Suddenly her face brightened.
"The necklace of many beads that your father took from the body of the warrior captured for the last feast!" she exclaimed. "You have not lost it?"
"No," replied her friend. "It is in the house of my father. When I grind maize it gets in my way and so I laid it aside."
"May I see it?" asked Uhha. "I will fetch it."
"No, you will awaken Obebe and he will be very angry," said the chief’s daughter.
"I will not awaken him," replied Uhha, and started to crawl toward the hut’s entrance.
Her friend tried to dissuade her. "I will fetch it as soon as baba has awakened," she told Uhha, but Uhha paid no attention to her and presently was crawling cautiously into the interior of the hut. Once within she waited silently until her eyes became accustomed to the dim light. Against the opposite wall of the hut Obebe lay sprawled upon a sleeping mat. He snored lustily. Uhha crept toward him. Her stealth was the stealth of Sheeta the leopard. Her heart was beating like the tom-tom when the dance is at its height. She feared that its noise and her rapid breathing would awaken the old chief, of whom she was as terrified as of the river devil; but Obebe snored on.
Uhha came close to him. Her eyes were ac-
