“Yea, and nay,” he answered. “Since thou didst release me, I have followed closely thy footprints.”
“Followed me!” I echoed, remembering how many days he must have journeyed.
“Since the raid of the destroyers I have been ever behind thee, and have ofttimes watched thee and thy companion unnoticed.”
“For what reason hast thou sought to thus keep observation upon me?” I asked, puzzled. The small fire he had lit still threw a faint glow, sufficient to reveal his dark and not unhandsome face, and Tiamo stood by, speechless and wondering.
“I desired to ascertain that thou wert journeying along the right path,” the chief replied, mysteriously.
“The right path? What meanest thou?”
“An Arab dareth not to journey with one slave through the Kivira, unless he hath some definite object in view,” he said, with a low, rather harsh laugh. “At risk of thy life thou didst release me from a certain and horrible death, and in return I have secretly watched thy progress towards thy goal.”
“My goal!” I cried. “What knowest thou of my goal?”
“Already have I told thee that, since my rescue, I have been as thy shadow. I followed thee to Kalunga, and there overheard thy conversation with the brutal headman Ngalyema, in which thou didst tell him of thy search, and he, with consummate craftiness, offered to send his armed men with thee. As I lay hidden, I heard thee tell him of thine anxiety to reach the Rock of the Great Sin, because upon the success of thy mission depended the happiness of the woman thou lovest. My life was in thine hand; therefore I determined at once to assist thee.”
“To assist me!” I exclaimed, breathlessly. “Knowest thou where the Rock of the Great Sin is situated?”