For a long while
she would stand there, examining him greedily and even the few little
belongings that remained to him, and then with a hungry sigh glide away
and vanish in the shadows. How she came or how she vanished Alan could
not discover. Clearly she did not use the door, and he could find
no other entrance to the room. Indeed at times he thought he must be
suffering from delusion, but Jeekie shook his great head and did not
agree with him.
"She there right enough," he said. "She walk over me as though I log
and I smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and go by magic.
Asika do that if she please."
"Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be out
of Asiki-land, I can tell you."
All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless
questions about his past, the lands that he had visited, and especially
the women that he had known. He had the tact to tell her that none of
these were half so beautiful as she was, which was true in a sense and
pleased her very much, for in whatever respects she differed from them,
in common with the rest of her sex she loved a compliment. Emboldened by
her good humour, he had ventured to suggest that being rested and having
restored Little Bonsa, he would be glad to return with her gifts to his
own country.
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