Next day the whole company set off for the south, the Tubus being laden with the ivory. It was a sort of triumphal progress for the Englishmen. The tale of their doings had already been carried through the country, and at every village through which they passed the people could not do enough to show their gratitude.
The party grew smaller every day as men broke away to rejoin their own people. When the coast was reached, after weeks of toilsome marching, the Englishmen had with them only their Hausa boys, the Tubu prisoners, and a few men from various tribes who clung to them because they wished to see the strange and wonderful things about which the Hausas had told them.
The ivory fetched £3000, a sum much in excess of what the Englishmen had expected. Royce, who had plenty of money, refused to accept any part of the proceeds for himself. Challis, after some consideration, decided that £1000 would come in very useful in buying machinery for his tin mine.
They happened to meet a medical missionary and his wife who had just arrived from England. To them they handed over £2000 on condition that they would use it for the good of the natives south of the Yo. And when, after a month's rest, they returned to the scene of their adventures, they were accompanied by the missionaries and a new band of Hausa boys, with John again as headman. The old band felt so rich on the generous pay they had received that they meant to retire from business, at least for a time.
John treated them with contempt.
"Plenty silly chaps," he said. "Dey hab got lots of cash; me savvy all same. What dey do? Spend, spend, spend all time. Bimeby all gone. What do den, sah? Dey want 'nother massa; no can find one. Dey go sick. Wah! Me hab got good massa; me savvy all dat, sure 'nuff."
When Royce and Challis were last heard of they were working a rich tin mine, with two hundred contented negro labourers in their employment. A little settlement had sprung up in the midst of the great plain, with two large bungalows, one for Royce and Challis, the other for the missionary and his wife, and a number of neat grass huts for the labourers and their families.
The country in their immediate neighbourhood was troubled no more by the Tubus. A brisk trade grew up between their settlement and the surrounding villages, and once a year the people for miles around go in procession to visit the white men, carrying presents for the strangers who saved them from the raiders and brought peace and prosperity to the countryside.
THE END