Tswki had been listening attentively to this speech, for he understood some Swahili. He had a word to add.
“If the other men come up the river to steal your people,” he said, “we will take them also to the officers to be punished.”
This showed how Tswki’s ideas had changed in the last hour or two. He had never before said “we” when speaking to a chief of the river villages.
Well pleased with their day’s work, Tswki and his men moved off down the other side of the mountain. Well pleased with themselves, the Alo Man, the chiefs, and their people moved off down the slope on this side. They carried with them the goods of the traders, including the guns, revolvers, powder, and shot, which they tumbled into the river.
The Alo Man was happy because, for once, the people of the different villages had united against an enemy; even Tswki had shown signs of friendliness! His white teeth flashed in a joyous smile as he began making a song of triumph about the trader and the elephant pit.
Mpoko also was happy. He was thinking that when he was a chief he would rule wisely and keep his people safe from all enemies, as his father and the other chiefs and the Alo Man had done that day. He was wondering also about those strange new rulers who had said that the stealing of men and women and children must stop, and who did not approve of the drink that took away a man’s senses and made him do silly things. Mpoko felt that he had seen and heard and done a great deal since last night.
The people in the village, waiting to catch the first sound of the Alo Man’s drum, heard far away the tap-tap-tapping that sent through the forest the glad news that all was right. The women began to prepare all sorts of good things for the evening meal, and as the sun went down upon the peaceful village and the shining river and the great mountain standing up out of the level country beyond the forest, the Alo Man and his company came home.
CHILDREN OF THE WORLD
A series that opens up to young readers the studies of geography and history as living subjects
PAZ AND PABLO—A Story of Two Little Filipinos By Addie F. Mitchell. Illustrations by Elias Goldberg. 95 pages.