"No, boss, I tell you truth," replied the old warrior, "some day I
find the chief who kill my father and my mother and kill my
friends." He glanced significantly at his axe.

"In the Moon Mountains maybe I find him--maybe not. But some day I
shall and then--"

He said no more, but as Frank remarked to Harry when the former
recounted his conversation to his brother later:

"I shouldn't much like to be that man when Sikaso meets him."

The launch and the small flotilla she towed forged steadily up the
stream all that day and at nightfall drew alongside the bank at a
spot where a clearing planted with bananas clearly indicated the
presence thereabouts of a native village. As soon as the launch was
moored to the bank the adventurers scrambled out--not sorry of a
chance to stretch their legs--and looked about them wonderingly.
They were really in equatorial Africa at last, and even as they
looked there was a sound borne to their ears that brought home to
them strongly how very far away they were from old New York. It was
a pulsing, rhythmic beating something like a drum and yet unlike it.
They looked questioningly at Sikaso.

"Tom-tom," said he briefly.

"Is it a friendly village, Sikaso?" inquired Doctor Wiseman.

"Friendly to some--not to all," replied the Krooman, who for some