A brief search resulted in the finding of the missing garments. The clothes had been brushed, neatly folded, and placed inside two tin trunks.
Evidently the sounds made by the searchers had penetrated into another part of the house, for there was a tremendous knock on the door, followed by the entrance of Tenpenny Nail.
"Me your servant, sah," he announced, addressing Colin. "Tenpenny Nail—dat's me. Blue Fly him come one time. Gone fetchee up bath-water."
Colin regarded his new acquaintance curiously. He saw a tall, broad-shouldered man of a type totally distinct from the Kaffir.
Tenpenny Nail was a Kruman who had served in a Haussa regiment attached to the "Waifs," or West African Frontier Force. Attaining the rank of corporal, he had elected at the close of hostilities to take his discharge at Ujiji instead of returning to "The Coast." His former master, late platoon-commander, had recently sold out and returned to England, so Tenpenny Nail had taken service with Colonel Narfield at Kilembonga.
This much Tenpenny Nail related promptly, accompanying his recital with a succession of broad grins that gave his features the appearance of being almost all mouth.
In the midst of his introductory speech Tenpenny Nail was interrupted by the arrival of his colleague, Blue Fly, who so strongly resembled Colin's servant that the lad wondered if he would ever be able to distinguish one from the other.
Blue Fly was staggering under the weight of an enormous earthenware jar of water. He could have carried the weight with equanimity in the open by balancing the jar on his head; but the height of the doorway prevented him, and perforce he had to carry it in his arms.
Powerfully built from the waist upwards, Blue Fly, like most African natives, was woefully thin and weak "on his pins," and it certainly looked as if his spidery legs would give way under the weight of his burden.
"Massa Demon," he announced majestically. "Tiffin him ready in half a perishing hour."