He slid hurriedly to the ground and came face to face with Ashati and Neram, the former slaves of Jojasta, the medicine man of the Moving Mountain!
CHAPTER XIII
THE MAD MONKEY
Ashati and Neram dropped to their knees before Bomba, clasping his hands and bowing their black heads before him. Neram, bending lower, took one of Bomba’s sandaled feet and placed it on his neck as a sign that he was slave and Bomba master.
The heart of the lonely boy swelled at this sign of gratitude and affection. He stooped and raised the kneeling men, and made them stand on their feet before him.
“You have saved Bomba’s life,” he said with deep feeling. “If you had not come when you did the jaguars would have killed him. Bomba will not forget.”
“Ashati and Neram would have been nothing now but bones buried in the heart of the Moving Mountain if you had not come to their help,” replied Ashati, who seemed to be the spokesman for the two. “You saved them from death, and freed them from the cruel yoke of Jojasta, the medicine man. Ashati and Neram have no master but Bomba, and will go anywhere in the jungle at the side of Bomba as his slave. Their lives belong to Bomba.”
“You shall go with me wherever I go,” replied Bomba. “But you shall go as my friends and not as my slaves. Bomba has nothing to offer you but friendship. If you will take that and go with him, he will be glad.”
So it was settled, and with many more expressions of gratitude and devotion on the part of the ex-slaves of Jojasta, Bomba and the two men set to work to skin and quarter one of the dead jaguars that had unwittingly furnished them a feast.
While engaged in this and the building of a fire for the roasting of the best portions of the meat, Ashati and Neram imparted to Bomba news that he was anxious to hear.
In their wanderings they had noted the bands of Nascanora and his half-brother, Tocarora, heading in the direction of the Giant Cataract. This had been only two days before and not far from the place where they were now standing. From their hiding place in the brush, the slaves had seen that each party had with it a number of captives.