Brother John
stared at the horizon, his lips moving as though he were engaged in
prayer, and even Stephen was temporarily depressed. Jerry had fallen
asleep, as a native generally does when it is warm and he has nothing
to do. Mavovo looked very thoughtful. I wondered whether he had been
consulting his Snake again, but did not ask him. Since the episode of
our escape from execution by bow and arrow I had grown somewhat afraid
of that unholy reptile. Next time it might foretell our immediate
doom, and if it did I knew that I should believe.
As for Hans, he looked much disturbed, and was engaged in wildly
hunting for something in the flap pockets of an antique corduroy
waistcoat which, from its general appearance, must, I imagine, years
ago have adorned the person of a British game-keeper.
"Three," I heard him mutter. "By my great grandfather's spirit! only
three left."
"Three what?" I asked in Dutch.
"Three charms, Baas, and there ought to have been quite twenty-four.
The rest have fallen out through a hole that the devil himself made in
this rotten stuff.
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