The Alo Man

by Mara L. Pratt-Chadwick; Louise Lamprey

“And the stranger does not suspect?” said the oldest of the villagers.

“I think,” said Mpoko’s father, “that he has quite given up any thought of the ivory now. We have scared him very well.”

“What a joke it will be?” said the smith, “when we tell people that the stranger was afraid of Tswki!”

“A feeble old man without sons,” said one of the hunters, “and all that ivory which the trader, with his strong men armed with the weapons that kill far off, does not dare to go and take!”

“It is all the better,” said the chief, rising. “When the trader has gone, we will get the ivory and carry it to the trading station ourselves.”

Then the group of men went away, and the Arab, gritting his teeth with rage, found his way back to his own tent. His mind was quite made up. He would break camp early in the morning and go straight over the mountain into Tswki’s country and get that ivory and, if possible, a gang of slaves. Then he would come back and punish the villages, and if there were any joke to be told it would be on them, not on him.

He got Mpoko into his hut while his porters were packing, and questioned him closely. It was not for nothing that Mpoko had played biti and other games in which he had learned not to show his feelings. He said that what the trader had heard of Tswki was indeed true. He had not given them any trouble for a long time—many years. Mpoko had heard that there was a stockade of elephant’s tusks, all picked for their great size, round the group of huts in which Tswki lived with his family. Remembering what the Alo Man had told of the riches of the king whom he had visited, Mpoko described the carved ivory oil dishes and knife handles, the war trumpets and combs and bowls, which he said he had heard that Tswki had. White men would give many, many brass rods for such things, but until now it had not been safe to try to get them. Now the villages had agreed to forget all private quarrels and join in raiding Tswki’s country. Yes, Mpoko knew the road up the mountain. No, it was not very easy to find. One might get lost in the forest. He would not like to show the trader the way, because it might get him into trouble with his father.

The trader pulled at his black beard impatiently. It would not do to get lost in the forest. Neither would it do to arouse suspicion. Mpoko suggested that the Alo Man also knew the road up the mountain. The trader asked if the Alo Man would be the guide. Mpoko thought he would hardly do that, but he was going to visit Tswki, and Mpoko might get leave to go with him for a few miles and then slip away and join the trader. This seemed a good idea, and the trader agreed. He was glad that the Alo Man would be out of the way when the villages were raided, for he had an uneasy notion that with a good leader the people might give him some trouble. If they traveled fast, they could overtake the Alo Man before they got to Tswki’s country and could make sure that he would give them no further trouble.

The Alo Man had already gone when the trader and his men set forth. In fact, he had gone the night before, although nobody knew it but the chief and one or two other people. Mpoko kept a little ahead of the trader’s party, swinging from tree to tree like a monkey, or peering back from behind a thorn bush or grass clump. Just as the trail began to be hard to find, he dropped to the ground and stood waiting for them as they came panting up the path.

Very little was said as the Arab and his men followed the slim brown figure of the boy through the jungle. Every man had firearms, and they had given a little shooting exhibition the day before that had impressed the people deeply. The Arab felt sure that when he got ready to take his prisoners, they would be too scared to make any fight. He expected to have some trouble getting the ivory, but he was not a coward and did not mind fighting when he was sure that he would win in the end. He counted very much on the surprise he would give the old chief when he made the attack. Each one of his men, with gun and revolver, was equal to many Africans armed only with spears, and according to all accounts Tswki depended on the strength of his town there on the hillside and not on a strong guard.