“You certainly won his heart that time, Bob,” said Jack, admiringly, as Bob returned to the side of his comrades. “Look at his face, if you want to see real amazement.”
The chief continually taking off and restoring the receivers, and all the time curiously eyeing the cabinet. It was as if he were trying to determine the origin of the strange sounds which he heard when the receivers were attached to his ears but which were reduced to the thinnest of whispers when he removed the headpiece.
“I wondered what that package under your arm contained,” added Jack.
“Well, you see, I thought we owed the old boy something in return for what he was doing for us,” said Bob. “So I decided to give him a real present. I fixed up with Matse to play the records. He’s become a great radio fan, and when you fellows left me alone with him the other night—when you used the radio to free Wimba, you know—why, I showed him how to operate the set. He’s as imitative as a monkey and as bright as a new penny. I listened in for a minute, before putting the headpiece on the chief’s ears, and Matse had things going all right.”
“Well, you might have let a fellow in on it,” said Jack.
“Oh, you and Frank were too busy talking to your father,” said Bob.
In the meantime, although Chief Ruku-Ru had retired from the center of the stage, so to speak, matters had not come to a standstill. Quite the contrary, in fact, for with the completion of the ceremonies having to do with the boys, the Kikuyus had gone about the business of celebration in earnest.
Numerous smaller fires sprang into being about the square, and some the feasting was in full swing. Always ready for merry-making, the Kikuyus had seized upon this occasion for a celebration despite the fact that only two or three nights before another had been held.
However, as Mr. Hampton and the boys had no desire to participate in the drinking of the heavy native beer or to witness the orgy which was bound to follow as the natives came under the influence of liquor, they excused themselves to the chief on the ground that they found it necessary to retire in order to be prepared for breaking camp at an early hour on the morrow, and departed.
Wrapped up in his new toy, Chief Ruku-Ru made no objection, and so they managed to get away. Behind them already the dancing about the fires was growing wilder and more unrestrained.