THE FIRST CAMP 
Making due allowance, however, for the fact that 
they were savages, the general character of my 
collectors said a great deal for human nature. Doboi 
was a really good fellow, and had only one repre- 
hensible escapade to his discredit. It was a case 
of the deceitfulness of wealth! He had worked 
extremely well and had amassed a small fortune, a 
blanket, many ramis, and a quantity of tobacco. 
With these possessions, he became a small king in 
his village. One day he vanished with all his goods. 
Now Doboi was under contract to remain with me 
while I was in the interior, and although he had 
received much, he had not really worked off his part 
of the bargain. Accordingly I had him pursued and 
brought back, and thereafter for the rest of his time 
he was a good boy. He was fourteen, but had attained 
to full manhood, and was a very capable fellow. 
My best mountain boy, however, was Ow-bow. 
He was my right hand, my native first officer. I 
could send him anywhere, for he was quick and 
alert, but he always stipulated that he must go 
armed, and believing him to be justified, I invariably 
provided him with a weapon. He loved fire-arms 
passionately, and to see Ow-bow enter a village with 
his gun over his shoulder was to realise on a small 
scale what a Roman triumph must have been! He 
understood the weapon—his fellow-tribesmen did not. 
Therein lay Ow-bow’s power. He would fire a shot 
in the air and then lay down the law to his comrades. 
If there were any possibility of getting what you 
wanted, Ow-bow would get it. He would, indeed, 
have done well on an American newspaper. He 
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