He kicked him again, quite unnecessarily, I thought, and Moit stood up with a red and angry face and growled:
“Stop that, you fool!”
At this rebellion Nux promptly fetched him a blow behind the knees that sent him tumbling backward upon his seat, and when I laughed—for I could not help it—I got another ear-splitter that made me hold my head and be glad to keep silent. Moit evidently saw the force of our blacks’ arguments, for he recovered his wits in time to avoid further blows.
The exhibition had one good effect, anyway; it lulled any suspicions of the chief that the Honorable Bryonia and Senator Nux might not be the masters in our little party. Although Duncan Moit and I constantly encountered looks of bitter hatred, our men were thereafter treated with ample respect and consideration.
“You welcome,” said the chief. “I Ogo—Capitan Ogo—green chief. You come to my house.”
He turned and marched away, and Moit started the machine and made it crawl after him.
The other natives followed in a grave procession, and so we entered the village and passed up its clean looking streets between rows of simple but comfortable huts to the further end, where we halted at the domicile of the “green chief.”
CHAPTER IX
FACING THE ENEMY
“Capitan” Ogo made an impressive bow in the direction of his mud mansion and then another bow to Nux and Bry.