CHAPTER IX
AFRICAN KNIGHTHOOD
At the end of two days Mr. Hampton and Niellsen, the photographer, a tall rangy Scandinavian some ten years older than the boys, returned. And when this intelligence was communicated to Chief Ruku-Ru he made preparations for the carrying out of the ceremonies in honor of the boys that very night.
Prior to going to the village, the two parties exchanged experiences. And while Mr. Hampton and Niellsen had had no such exciting times as the boys, yet they, too, had not been without adventure.
In particular, the boys laughed heartily over Niellsen’s description of an incident attending the photographing of some baboons. It being the dry season, their guides had taken Mr. Hampton and Niellsen to a certain dry river bed in which water could be obtained by digging, a fact with which the baboons were well aware. Here, prophesied the guides, they would undoubtedly be able to obtain excellent pictures of baboons. And in this prophecy they had been correct.
“But,” laughed Mr. Hampton, “you should have seen what happened to Niellsen. Tell it, Oscar.”
Niellsen joined the older man in the laugh. He had an honest open face with a tip-tilted nose and sandy recalcitrant hair which gave him a humorous appearance calculated to induce smiles in his auditors before ever he spoke. And in keeping with his appearance he had a habit of dry speech which the boys found highly amusing.
“The joke was on me, all right,” he said.
“Or the baboon was,” said Mr. Hampton, laughing harder than ever, as if at some diverting recollection.
At this Jack could no longer conceal his impatience. “Come on, tell it,” he said. “Don’t keep this all to yourselves.”
“Well, it was this way,” said Niellsen. “You know if I’d have shown myself to the baboons with my camera, I’d never have gotten them to stand still long enough to have their pictures taken. Instead of watching the birdie, they’d have come up and tried to operate the machine. So I decided to hide myself. And for my place of concealment, I chose the branches of a small uprooted tree.