I hate these stinking plains.' 'It were wise to go to-night,' he said, with a touch of menace in his tone.
'I can't,' I said, and began to sing the chorus of a ridiculous music-hall song-- 'There's no place like home--but I'm afraid to go home in the dark.' Laputa shrugged his shoulders, stepped over the bristling Colin, and went out.

When I looked after him two minutes later he had disappeared.
[1] The circlet into which, with the aid of gum, Zulu warriors weave their hair..