Then, obeying some inner command, he stripped first the coat and then the silk vest beneath from his body. He tugged and tore at them, and threw them, a ragged little bundle, into the hut behind him.
Thus he stood, bareheaded, naked to the waist.
His headmen were eyeing him fearfully. Tobolaka felt his heart leap with the happiness of a new-found power. Never before had they looked at him thus.
He beckoned a man to him.
"Go you," he said haughtily, "to Bosambo of the Ochori and bid him, on his life, come to me. Take him presents, but give them proudly."
"I am your dog," said the man, and knelt at his feet.
Tobolaka kicked him away and went into the hut of his women to flog a girl of the Akasava, who, in the mastery of a moment, had mocked him that morning because of his white man's ways.
Bosambo was delivering judgment when the messenger of the king was announced.
"Lord, there comes an Isisi canoe full of arrogance," said the messenger.
"Bring me the headman," said Bosambo.