HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT 117

CHAPTER TWO

HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT
"Boss of the Whole Show"

MARK called me at five in the morning, scrabbling
against the mosquito^wire. I was sending him ahead
with the Mandingo Amah to warn the chief at Kpang-
blamai of our arrival, of my need of a hut and food
for about thirty men, and to ask him to send a mes-
senger to the chief at Pandemai to warn him that I
should not be coming after all. I packed my Revela-
tion suitcase and Amah took it, striding off down the
path into the village. He wouldn't be home for weeks,
but all his belongings were tied up in a rag the size
of a workman's handkerchief.

It was seven-thirty before I followed. The long
column of carriers slipped down from the mission hill
into the mist. Vande, the headman, left the column
for a few minutes and disappeared between the huts
to say good-bye to his wife. He had a cloth cap, a
loose shirt and shorts; he carried no load, taking with
him for a few days his young brother to carry his
bundle; he was very like an English foreman, cheer-
ful, unexacting, a pipe-smoker. When he wasn't
smoking he was shaking a rattle made of two tiny
gourds filled with seeds. He kept to the tail of the
column staying behind with any man who needed a
rest.

For the first mile along the wide beaten way to-