"Such were the ordinary occupations of free little girls. But you must
not think that we were only frivolous; and I will tell you, if you
like, how I, who am talking to you, I saved a French chieftain who
must be vastly greater than yourself, to judge by the number of gold
ribbons he had on his white sleeves."
"Tell me, little Tanit-Zerga," I said, my eyes elsewhere.
"You have no right to smile," she said a little aggrieved, "and to pay
no attention to me. But never mind! It is for myself that I tell these
things, for the sake of recollection. Above Gâo, the Niger makes a
bend. There is a little promontory in the river, thickly covered with
large gum trees. It was an evening in August and the sun was sinking.
Not a bird in the forest but had gone to rest, motionless until the
morning. Suddenly we heard an unfamiliar noise in the west, boum-boum,
boum-boum, boum-baraboum, boum-boum, growing louder--boum-boum,
boum-baraboum--and, suddenly, there was a great flight of water birds,
aigrettes, pelicans, wild ducks and teal, which scattered over the gum
trees, followed by a column of black smoke, which was scarcely
flurried by the breeze that was springing up.
"It was a gunboat, turning the point, sending out a wake that shook
the overhanging bushes on each side of the river. One could see that
the red, white and blue flag on the stern had drooped till it was
dragging in the water, so heavy was the evening.
"She stopped at the little point of land. A small boat was let down,
manned by two native soldiers who rowed, and three chiefs who soon
leapt ashore.
"The oldest, a French marabout, with a great white burnous, who knew
our language marvelously, asked to speak to Sheik Sonni-Azkia. When my
father advanced and told him that it was he, the marabout told him
that the commandant of the Club at Timbuctoo was very angry, that a
mile from there the gunboat had run on an invisible pile of logs, that
she had sprung a leak and that she could not so continue her voyage
towards Ansango.
"My father replied that the French who protected the poor natives
against the Tuareg were welcome: that it was not from evil design, but
for fish that they had built the barrage, and that he put all the
resources of Gâo, including the forge, at the disposition of the
French chief, for repairing the gunboat.
"While they were talking, the French chief looked at me and I looked
at him. He was already middle-aged, tall, with shoulders a little
bent, and blue eyes as clear as the stream whose name I bear.