Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it.

"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come
back here! Hear me? Back!"

Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but
his long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the
dark-faced stranger.

"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come
after you? Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you
back to your own country and you'll have to eat snakes and
lizards, as you used to. Come here!"

Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet,
which Koku now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become
somewhat disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant
stopped. The man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of
low trees.

"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take
you away from the house with me again if you don't obey me."

"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big
Feet--"

"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last
night or not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to
know that we guessed he had been sneaking about the house.