Summary

Chapter 24 (First person, past tense, Bankson’s narration) – Bankson wakes to the sound of weeping: Nell is comforting the crying girl whom Bankson saw with Xambun the night before. The girl reveals that Xambun and Fen have taken Bankson’s canoe and gone in search of the Mumbanyo flute. Bankson offers to go after them, but Nell says it would make the situation worse, adding that Fen has his gun and that she’s more worried about the tribespeople than about Fen. Later, after they’ve spent time typing together (Bankson using Fen’s desk) and comparing writing styles (Bankson finding he remembers more if he writes with emotion and sense memory like Nell), they are visited (as usual) by the children with whom Nell plays and simultaneously studies, Bankson commenting in narration on his admiration for her methods. He makes the same...