"Master want strong man like a
bull. He take Koku!"
"Look heah!" spluttered Eradicate, and his eyes
flashed. "Yo'--yo' giant yo'--yo' may be strong
laik a bull, but ya' ain't got as much sense as
mah mule, Boomerang! Massa Tom don't want
no sich pusson wif him. He's gwine to take me."
"He take me!" cried Koku, and his voice was
a roar while he beat on his mighty chest with his
huge fists.
Tom, seeing that the dispute was likely to be
bothersome, winked at Ned and began to speak.
"I don't believe you'd like it there, Rad--not
where we're going. It's a bad country. Why
the mosquitoes there bite holes in you--raise
bumps on you as big as eggs."
"Oh, good land!" ejaculated the old colored man.
"Am dat so Massa Tom?"
"It sure is. Then there's another kind of bug
that burrows under your fingernails, and if you
don't get 'em out, your fingers drop off."
"Oh, good land, Massa Tom! Am dat a fact?"
"It sure is. I don't want to see those things
happen to you, Rad."
Slowly the old colored man shook his head.
"I don't mahse'f," he said. "I---- I guess I
won't go."
Eradicate did not stop to ask how Tom and
Ned proposed to combat these two species of
insects.
But there remained Koku to dispose of, and he
stood smiling broadly as Eradicate shuffled of.
"Me no 'fraid bugs," said the giant.
"No," said Tom, with a look at Ned, for he did
not want to take the big man on the trip for
various reasons. "No, maybe not, Koku.
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