"Go back to your city, Bosambo," said Sanders gently.
The chief squared his broad shoulders.
"I am your man," he said, and turned without another word.
Sanders stopped him before he had taken half a dozen paces.
"Give me twenty fighting men," he said, "and two canoes. You shall hold your men in check whilst I go about the King's business."
An hour later he was going down-stream as fast as a five-knot current and his swift paddlers could take him.
He came to the Akasava city at noon of the following day, and found it peaceable enough.
M'Kovo, the king's son, came to the beach to meet him.
"Lord Sandi," he said with an extravagant gesture of surprise, "I see that the summer comes twice in one season, for you——"
Sanders was in no mood for compliments.