh, I found myself in comfortable quarters, and I couldn't make up my mind to move on and try more likely country elsewhere. So I stayed and talked rubber-palaver with the headman. One had to do something for amusement. Besides they'd a tree of alligator pears in the village that were exactly ripe, and it would have been a crime to leave them to benighted Africans. By the way, very rude of me not to ask before, but what have you done since you left the Coast?"
"Got into a very ugly hole," said Swizzle-Stick Smith shortly, "and wriggled out of it by the skin of my teeth."
"Rubber-palaver?"
"No."
"Oh, sorry for inquiring. I thought that was what you came up for?"
"So it was, and I started off from the Coast with a full intention of carrying out O'Neill and Craven's business. But I got led off on an old trail."
"Ah," said Slade thoughtfully. "I believe I could guess."
"Guessing's dangerous. But I may as well own up to you frankly that I've been seeing the King of Okky."
"Well, you've a nerve. I shouldn't have cared for that job myself."
"It wasn't pleasant. Okky City jars one's sense of decency rather badly just now. Old Kallee's been going it extra strong on human sacrifices, you know. His private crucifixion tree is a thing you don't like to think about."