"OZAMALAND!" shouted Samuel Salt, swinging round like a teetotum. "So there really IS such a place. I have always said so, Ato, but no one would believe me. Lies to the east of here, doesn't it, sonny, and is twice as large as any known land bordering on the Nonestic?" Somewhat impressed to find that Samuel Salt knew something of his homeland, the little boy nodded. "And do you suppose we could snare one of those creeping birds and flying reptiles if we managed to reach Ozamaland?" Grasping the bars of the cage, Samuel peered anxiously into the young King's face.
"Do you suppose you ever could reach Ozamaland?" sighed Tazander, returning Samuel's eager look with gloomy aloofness. "Do you know that a ship has never touched our shores?"
"Then the Crescent Moon shall be the first!" cried Samuel Salt, snapping his fingers joyfully. "Why, this will be tremendous and the most momentous discovery in a thousand years! But how do you happen to be so far from Ozamaland yourself?" asked Samuel Salt immediately afterward. "Did you come by air or sea?"
"That I cannot tell." Tazander seated himself soberly on a log before he continued. "One night I was sleeping soundly in my tower in the White City, next thing I remember I was here in this jungle. The Leopard Men, wild and savage as they were, fed me when they remembered on raw fish and chunks of hard, bitter bread they made from the roots of the Brima Tree. But I could not understand their talk, nor they mine, and till Kobo found me a month after my imprisonment I had no one to talk to at all. But she has come every day to keep me company and try to set me free, and since the Leopard Men were drowned she has fed me, too. See, through this little door." Tazander opened a small door in the bars and stuck both hands through.
"But how did you learn the language?" asked Ato, turning round to gaze up into Nikobo's huge face.
"I don't know," said Nikobo with an excited gulp. "I just started to say 'Hello!' and instead of saying it in hippopotamy, there I was talking a strange language which I could understand as well as my own. And in this language Tandy answered me, much to my delight and pleasure."
"Strange, very strange." Ato shook his head in a puzzled manner. "Well, all I say is, it was lucky for this small fellow that you happened along, and once we have him aboard he'll soon forget all these hardships and unpleasant experiences."
"I'll never forget Kobo," said the young King, backing stiffly away from the outstretched arms of Ato.
"And Kobo'll never forget YOU," sniffed the hippopotamus. "The talk of the river people seems dull and stupid since I've talked to Tandy. None of the herd really need me and I don't know what I'm going to do—whoo—Hoo HOO WHOOO!" Rocking from side to side, Nikobo began to sob as if her heart would break, so violently in fact, Samuel Salt covered both ears and Ato, alarmed at the enormous grief of the gigantic beast, tried to put his arms around her.