As I pulled him by the sleeve he halted, and when the last carrier had got out of hearing I confided to my friend my misgivings.
"Have you not noticed of late a change in Kouaga's manner towards us?" I asked him. "At first he was deferential and submissive to your every wish, but it occurs to me that of late his manner is overbearing, and he watches us closely, as if fearing we might escape."
"Curiously enough," my friend replied, "I have for some days past had similar thoughts. If he's playing any double game his life won't be worth a moment's purchase when once we enter our own land."
"But you had perfect confidence in him," I observed.
"Yes. If my mother trusts him as her chief adviser I have no right to entertain any suspicion of his fidelity," he said.
"True, but, after all, you are the Prince and heir. Surely he ought to have followed your desire as to the route we should take."
"The route!" he cried. "Since we left the river we have travelled in these cross-paths in such an amazing manner that at present I have no idea where we are."
"The carriers have, or they would not be in such high spirits," I observed.
"Yes, but the strangest part of the affair is that every man among them fears to tell us anything. I have secretly questioned most of them as to Kouaga's motive, and all I can glean is that the fetish-man at Tomboura gathered them together and, after performing some of the usual rites and sacrificing to our Crocodile-god Zomara, told them if a word were spoken to us regarding our route or destination the dread god will meet us in the forest path and devour all of us. Not one shall survive."
"And you believe this pagan humbug?" I exclaimed, in disgust.