"For whom are you looking, Mokoum?"
"For Mr. Palander," replied the bushman.
"Is he not with you?" said the Colonel.
"Not now," answered Mokoum. "I thought I should find him with you. He is lost!"
At these words, Matthew Strux stepped forward.
"Lost!" he cried. "He was confided to your care. You are responsible for his safety, and it is not enough to say he is lost."
Mokoum's face flushed, and he answered impatiently,—
"Why should you expect me to take care of one who can't take care of himself? Why blame me? If Mr. Palander is lost, it is by his own folly. Twenty times I have found him absorbed in his figures, and have brought him back to the caravan. But the evening before last he disappeared, and I have not seen him since. Perhaps if you are so clever, you can spy him out with your telescope."
The bushman would doubtless have become more irritable still, if Sir John had not pacified him. Matthew Strux had not been able to get in a word, but now turned round unexpectedly to the Colonel, saying,—
"I shall not abandon my countryman. I suppose that if Sir John Murray or Mr. Emery were lost, you would suspend operations; and I don't see why you should do less for a Russian than for an Englishman."