"Well, 'fore I go, sah, I speakee you and say I bringee you de good news."
"Tell us quickly!" said Dick in a state of great excitement.
"Dis, den, is de good news: Missie Peggy not dead! No, no!"
"Explain, Benee, and do not raise false hopes in our breasts."
"De cannibals make believe she murder; dat all is."
"But have we not found portions of her raiment, her blood-dripping stockings, and also her charred remains?"
"Listen, sah. Dese cannibals not fools. Dey beat you plenty of trail, so you can easily find de clearing where de fire was. Dey wis' you to go to dat tree to see de blood, de shoe, and all. But when you seekee de trail after, where is she? Tellee me dat. Missie Peggy no murder. No, no. She am carried away, far away, as one prisint to de queen ob de cannibals."
"What were the bones, my good Benee?"
Then Benee opened his strange bundle, and there fell on the floor the half-burned skull and jaws of a gigantic baboon.
"I find dat hid beside de tree. Ha, ha!"