"We are going on a hunt for my father, who has been missing for years."
Again Aleck had to be told the particulars and again he was tremendously interested. When the boys had finished he sat in silence for several minutes.
"I've got it-jest de t'ing!" he cried suddenly.
"Got what?" asked Tom.
"De right idea, Massah Tom. Foah gen'men like yo' don't want to go to Africa widout a valet nohow. Let me be de workin' man fe de crowd. I'll take de job, cheap,—an' glad ob de chance."
"Hullo, that's an idea!" mused Dick.
"Will yo' do it, Massah Dick?"
"We'll have to speak to my uncle about it first."
"Well, yo' put in a good word fo' me. Yo know I always stood by yo' in de school," pleaded the colored man. "I don't want to be driftin' around jess nowhar, wid nuffin to do, an' no money comin' in—not but what I'll work cheap, as I dun said I would," he added hastily.
A little later Randolph Rover joined the group and Aleck's proposition was laid before him. Strange to say he accepted the colored man's offer immediately, greatly to the wonder of the boys, and from that minute on Pop be came a member of the searching party.