When the _banda_ was finished and a big pile of the dried hay had been spread as a couch Simba approached respectfully but firmly, took _Bwana_ Nyele's helmet from his head, his spine-pad from his back, and his shoes from his feet. In this strategy Winkleman with reluctance admired the white man's hands. Without head and spine covering of some sort he could not travel a mile under the tropic sun; without foot covering or a light he would be helpless at night. Of course these things could be improvised; but not easily. He stretched himself on the hay and awaited events.
The men built a fire and gathered around it. They were cooking, but at the same time the two whom Winkleman recognized as leaders conferred earnestly and at great length. Had he been at their elbows he would have heard the following:
"The magic of this bone is a very great magic," Simba was saying. "All happened exactly as _Bwana_ Kingozi told us. Now is the fifth day. There remain now nine days to wait until we must bring this _m'zungu_ to _Bwana_ Kingozi at the _manyatta_ of M'tela."
"It is indeed great magic," agreed Mali-ya-bwana. "How many days is the _manyatta?_"
"I do not know. These _shenzis_ should know; but they talk only monkey talk. Here, let us try." He drew one of the prisoners one side. "M'tela," he enunciated slowly.
The savage nodded, and pointed the direction with his protruded lower lip.
Simba indicated the sun, and swept his hand across the arc of the heavens. Then he looked inquiringly at the other and held up in rapid success first one, then two, then three fingers. The savage was puzzled. Simba went through the movements of a man walking, pronounced the name of M'tela, pointed out the direction, and then repeated his previous pantomime. A light broke on the _shenzi_. He held up four fingers.
Simba next called to Mali-ya-bwana to interrogate the other prisoner apart. As the latter also reported M'tela four days distant--when he understood--this was accepted as the truth.
"Then we remain in camp five days," they concluded, after working out the subtraction.
"But," intervened one of the porters, "we have no more _potio_."
"I have the _bwana's_ gun," Simba pointed out, "and also the gun of this _m'zungu_. There is here plenty of game."