“A good man,” said Mr. Hampton. “How’d you learn about him, Bob?”
The big fellow grinned.
“Oh, you know how,” he said. “I can’t explain it. But I expect I have a faculty for making friends.”
Such a faculty, indeed, Bob had. And it is an invaluable one. He was sometimes described by Frank fondly as “the original democrat.”
“That boy,” Frank would say on such occasions, “makes friends with every Tom, Dick and Harry he meets. He never draws any social or color lines. Just interested in people from the human side, I suppose.”
Mr. Hampton smiled and shook his head slightly. Then yawning mightily, he arose.
“Well, Niellsen, we may as well retire. Tomorrow will be a big day.”
CHAPTER XXIII
ON TO ENTEBBE
Camp presented a scene of strange activity the next day when Mr. Hampton forced his sodden bearers to the task of preparing for departure. During their lengthy stay many articles of equipment had been unpacked, and there was much to do beside striking the tents and packing up the articles they contained.
The task was made easier for Mr. Hampton, however, by reason of the efforts of Samba, who took his new honors as “straw boss” seriously, and who moreover was ably supported in spurring on the laggards by the dozen steadier men who had refused to leave camp the night before and go to Chief Ungaba’s beer party.