I never felt more friendly to the sturdy rascal than on hearing him speak thus. I could have shaken his dirty hand--if it had been necessary. When he had spoken of the closed roads I had feared that our expedition would collapse after all, so this exhibition of dogged pluck came as a great relief. The sun had already sunk below the tree tops, and the shades of evening were gathering fast as we came out of the forest into the open village of Pra-su. By the fading light I could see that this was different in appearance from the hamlets we had passed through, for, in addition to the ordinary Fanti houses, there were groups of beehive-shaped huts of palm thatch, such as I had seen in the Hausa quarter at Quittáh, each group enclosed by a fence of palm leaves. There were also a number of rough sheds of a larger size, and a one-storey house of European construction--the residence of the commandant. For Pra-su was the outpost of the British Protectorate, and had a small garrison of Hausa troops, commanded by an officer of the Gold Coast Constabulary, to protect the ferry across the river Pra. We had hardly entered the village when we came upon a group of the soldiers. They had scratched upon a smooth patch of earth a kind of primitive chess-board, and two of them were hurriedly finishing a game by the last of the twilight while the others stood round and watched. As we came abreast of the group, I heard my name called, and an elderly sergeant stepped forward with a salute and a grin of friendly recognition. “Welcome to Pra-su; hope you well, sah,” said he. “Why, it’s Sergeant Aba!” I exclaimed, shaking him by the hand. “Well, now, I never thought to meet a friend at Pra-su.” He seemed highly gratified at my addressing him thus, and asked if he could render me any service, remarking that the Commandant had gone to Cape Coast and had left him in charge of the station. “I should be very glad to get something to eat,” said I, “and perhaps you can find me a clean house to sleep in to-night.” “You fit to eat country chop?” he asked a little shyly. I replied that I was fit to eat anything, and the more the better. “Den, sah, you come wid me and I give you chop, and you look my house. He be new house, quite clean, spose you like him you sleep dere.” I thanked him warmly for his offer, and, although Annan looked rather sourly upon the arrangement, I went off with the Sergeant to inspect my lodgings.