104 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS 
he should chop biam/' and then, if he still proved 
obdurate, the effects of this '*big" native oath — 
''^biam" — Avould prove fatal. He told them he 
feared neither biam nor Ju-ju ; only the Word of 
God, and God^s power. He was afterwards kept 
tinder observation and never allowed to leave the 
town. All the while he had a troubled mind, fear- 
ing that Ma and I would regard him as one who 
made promises easily and broke them at pleasure. 
But we knew Samson too well to think that. 
When the time limit set for his return was over- 
past, we began to hear bits of news that told us 
all was not well with the lad. By-and-by, we 
paid a visit to Arsibong Town, the nearest Mission 
Station to Samson's native place, and we had not 
been there above two or three days before I was 
wakened early one morning with the patter of foot- 
steps on the verandah, and I felt there was some- 
thing unusual about it. At six o'clock Samson 
presented himself and told me it was not his fault 
that he had turned up so late. After they had 
flogged him and forbade straying from the town, 
he had tried to write an explanatory note, but he 
was discovered in the act, flogged, and told by the 
Ete " (head chief) that if ever he tried to do such 
a thing again he, the Ete," would drive the pen 
into his body. He therefore resolved to' wait until 
we came to Arsibong Town on a visit. Whilst he 
laid low, like Brer Rabbit, saying nothing, he got 
his plans laid. One of his friends promised to 
acquaint him with the news as soon as we 
turned up at the Asibong Mission, and another 
volunteered to help him get away by canoe in the 
middle of the night when the proper time arrived. 
