"Well, we've walked across country from Zanzibar, or rather Mombasa, looking for minerals."
"Found anything?"
"No."
"Well, I'd better go and look out for—what did you say his name was?"
"Hobday, quite a little fellow."
Knight went out of the hut and, as he passed the kitchen, ordered another bath and told the cook that as a second white man was arriving he must kill another chicken.
Almost immediately Hobday arrived. He was a short, precise little man, inclined to tubbiness.
"How do you do? My name is Mr. Hobday. I am the medical man attached to an important expedition headed by Mr. J.G. Lindsay, who may not be unknown to you."
To this long-winded greeting Knight replied: "Well, come along and have a drink and a hot bath and a change, and by that time dinner will be ready. Lindsay's here."
"I do not often indulge in alcoholic beverages and never in the daytime, but after a very tiring day——"