"And you've got him all right, have you?" I said.
"Oh yes," replied Harry, "he's secure; but the others are at the bottom of the river. The men will be along in a little while with the skin of the beast, and we'll have all the jambok we want in the camp."
I should explain that the jambok is a whip made of hippopotamus-hide, just like the koorbash in Egypt. It is the most cruel whip ever made; the nearest approach to it known in the civilized world is the green hide, or rawhide, such as was formerly used in the Southern States in the days of slavery, and occasionally by New England schoolmasters of the olden time on very unruly pupils.
Our native attendants had a royal feast off the flesh of the hippopotamus, and we came in for a share of it, or as much as we wanted. Hippo is very good eating when you cannot get anything better; it has a strong, rather musky flavor which I do not like, and I find that most other white men have tastes similar to mine in this respect. But a Kafir, or any other black-skinned native of Africa, is not at all particular, and you might empty a bottleful of musk over his dinner without interfering with his appetite.
I did not say a word to Harry and Jack until dinner about the hunter I met in the forest. I told them briefly about my elephant-hunt, but we all were too busy for anything else until we got seated at the table; fact is, we were pretty busy then, as all were hungry, but there are intervals at table when even a very hungry man can put in a few words now and then between the mouthfuls.
"By the way, fellows, I didn't tell you about the new hunting-party here, did I?" I remarked, soon after we had taken our seats.
"No!" said both the others, in a breath; "who are they?"
"I don't know their whole pedigree," I replied. "I have only seen one of them."
"Well, what can you tell us about him?" said Harry. "Who is he? Where is he from? What kind of an outfit has he?"
"There are several questions all in one," I answered, "and some of them I haven't yet learned about. In the first place, it isn't a 'him' at all; it's a 'her'!"