A chance meeting with a friend of his, named Drysdale, who had just returned from a sporting expedition in Nigeria, led him to choose that country as a promising field of discovery. Being sociably inclined, he wanted a companion. Drysdale himself could not join him, but he happened to mention that traces of tin had recently been found near one of the tributaries of the River Yo. This led Royce to think of his school-fellow, Tom Challis, a mining engineer who was not getting on so fast as he would have liked. He went to Challis and proposed that they should go together, Challis to prospect for tin, while he himself pursued his studies in natural history. "If things look well," he said, "we'll start a tin mine, and go half-shares." "That's hardly fair to you, as you're going to stand all expenses," replied Challis. "I shall be satisfied with a quarter." "You're too modest, Tom. Well, I want your company, so I'll agree to a third, nothing less. So that's settled." Royce purchased a quantity of tinned goods; medical stores; prints, mirrors, and beads for trading with the natives; rifles and ammunition; a tent and other necessaries; and they left Southampton one February day for the Gold Coast. Here they engaged a staff of experienced Hausa carriers--called "boys," whatever their age might be--and started for the interior. That was several weeks ago, and they were now approaching the tin-bearing region marked on the map with which Drysdale had provided his friend. About an hour after the promise of a rest had stimulated the carriers, they were further encouraged by striking a native track, which indicated the proximity of a village. Tired as they were, they quickened their pace, and another half-hour's march brought them to cultivated fields of millet and ground-nuts. The white men, walking ahead of the party, looked forward eagerly for the conical roofs of the village huts, which they expected to see rising above the crops in the distance, and were surprised to find that nothing of the sort was in sight. "It must be a bigger place than I thought," said Royce. "A small village wouldn't have such extensive fields. Drysdale marks the people as friendly; I hope we shall find them so." The narrow track wound through the fields, high stalks growing on either side. A sudden turn brought them in sight of an object which caused them to halt, and struck them with a foreboding of ill. Lying in a curiously huddled posture across the track was the body of a black man. Insensibly lightening their tread, they approached it, and found that the man was dead, and bore marks of slashing and defacement. "There's been bad work here," said Royce in a whisper. They looked ahead; no one was in sight. They listened; there was not a sound but the chirping of insects in the crops.