"Never mind the reward now, mother," broke in Leonard testily, for the
veiled sarcasm of Soa's speech had stung him, "unless, indeed, you can
cure me of the fever," he added with a laugh.

"I can do that," she answered quietly; "to-morrow morning I will cure
you."

"So much the better," he said, with an incredulous smile. "And now of
your wisdom tell me how am I to look for your mistress, to say nothing
of rescuing her, when I do not know whither she has been taken? Probably
this Nest of which the Portugee talked is a secret place. How long has
she been carried off?"

"This will be the twelfth day, Lord. As for the Nest, it is secret; that
I have discovered. It is to your wisdom that I look to find it."

Leonard mused awhile, then a thought struck him. Turning to the dwarf,
who had been sitting by listening to all that was said in stolid
silence, his great head resting upon his knees, he spoke to him in
Dutch:

"Otter, were you not once taken as a slave?"

"Yes, Baas, once, ten years ago."

"How was it?"

"Thus Baas. I was hunting on the Zambesi with the soldiers of a tribe
there--it was after my own people had driven me out because they said