They had reached a clearing where the grass was rich and luxuriant

They had reached a clearing where the grass was rich and luxuriant, where overshadowing branches formed an idealic bower, where heavy white waxen flowers were looped from branch to branch holding the green boughs in their parasitical clutch. Hamilton followed the direction of his eyes. In the middle of the clearing a long, sinuous shape, dark brown, and violently coloured with patches of green and vermillion, that was swaying backward and forward, hissing angrily at some object before it.
"Good God!" said Hamilton, and dropped his hand on his revolver, but before it was clear of his holster, there came a sharp crack, and the snake leapt up and fell back as a bullet went snip-snapping through the undergrowth. Then Hamilton saw Bones. Bones in his shirtsleeves, bareheaded, his big pipe in his mouth, who came hurriedly through the trees pistol in hand.
"Naughty boy!" he said, reproachfully, and stooping, picked up a squalling brown object from the ground. "Didn't Daddy tell you not to go near those horrid snakes? Daddy spank you----"
Then he caught sight of the amazed Hamilton, clutched the baby in one hand, and saluted with the other.
"Baby present and correct, sir," he said, formally.
* * * * *
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Hamilton, after Bones had indulged in the luxury of a bath and had his dinner.
"Do with what, sir?" asked Bones.
"With this?"
Hamilton pointed to a crawling morsel who was at that moment looking up to Bones for approval.
"What do you expect me to do, sir?" asked Bones, stiffly; "the mother is dead and he has no father. I feel a certain amount of responsibility about Henry."
"And who the dickens is Henry?" asked Hamilton.
Bones indicated the child with a fine gesture.
"Henry Hamilton Bones, sir," he said grandly. "The child of the regiment," he went on; "adopted by me to be a prop for my declining years, sir."
"Heaven and earth!" said Hamilton, breathlessly.
He went aft to recover his nerve, and returned to become an unseen spectator to a purely domestic scene, for Bones had immersed the squalling infant in his own india-rubber bath, and was gingerly cleaning him with a mop.
Chapter 11 Bones At M'fa
Hamilton of the Houssas coming down to headquarters met Bosambo by appointment at the junction of the rivers.
"O Bosambo," said Hamilton, "I have sent for you to make a _likambo_ because of certain things which my other eyes have seen and my other ears have heard."
To some men this hint of report from the spies of Government might bring dismay and apprehension, but to Bosambo, whose conscience was clear, they awakened only curiosity.
"Lord, I am your eyes in the Ochori," he said with truth, "and God knows I report faithfully."
Hamilton nodded. He was yellow with fever, and the hand that filled the briar pipe shook with ague. All this Bosambo saw.
"It is not of you I speak, nor of your people, but of the Akasava and the N'gombi and the evil little men who live in the forest--now is it true that they speak mockingly of my lord Tibbetti?"
Bosambo hesitated.
"Lord," said he, "what dogs are they, that they should speak of the mighty? Yet I will not lie to you, M'ilitani: they mock Tibbetti, because he is young and his heart is pure."