more when it is gone. Now, Vernoon, tell them what they have to do."

So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so
long and minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired
of listening and went away, saying as she passed the captain of the
company:

"Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its
secrets say nothing."

"I hear," answered the captain, prostrating himself.

That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in
their own language. At first they declared that they would not leave
their chief, preferring to stay and die with him.

"Not so," said Fahni; "go, my children, that I may live. Go and gather
the tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can fight, and
bring them up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still live, or to
avenge me if I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no harm, but send
them on to the coast with the white man's goods."

So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke
up on the following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki
porters had already departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the
matter from his mind, for to tell the truth he never expected to hear of
them any more.