“Was there a white man among them?” asked Bomba eagerly.
“Yes,” replied Ashati; “an old man, very thin and with white hair.”
Bomba’s heart leaped. Casson then was still alive! He had not succumbed to the hardships of the journey.
“Can you take Bomba to the place where you saw them and point out to him the way they were going?” he asked.
“Yes,” replied Ashati. “But they must be a long way from there now, for they were going fast. And they kept looking behind them as though they thought men were coming after them.”
The news set Bomba on fire with impatience to be off. Under his urging and example, the roasting of the meat was swiftly completed. He divided the food equally between the three of them. Whatever might happen to them in the future, it was certain that they would not starve.
After they had got fairly started, with Ashati as guide, toward the spot where the path of the slaves had crossed that of the savages, Bomba narrated to his companions some of his experiences since he had left the hut of Pipina.
When he came to the part that concerned the loss of his bow and arrows, Ashati insisted that the boy should take his and that he, Ashati, could do very well with his hunting knife. Besides, he would make another set of weapons at their first resting place.
Bomba would have refused, but seeing that he could not do so without hurting the feelings of the devoted fellow, at last accepted the gift.
“It was an arrow from that bow that found the heart of the jaguar that would have sunk its claws in your flesh and ripped it from the bones,” said Ashati, as he handed it over.