The Stolen Child 
the child and had given it into the hands of his 
chief who had in turn passed it to another, thus 
authorizing the deed. 
It was now clear that the old fox intended 
either to sell the child or to force me to redeem 
it with a large sum of money. I had had some 
acquaintance with him in Ejahyay, and had also 
learned much about his methods from mission¬ 
aries in Abeokuta, and this information convinced 
me that 1 could not circumvent him by diplomacy. 
I, therefore, determined to deal with him in a 
straightforward manner only, for his habits of 
thought would leave him utterly unsuspicious in 
that direction. 
Taking the weeping mother with me, I went at 
once to his house. I found him sitting in state 
with his officers and many of his warriors around 
him. A large crowd of people were also in the 
compound evidently awaiting my appearance. 
The mother fell moaning at his feet and I in¬ 
formed him of the cause of her grief. 
“Why do you come to me, white man?” he 
asked, seemingly in angry surprise. 
“Because your men took the child,” I replied, 
sharply. 
“How can you prove that my men took this 
woman’s child ? ” he again asked in a louder tone 
253 
