We walked so carefully that not one of our steps could be heard. Rogala once moved towards me just to whisper: "Oguizi, he must not escape from us."
We saw that the man had a bag of poisoned arrows hanging by his side, and on the ground lay his bow.
Nearer and nearer we came to the stranger, who was busy breaking the koola nuts, when suddenly he turned round and looked in our direction. Fortunately we crouched in time by a fallen tree. Had he heard us? We peeped above the tree. No, for he again began to crack koola nuts, and was putting the kernels in a little bag. We were within ten yards of him.
Suddenly, without a word of warning, Rogala jumped up, crossed the stream, and uttered a terrific war-cry, running towards the man. When I saw this, I fired "Bulldog" and ran also towards him. The poor fellow seemed to be spellbound and unable to get up. As we came up to him, he took hold of Rogala's feet, which meant that he put himself under his protection, and looked at me with great terror. He trembled all over, and could not utter a word.
I looked at him and smiled, but this did not seem to reassure him. Rogala spoke to him in several languages that he had learned from other slaves, but our prisoner shook his head to show that he did not understand. Then I spoke to him in several of the languages I had learned, but he understood me no better. Thereupon we made signs to try to find out from where he came. At this he looked up, trying to see from the light where the sun was. Then he pointed in the direction of the east.
"He must be from a far-off country," I said to Rogala, "for he seems not to understand any of the languages we have spoken to him."
Our captive was tall, and emaciated from hunger. His teeth were filed sharp to a point, and gave him a very savage appearance. Every part of his body except his legs was tattooed all over. On his stomach was the representation of a crocodile, showing that he must have lived on the shore of a lake or of a river. Upon his cheeks were spots of the size of large peas. His forehead was also tattooed.
"We must be very watchful," said Rogala; "perhaps the man understands some of the languages we spoke to him, after all."
Then he broke the man's bow, and buried his bag of poisoned arrows in the ground, for fear that man or beast would be hurt by them.