"knock-down" arrangement, by which the ship could be taken apart and
set up again, the operation of equipping her for active work was a
comparatively light one. The extra gasoline and supplies for the
camp in general were stored in a separate tent removed from the
circle in which the boys' tents and those of Ben Stubbs and
Professor Wiseman were pitched.

There was, too, a newcomer in the camp--a Portuguese named Diego de
Barros. He was not a particularly well-favored individual, but he
bore the reputation of having great power over the natives and of
being very friendly to the white traders who penetrated into the
interior. Once or twice there had been ugly talk about his being in
league with the Arab slave and ivory traders, but he had managed to
clear his name and along the Ivory Coast enjoyed the reputation of
being an honest, reliable man. He had joined the boys' camp a few
days before and his manner of coming was this.

While everybody was busy getting things in shape there had come a
loud hail from the quarters of the native helpers, just outside the
white man's encampment, announcing that a canoe was coming up the
river. All hands had hastened to the river bank to find de Barros
just putting his foot ashore from the canoe in which two natives had
paddled him from the coast. He had with him some bales of cotton
goods and a few gewgaws of various kinds and was bound, so he said,
on a trading expedition into the back country. Further down the
river he had heard, he explained, that the boys were camped where he
found them, and he had determined to pay them a visit. The brief
stay that the boys had interpreted this as meaning, however, had
extended itself into three days and still Diego showed no
inclination to leave.