Thereupon the four white men together with the medicine man and the interpreter put their heads together, with what result will presently be seen. And at length the Wizard Mfum-ba, after first an opening in the straw wall with a finger and peering out, parted the to permit him to slip out the way he had come.  
“Well, things are looking up,” said . “But one thing puzzles me. Just one little thing. Did you all notice that out there in the square, whenever the old fellow , his words were preceded by a sound, a sound which caused a look of to appear on the faces of many of his hearers?”
 
“Oh, that nothing,” said the interpreter, with the superiority of a man who has come in contact with influences and has lost his awe of home town ways. “Him carry li’l bag, made of skin, him robe, filled with . When him want to fool somebody him bag and say spirits talk. My uncle,” he added, “him medicine man, too.”
 
At this remark, his laughed .
 
“Well, now, if there’s anything to that medicine man, Chief Namla is due to appear,” said Mr. Ransome.
 
And scarcely had the words been uttered than one of the guards putting his head inside the announced the chief wanted them in the square.
 
“So far so good,” said Mr. Hampton, rising with . “Mfum-ba has made good on one promise, anyway.”
 
Then he added: “Bring your camera, Niellsen, and come along. Jack, I’ll send your radio stuff in by bearer. Remember, my lad, everything really depends on you. But take no unnecessary risks.”
 
“All right. Dad,” said Jack, in a tone. “Leave it to me.”
 
They went out, and in a few moments a bearer entered the hut with the two small cases containing the cabinet receiving set and aerial and the loudspeaker. Putting them down he, too, . Jack was again alone. But not for long.
 
He could hear voices in the square outside. And peering through the doorway, he with satisfaction that the bearers had shifted position as if , so that now they stood in two groups, one of which effectively screened the doorway of the hut while the other blocked the alleyway alongside, between guest house and The Prophet’s hut beyond.
 
Things were working out according to schedule.
 
When he turned around, there stood the Wizard Mfum-ba, hand outstretched to pluck him by a shirt sleeve to attract his attention. This, too, was according to plan, and well-pleased with the way things were going, Jack nodded. Then he picked up the two small cases, and, one under each arm, followed Mfum-ba through the parted thatch of the rear wall.
 
Beyond some twenty paces and stretching for a considerable distance on either hand lay an eight-foot-high wattled wall, surrounding the yard of Chief Narnia’s . Jack looked up and down the space intervening but it was . He listened. From the square came the sound of Mr. Ransome’s voice upraised in speech. And as it ceased, the hum of many voices filled with uncontrollable succeeded.
 
But he must make the most of his opportunity. And already Mfum-ba had away from his side with surprising speed for one so , and stood at the rear of the adjacent hut, which Jack knew was inhabited by the mysterious individual known as The Prophet. Immediately at the rear of this hut and towering above it rose a spreading tree of luxuriant , a forest giant which had wandered down into the plain.
 
Mfum-ba impatiently, and Jack delaying no longer ran to join him. As he crossed the open alleyway between the huts, he gazed toward the square. But his view of it was cut off by the mass of bearers at the mouth of the , and so he knew that anybody looking in could not see him, either.
 
“Working like clock work,” he thought.
 
To scale the tree was an easy matter. And putting down his two cases, Jack in a trice was in the lower branches. Then Mfum-ba handed up the case containing the radio receiving set and aerial, as Jack indicated. Mounting into the tree, which closed about him, him completely, Jack carried the insulated wire of the aerial to the top. Pausing only in conclusion for a hasty glance through the branches toward the square, a glance which told him nothing. , he placed the receiving cabinet in a crotch which had caught his eye as he passed, and where it rested as securely as if in a place especially made for it.
 
Working at top speed, Jack yet was careful that everything should be put in proper order. And when he had finished, he dropped lightly to the ground. The alley between the huts and the wattled wall was still deserted. And from the sounds reaching him from the direction of the square, Jack his father and the latter’s companions were successfully keeping the populace engaged.
 
Between him and Mfum-ba not a word had so far passed, for neither could have understood the other’s tongue. But gestures were more than words. Mfum-ba parting the grass thatch at the rear of The Prophet’s hut, as he had parted that of the guest house, stepped within, one skinny, claw-like black hand left behind and Jack on. Jack set his teeth, for the most dangerous part of his task yet remained. Then he, too, entered the hut by this novel method, pushing ahead of him the case containing the loudspeaker.
 
The hut was empty save for Mfum-ba and himself. But curious though he was to discover something regarding the identity of this mysterious individual who inhabited it, Jack after a hasty glance around which ............