The Ivory Trail

by Talbot Mundy

  CHAPTER TEN

  IN HOC SIGNO VADE

  Lean, loveless, hungry lanes are these! The longest has an end. Ill luck tasted to the bitter lees Soonest shall mend. From out the foe's ranks if Heaven please Shall come your friend.

  We came to no fixed decision that night, although we knew there was noalternative. She held out, in the vain hope of making us agree toleave Kazimoto and Brown behind. The porters, she agreed, might comein very handy, although it was at least doubtful that we should be ableto slip out of Muanza by land. The Germans had taken latterly tocounting our porters every morning, to supplying them with ration moneyonce every day, and to sending the bill to us by an askari, who waitedfor the cash. At any rate, she conceded the porters, provided we wouldleave the two others behind. And of course we were adamant.

  She left us an hour and a half before dawn, we letting her return alonebecause of the greater danger of detection if we had tried to escorther. It was after she had gone, while we sat listening for the soundof a challenge that would have ruined all her hopes, if not ours, thatWill conceived the bright idea which finally saved us.

  "The Heinies don't know that we're wise to their game," he saidcheerfully. His ears were sticking out from his head and he had thenaughty boy look that always presaged wisdom. "Why don't we play thatcard for all it's worth?"

  "We need five cards to make even a poker hand," Fred objected.

  "Will a full house suit you--aces and queens?" he answered. "I'venamed you one ace already. Ace number two is the fact that theseGerman officials are brutes pure and simple--brutes who don'tunderstand how to be anything else, with brutal low cunning and noother cleverness."

  "That sounds like the joker!" said Fred.

  "It's ace number two, I tell you! The third is the fact that Brown ofLumbwa can talk with Kazimoto in the night through that corrugated ironpartition! Three aces--count 'em--one, two, three! Queens? One of'em left a few minutes ago! The other's the dhow! We'll call thatblessed boat the Queen of Sheba for luck! The Queen of Sheba got toher journey's end, and found more than she expected, and by the lightsof little old Broadway, so shall we! I've dealt the cards--is it up tome to play them?"

  "Your hand, America! Talk it over first, though! There's an awful lothangs on the game!" said Fred.

  I fell asleep while they argued over the points of Will's strategy.Africa is a land of sudden death and swift recoveries, but for aconvalescent man I had been through a strenuous day and had right to betired out. It was broad daylight when I awoke, and breakfast wasready. Fred and Will had returned from their march around the townshipwith the native band, and to my surprise the commandant was standing infront of their tent, talking with them. I threw on a jacket and joinedthem at table.

  "I don't understand you," said the commandant. "Either talk German orspeak more slowly!"

  Will took a purchase on his stock of patience and began again.

  "If our porters run away, you'll blame us. We don't care to be blamedfor what is none of our fault. So if you don't put 'em all on a chainand lock 'em up nights, we're going to discontinue paying for theirkeep. That's flat! You can work 'em if you like. Let 'em help keepthe township clean. We'll pay their board and wages as long as you'reresponsible for their not escaping! And say! If you want to get realwork out of 'em I'll give you a tip. There never was a savage likethat Kazimoto of ours for getting results out of that gang. Put him onthe same chain with the lot of 'em, and we'll all be satisfied! Idon't presume to be running your jail, but I'm telling you factsthat'll hurt nobody. Those porters 'ud be a darn sight better off withplenty of exercise."

  "Do I understand you to ask that your porters be made prisoners?" askedthe commandant.

  "You get me exactly!" said Will.

  The commandant grunted, nodded, waited for us to get up and salute him,grunted again with disgust when we did nothing of the sort, turned onhis heel, and walked off. We spent an hour on tenterhooks, and I beganto believe the German had simply become more suspicious than ever andwould keep closer watch on us without troubling at all about the men.But at the end of an hour we saw the porters rounded up, and a chainfetched out that was long enough to hold them all. They disappearedwithin the boma wall. Ten minutes later suddenly Will pointed towardthe southward.

  "Look! See what happens when the roofs of shanty-town take fire!"

  Flames went up from the dry grass roof of one of the rectangularSwahili huts. Within thirty seconds the askaris on guard at the bomabegan firing their rifles in the air as fast as they could pull thetrigger and reload. Within two minutes the chain-gang was headed forjail, where it was locked behind doors, in order that every askari inMuanza might be free to pile arms and hurry to the fire.It was not only askaris; the whole township turned out as to thecircus, with Schubert and his long kiboko ruling the riot. The othersergeants were in evidence, but quiet, imperturbable men compared totheir feldwebel, plying their kibokos without wasting words, stirringthe whole world within their reach into action--if not orderly andpurposeful, action, at least.

  Schubert climbed on a roof well to windward and safe from the sparks,and directed proceedings in a voice that out-thundered the mob's roarand crackling flames. To illustrate his meaning he seized handsful ofthe thatch on which he stood and tore them out, to the huge discontentof the owner. The crowd saw what he wanted and began at once tearingoff roofs in a wide circle around the fire so as to isolate it,Schubert demonstrating until scarcely a handful of thatch remained onthe roof he honored and he had to stand awkwardly on the crisscrosspoles, while the owner and his women wept.

  Within ten minutes after the commencement of the fire there was underway a regular orgy of roof pulling. Whoever had an enemy ran and torehis roof off, and there were several instances of reciprocity, twofamilies tearing off each other's roofs, each believing the other to beat the fire.

  Muanza was a furious place--a riot--a home of din and tumult while thefire lasted, and when it was put out it took another hour to stop thefights between victims of the flames and unofficial salvage-men.

  "D'ye get the idea of it?" asked Will. "D'ye see the Achilles heel?"

  In that second, I believe, Fred Oakes and I betrayed ourselves genuineadventurers. Any fool could have talked glibly about setting the townon fire; any coward could have yelped about the danger of it, andimprobability of success. It needed adventurers to size up instantlyall the odds against the idea, recognize the one infinitesimal chance,and plump for it. And we were there!

  "It's the only chance we've got!" agreed Fred. "I'm for it! Lead onAmerica!"

  "I believe we can pull it off!" said I. "I'm game!"

  After that it seemed like waste of time to talk, yet every singledetail of our plan had to be thought out beforehand and mentallyrehearsed, if we hoped to have even the one slim chance we built on.Luckily Professor Schillingschen continued drunk, which meant that hewould sleep early and give Lady Waldon another chance to pay us anocturnal visit. One of our boys told us that according to marketgossips the commandant was drinking with him and the two of them werewatching a sort of prolonged native nautch they had staged in seclusionon the hill.

  The next day we learned there was to be a murder trial of no less thannine men--an event likely to keep the whole garrison's attention drawnaway from us. And after the trial would come the hanging (it wouldhave been impossible to convince any one, German or native, that theverdict and sentence were not foregone conclusions). The stars intheir courses appeared to be on our side. For several nights to comethe worst the moon could do would be to show a sliver of silvercrescent for an hour or two.

  Lady Waldon came earlier that night. When we outlined our plan to herroughly she argued against it at first--and it was impossiblefar-fetched--ridiculous. She insisted again on our simply sneakingaway by night with her. But Fred wasted no time on argument, and tookthe upper hand.

  "Take us or leave us, Lady Waldon, as we are! We've an unwritten r
ulethat none of us has ever thought of breaking, that binds us to obey themember of the party whose plan we have adopted. On this occasion wehave agreed to Mr. Yerkes' plan, and you've got to obey him implicitlyif you want to have part with us! We will not leave our men or Brownof Lumbwa behind, and we will not change the plan by a hair's breadth!Will you or won't you obey?"

  She yielded then very quickly. It seemed a relief to her at last tosubject her views to those of men whose purpose was merely honest.Will took up the reins at once.

  "We've talked over buying the boat," he said, "but that's hopeless.The more we paid for it the louder the owner would brag. The Germanswould be 'on' in a minute. We've simply got to steal it. It's up toyou to find out the man's proper name and address, and we'll send himthe money from the first British post-office we reach."

  "Don Quixote de la Mancha!" she said critically. "Well--we steal theboat and you pay for it afterward. The owner will think you are crazy,and if the Germans ever discover it they will take the money away fromhim by some legal process. But go on!"

  "We've plenty of money," said Will, "so there's no need to worry abouttoo many supplies to begin with. But we'll need scant rations forourselves and all our men until we reach some place where more are tobe bought. And we've got to get them on board the dhow secretly. Thefirst question is, how to do that."

  She told us at once of a path going round by the back of the hillbehind us, that would make the trip to the dhow in the dark a matter ofover two miles, but that avoided all sentries and habitations. Weagreed that all three of us should climb to the top of the hill, whichwas not out of bounds--and study the track next morning. On thefateful night we must take our chance, just as she had done, ofavoiding the sleepy-eyed sentry who kept watch over the Greeks.

  "We'll talk to Brown of Lumbwa on the morning and afternoon marcharound the township," Will went on. "Brown must whisper to Kazimotothrough the corrugated iron partition in the jail at night, and havethem all ready to break loose at the signal and bring him along withthem. We must be careful to show Brown just where the dhow is. He hasbeen sober quite a while. Maybe he'll remember if we direct himcarefully."

  "What is to be the signal?" she asked.

  "Just what I'm coming to," said Will. "A fire-alarm on the first windynight! The next question is, who is to start the fire? We'll need agood one! Yet if we do it, we're likely to be caught by the crowdcoming running to deal with it."

  "Coutlass!" she answered suddenly. "Coutlass and his two friends!"

  "You'll perhaps pardon me," Fred answered, "but none of us would trustthose Greeks as far as a hen could swim in alcohol!"

  "Yet you must! Leave them to me! They don't know that the sand in myglass has run down. Let me go to them presently, pretending that Iwent direct to them and am afraid of being seen by you. I will tellthem that the Germans want a good excuse for putting you three men injail and that they will be sent away free as a reward if they willstart a fire and charge you afterward with arson! I will tell them tochoose the first windy night, so as to have a really spectacular blazeworth committing perjury about!"

  "Better arrange a signal," Will advised. "They might otherwise firebefore we were ready!"

  "Very well. You men give me the word at midday of the day of thestart, and I will spread red, white and blue laundry on the roof of thecommandant's house for the Greeks to see."

  "Good enough!" agreed Will. "Now one more stunt! We simply must havefirearms. The Germans have taken ours away and locked them up. At apinch I suppose we could manage with one rifle, provided we had lots ofammunition. We would rather have one each. In fact, the more themerrier. One we must have! What about it?"

  She thought for several minutes. At last she told us that one of thecommandant's rifles and one of Schillingschen's stood leaning in acorner of the living-room beside a book-case. Whether she could makeaway with one or both of those without detection she did not know, andshe would have to use her wits regarding ammunition. It was alwayskept locked up.

  "Why not kill an askari and take his rifle and cartridges?" she asked."The sentry on duty watching the Greeks will be in the way. Knock himon the head from behind!"

  "Thank you!" grinned Will, exchanging glances with us. "We shall haveabout enough on our consciences setting fire to half the township.We'll not kill except in self-defense."

  "But you won't set the town on fire! The Greeks will do that!"

  "Don't let's argue ethics!" Fred interrupted, for Will's ears weregetting red. "Can you tell us for certain, Lady Waldon, whether allthe askaris and German sergeants really run to a fire? Or do a certainnumber remain in the boma?"

  "Oh, I know about that," she answered. "Until the prisoners are alllocked in--that is to say, in case of fire in the daytime--six or eightaskaris remain inside the boma. The minute they are locked in, if thefire is serious, and in case of fire by night, they all go except two,who stand on the eastern boma wall, one at each corner. From therethey are supposed to be able to see on every side except thewater-front. Nobody guards the water-front; I don't know why, unlessit is that the gate on that side is kept locked almost always and thewall runs along the water's edge."

  "As a matter of fact," said I, "those two sentries on the wall will betoo busy staring at the fire, if the Greeks really make a big one, tosee anything else unless we march by under their noses with a brassband."

  "Bah!" sneered Lady Waldon. "If I get that rifle I would dare shootthem both for you myself!"

  "If you overstep one detail of Will's plan, I guarantee to put youashore on the first barren island we come to!" said Fred. "Leaveshooting to us!"

  The next problem was to draw away from the Greeks the attention of theaskari at the cross-roads. We could not see him, for it was one ofthose black African nights when the stars look like tiny pin-pricks andthere are no shadows because all is dark. To go out and look what hewas doing would have been to arouse his suspicion. Yet there wasalways a chance that he might be patrolling down near the Greek camp;doubtless acting on orders, he had a trick of approaching their tentsvery closely once in a while.

  So when Lady Waldon had slipped out into the darkness we lit half adozen lamps and started a concert, Fred playing and we singing the sortof tunes that black men love. He took the bait, hook, sinker, and all;in the silence at the end of the first song we heard his butt groundon the gravel just beyond the cactus hedge in front of us; and therehe stayed, we entertaining him for an hour. By that time we were quitesure that Lady Waldon had passed along the road behind him; so Fredwent out and gave him tobacco.

  "It's time you went and looked at those Greeks again!" he advised him."You would be in trouble if they slipped away in the night!"

  Now that a plan of campaign was finally decided on, there seemed muchless to do than we had feared. Mapping out in our minds the way roundthe back of the hill to the dhow was perfectly simple; we went andsmoked on the hilltop, and within an hour after breakfast had everyturn and twist memorized. Fred drew a chart of the track for safety'ssake.

  Persuading Brown of Lumbwa proved unexpectedly to be much the mostdifficult task. Added to the fact that the askaris who marched behindand the Greeks who marched in front were unusually inquisitive, Brownhimself was afraid.

  "We'll all be shot in the dark!" he objected.

  "Would you rather," Will asked, "be shot in the dark with a run foryour money, or fed to the crocks in the doctor's pond?" And he toldhim about the crocodiles to encourage him.

  "They'll have to let me out of jail at the end of the month," Brownargued.

  "Don't you believe it! In less than a week from now we'll all be in onone and the same charge of filibustering! They'll not let you go backto British East to tell tales about their treatment of the rest of us,"Will assured him.

  But Brown proved tinged with a little streak of yellow somewhere. Itwas not until the afternoon march that Fred and Will, one on eitherside of him, by appeals to his racial instinct and recalling
themethods of the military court, induced him to do his part. Once havingpromised he vowed he would see the thing through to the end; but hewas the weak link; he was afraid; and he disbelieved in the wisdom ofthe attempt.

  It was Kazimoto in the end who kept Brown up to the mark, and shamedhim into action by superior courage. Fred found a chance to speak tohim as the long string rested al noon under the narrow shade of acactus hedge, and warned him in about fifty words of what was intended.(The askaris, almost as leg-weary as the gang, were sprawling at thefar end of the line, gambling at pitch-and-toss.)

  "Be sure you sleep as near to the partition as you can. Get details ofthe plan from Mr. Brown, and then drill the porters one by one! Don'tlet them tell one another. You tell each one of them yourself!"

  Then he walked down the line and ordered the porters in a loud voice toobey the askaris implicitly, and to work harder in return for the goodfood and care they were getting, winking at the same time veryemphatically, with the eye the askaris could not see.

  The night work was the hardest, because, although we were quite sureabout direction, even in the dark, it was another matter to feel ourway and carry unaccustomed loads. By day we decided what to take andwhat to leave behind, and we cut down what to take with us to theirreducible, dangerous minimum. Then we broke that up into thirty- orforty-pound packages, so that when we all three made the trip to thedhow the most we took at one time was about a hundred pounds' weight.In the condition I was in I could take not more than one trip to theothers' two; after the first it was agreed that I would better staybehind and keep an eye on the askari. The minute he showed symptoms ofbecoming inquisitive I was to invent some way of keeping his attention;so all unsuspected by him I lay in the sand by the roadside withinthree yards of him, while the ants crawled over me and he dozed leaningon his rifle. Once a long snake crawled over my wrist and my verymarrow curdled with fear and loathing; but except for mosquitoes, whowere legion and sucked their fill, there was no other contretemps. Idon't know what I would have done if the askari had taken alarm and setoff to investigate. I trusted to intuition should that happen.

  The work of arranging the stuff in the dhow was the most difficult ofall, because we dared not light a lantern, yet we also dared not stowthings carelessly for fear of confusion when the hour of action came.The space was ridiculously small for ourselves and all those men, andevery inch had to be economized. In addition to that the dhow had tobe worked backward off the mud far enough to be shoved off easily, andthen made fast by a rope to the bushes in such way as not to benoticeable. Most of the ropes turned out to be rather rotten, and wecould only guess at the condition of the sails; the feel of them inthe dark gave us small assurance. But fortunately we had a couple ofhundred feet of good half-inch manila in camp with us, and that Fredand Will took out and stowed in the hold the night following.

  We bought such things at the D.O.A.G. as we could without arousingsuspicion, as, for instance, a quantity of German dried pea-soup--notthat the porters would take to it kindly, but it would go a long wayamong them at a pinch. Live stock we did not dare buy, for fear of thenoise it would make; but we laid in some eggs and bananas. Most ofthe thirty-pound loads were rice.

  It troubled us sorely to leave our good tents, beds, and equipmentbehind, yet all we could take was the blankets and one gladstone bagpacked with clothes for us all. Kettles and pots and pans were a noisynuisance, yet we had to have them, and blankets for all those porters,who would escape from jail practically naked, were an essential; butfortunately we had a sixty-pound bale of trade-blankets among our loads.

  Not one word did we exchange all this while with Coutlass and hisfriends. Not one overture did we make to them, or they to us. Butthere was no doubt of their intention to do their worst. They gloatedover us--eyed us with lofty disdain and scornful superior knowledge.They were so full of the notion of having us jailed for their misdeedthat they positively ached to come and jeer at us, and I believe wereonly saved from doing that by the shortness of the time.

  At last, three days after decision had been reached, we threw ourblankets with a red one uppermost over the top of both tents in thesun; and within thirty minutes after that Lady Saffren Waldon hadspread on the commandant's roof a blue cotton dress, a white petticoat,and a blazing red piece of silken stuff. There and then the Greeks andthe Goanese pledged one another out in the open with copious draughtsin turn from the neck of one whisky bottle, and we began to pray theymight not get too drunk before night. Judging by their meaning glancesat us, they considered us their mortal and cruel enemies whom it wouldbe an act of sublime virtue to bring to book.

  The trial of the natives for murder had taken place, accompanied by theusual amount of thrashing of witnesses and the usual stir throughoutthe countryside. These were charged with having murdered an askarinear their village--a big bully sent to arrest a man, who had takenleave to help himself to more than rations, and had made a lot too freewith the village women. So German military honor had to be upheldexemplarily. Condign vengeance was sure and swift. The execution wasto take place on the drill-ground on the day we chose for our departure.

  There was no risk of investigations that day. Had we known it, wecould have gone away in all likelihood in broad daylight, so busy wasthe garrison in marshaling into place and policing the swarms ofvillagers brought in from as far as sixty miles away to witness Germanjustice. Even the customary parade of the band was canceled for thatoccasion, and that was our only real ground for uneasiness, for itprevented our having a last talk with Brown of Lumbwa and assuringourselves that courage would not fail him in the pinch.

  We worried in plenty without cause, as it seems that humans must do onthe eve of putting plans, however well laid, to the test. We had athousand scares--a thousand doubts--and overlooked at least a thousandevidences that fortune favored us. Toward the end our hearts turned towater at the thought that Kazimoto would probably fail to do his part,although why we should have doubted him after his faithful record, andknowing his hatred of German rule, we would have found it hard to say.

  Several times that morning we showed ourselves about the town, with thepurpose of allaying any possible suspicion and saving the authoritiesthe trouble of asking what we were up to. With the same end in view weattended the execution in the afternoon, and sincerely wished before itwas over that we had stayed away.

  On this occasion even the chain-gangs were included among thespectators, in the front row, on the ground that, being provedcriminals, they needed the lesson more than the hempen-noose-food notyet caught and tried and brought to book.

  The same sort of sermon, only this time more fiery and full of rantinghumbug about German righteousness, was preached by the commandant. Themiserable victims had received a simple death sentence, but heexplained that in virtue of his superior office he had seen fit to addto it. "Death" he explained, "would certainly rid the Germanprotectorate of such conscienceless scalawags as these, but might notbe enough to discourage the bad element that disliked German rule.Natives must be taught that the very name of all that is German must bereverenced, and that German punishment is as terrible and sure as theGerman arm is long! And be sure of this!" he continued. "The ear ofthe German government is as far-reaching as its arm! In yourvillages--in your homes--in your families--there is always an agent ofthe government listening! Your own brother--your wife--your child maybe that agent of the government! Now, watch carefully and see whathappens to men with bad hearts--aye, and to women with bad hearts, whoconspire against German rule!"

  What followed was more impressive because of the determination we hadheard of to bring all Africa under the German yoke. In vain should thewretched natives in after years escape by the hundreds northward in thehope of living under British government. The fools--the "easypeople"--the "folk who gave without a price"--the "truth tellers"--the"men who wish to forget"--the unwise, cocksure, cleaner-living,unbelievably credulous, foolishly honest British officials would be allgone. The p
ikelhaube and the lash, blackmail and coercion would takethe place of generosity. Africa would better be back under the Arabsagain, for the Arabs had no system to speak of and were inefficient.Some Arabs have a heart--some a very soft heart.

  The crowd grew bright-eyed, little children straining forward betweentheir elders in the bull-fight frenzy--that same intoxication of thesenses that held the Roman freemen spellbound at the sight of suffering.

  One at a time, that the last might see the torture of the first, thevictims were noosed by the heel (one heel)--thrown with a jerk--hauledheel-first to the overhanging branch--and flogged into unconsciousnesswith slow blows, the lieutenant standing by to reprove the askaris ifthey struck too fast, for that would have been merciful. Not until thevictims ceased to struggle were they lowered and thrown on the ground,to lie bleeding, awaiting their turn to be hanged.

  The last two--supposed to have been the culprits who actually held thespear that pierced the marauding askari's heart--were hauled upheel-to-heel together, and hanged presently in the same noose, thecommandant laughing at their struggles and Professor Schillingschenstudying their agony with strictly scientific interest.

  When the last had ceased struggling Schillingschen permitted himselfone more pleasure. He strolled over to us and blocked Fred's way,standing with hands behind him and out-thrust chin.

  "You flatter yourself, don't you!" he sneered. He was just drunkenough to be boastful, while thoroughly sure of what he was saying."You expect to tell a fine tale! I know the psychology of the English! I know it like a book! Let me tell you two things: First, yourEnglish would not believe you. They are such supremely cocksure foolsthat they can not be made to believe that another so-called civilizednation would act as they, in their egoism, would be ashamed to act!Civilization! That is a fine word, full of false meanings!Civilization is prudery--sham--false pride--veneer! Only the Germansare truly civilized, because they alone are not afraid to face nakedanimalism without its mask! The British dare not! They hide fromit--shut their eyes! The fools! If you could tell them their storythey would never listen!

  "Second: You will never tell the story! Being English, you were suchdull-witted fools that you did not even hide the cartridge cases, orthe bones of the Masai you shot! Bah-ha-ha-ha-hah! You can escapehanging yet by telling your secret. Jail you can not escape! Try itif you don't believe me! Try to escape--go on!"

  He turned on his heel and left us, striding heavily with the strengthof an ox and about the alertness of a traction engine, turning his headevery once in a while to enjoy the spectacle of our discomfort.

  We judged it best to appear concerned, as if that was indeed our firstrealization of the extent of the case against us and the nature of theevidence. But we did not find it difficult. We were all threestartled by the fear that in some way he had got wind of our plans, andthat he meant to play with us cat-and-mouse fashion.

  That night it stormed--not rain, but wind from east to west, blowingsuch clouds of dust that one could scarcely see across the narrowstreets. Every element favored us. Even the askari at thecross-roads, supposed to be watching the Greeks, turned his back to thewind, and what with rubbing sand in and out of smarting eyes andfingering it out of his ears, heard and saw nothing. It was scarcelysunset when we saw both Greeks and the Goanese sneak out of the campingplace in Indian file with their pockets full of cotton waste. They hadsoaked the stuff in kerosene right under our eye that afternoon.

  There ought to have been a sliver of moon, but the wind and dust hidit. Fifteen minutes after sundown the only light was from the lamps inwindows and the cooking fires glowing in the open here and there.Thirty minutes later there began to be a red glow in three directions.Less than one second after we saw the first indications of theholocaust a regular volley of shots broke out from the boma as thesentries on duty gave the general alarm. Less than five minutes afterthat the whole of the southern, grass-roofed section of the town wasgoing up in flames, and every living man, black, white, gray, mulatto,brown and mixed, was running full pelt to the scene of action.

  We waited ten minutes longer, rather expecting the Greeks to doubleback and begin denouncing us at once. In that case we intended tostretch them out with the first weapons handy. I sat feeling theweight of an ax, and wondering just how hard I could hit a Greek's headwith the back of it without killing him. Fred had a long tent-peg.Will chose a wooden mallet that our porters carried to help in pitchingtents.

  But the Greeks did not come, and there streamed such a perfect screenof crimson dust, sparkling in the reflected blaze and more beautifulthan all the fireworks ever loosed off at a coronation, that it wasfolly to linger. We each seized the load left for that last trip(Fred's included the hammer, pincers, and cold chisel for striking offthe porters' chain) and started off quietly round the hill, notbeginning to hurry until the hill lay between us and the burning town.

  There was not much need for caution. The roar of flames, the shouting,the excitement would have protected us, whatever noise we made, howeveropenly we ran. Over and above the tumult we could hear Schubert'sbull-throated bellowing, and then the echo to him as the sergeants tookup the shout all together, ordering "Off with the grass roofs! Offwith the roofs!"

  The white officials were more than interested, and had no time foranything but thought for the blaze. As we crossed the shoulder of thefar side of the hill we could see them standing on the drill-ground alltogether, clearly defined against the crimson flare. Schillingschenwas with them.

  There was no sign of what had happened at the boma. The gang wouldhave to emerge from a little-used gate at the northern end, providedthey could break the lock or secure the key to it; otherwise theironly chance was to climb the wall by the cook-house roof and jumptwenty feet on the far side. I was for running to the little gate andbursting it in from the outside, but Fred damned me for a mutineerbetween his panting for breath, and Will, who was longer-winded, agreedwith him.

  "Have to leave their end of the plan to them! Let's do our part right!"

  As it turned out, we were last at the rendezvous. We heard the chainclanking in the dark just ahead of us, and try how we might, could notcatch up. Then, near the boat bow, Kazimoto suddenly recognized Fredand nearly throttled him in a fierce embrace, releasing all his pent-uprage, agony, resentment, misery, fear in one paroxysm of affection forthe man who cared enough to run risks for the sake of rescuing him.Fred had to pry him off by main force.

  "Into the boat with you!" Will ordered them. "Chain-gang first! Getdown below, and lie down! The first head that shows shall be hit witha club! Quickly now!"

  Clanking their infernal chain like all the ghosts from all the hauntedgranges of the Old World, they climbed overside and disappeared. Therewere more figures left on shore then than we expected. Brown we couldmake out dimly in the dark: he was chattering nervously, and admittedthat but for Kazimoto he would not be there. The faithful fellow hadbroken down the corrugated iron partition and had dragged him out bymain force. He was rather resentful than grateful.

  "Hauled here by a nigger--think of it!"

  We ordered Brown on board and below, pretty peremptorily. Lady SaffrenWaldon stepped out of the darkness next, holding a rifle and twobandoliers so full of cartridges that she could hardly raise her arms.We took the load from her, and helped her overside. Fred took therifle and succumbed to the hunter's habit of opening the breach firstthing. It was a German sporting Mauser, with a hair trigger attachmentand magazine, as handy and useful a weapon as the heart of man couldwish. He had scarcely snapped the breach to again when a voice we allrecognized made the hair rise on my neck. Fred jumped and raised therifle. Will swore softly--endlessly.

  "Gassharrrrammminy! You men took us for damned fools, didn't you? Youthought to get away and leave us! By hell, no! We go or you stay!Birds of a feather fly together! One of you is American--I amAmerican! Two of you are English--I am English, and can prove it! Myfriends come with me!"

  Fre
d leveled the rifle at him.

  "About face! Off back to town with you!" he barked.

  "Not on your tin-type!" Coutlass yelled. "I'm no man's popinjay!Shoot if you dare, and I'll spoil the whole game! Help! He-e-e-lp!He-e-e-e-lp!"

  The other Greek and the Goanese joined in the shout, the dark mansetting up such an ululating screech that the very storm dwindled intosecond place in comparison. It was true, the unearthly yelling wascarried out over the water, and very likely not a sound of it reachedtwenty yards inland; but it rattled our nerves, nevertheless. Theskin grew prickly all up and down my backbone, and the men on thechain-gang inside the hull began shouting to know what the matter was.

  Will remembered then that he was captain for the day, and made virtueof necessity.

  "In with you!" he ordered. "Quick!"

  With a grin that was half-triumph, half-cunning, and wholly glad,Coutlass helped his companions over the bow, and had the civility tostand there with hand outstretched to help us in after him. We senthim below with his friends, but he came up again and insisted onleaning his weight on the poles with which we began shoving off intodeeper water. It was hard work, for with her human cargo and severalhundred gallons of water that had leaked through her gaping seams, thedhow was down several inches. Her hull had just begun to feel the windand to rise and fall freely, when a white figure ran screaming downtoward the water's edge and stood there waving to us frantically.

  "Leave her!" said Lady Waldon excitedly, clutching my arm. I was up onthe bow, just about to lay the pole along the deck and haul on thehalyards. She spoke very slowly right in my ear. "That, is my maidRebecca. The faithless slut--"

  Coutlass began to shout, trying to pole the dhow back to landsingle-handed.

  "We can't leave that woman behind there!" Fred shouted, hardly makinghimself heard against the wind.

  "Can't we!" shouted Lady Waldon. "Give me that rifle, and I'll solvethe problem for you!"

  But Coutlass solved it in another way by jumping overboard, over hishead in deep water, taking our hempen warp with him (I had made one endof it fast to the bitts, meaning to be able to find it in the dark).

  There was quite a sea running, even as close inshore as that, and for amoment I doubted whether the Greek would make it. By that time it wasall we could do to see the woman's white figure, still gesticulating,and screaming like a mad thing. Presently, however, the warptightened, and then by the strain on it I knew that Coutlass was tryingto haul us back inshore. Failing to do that, for the strength of thewind was increasing, he seized the Syrian woman by the waist andplunged into the water with her. I saw them disappear and hauled onthe warp hand-over-hand with all my might, Lady Waldon leaning over tostrike at my hands until I shouted to Fred to come and hold her. Thenshe begged Fred again for the rifle, promising to kill the two of themand reduce our problem to that extent if we would only let her.

  Will and I hauled the dripping pair on board, and Coutlass carried themaid to the stern. She had fainted, either from fright or from beinghalf-drowned, there was no guessing which. Then in pitch blacknesswith Will's help I got the ship beam to the wind and began to make sail.

  Now danger was only just beginning! I was the only one of them all whoknew anything whatever about sails and sailing. I was too weak to getthe sail up single-handed, had no compass, knew nothing whatever of therocks and shoals, except by rumor that there were plenty of both.There appeared to be no way of reefing the lateen sail, which was madeof no better material than calico, and I was entirely unfamiliar withthe rigging.

  Behind us, as we payed before the gaining wind, was brilliant blazethat showed where Muanza was. Against the blaze stood out the lakewardboma wall. I stood due east away from it, and discovered presentlythat by easing on the halyard so as to lower the long spar I couldobtain something the effect of reefing.

  I set Fred and Will to making a sea-anchor of buckets and spars in casethe sail or rotten rigging should carry away, leaving us at the mercyof the short steep waves that fresh-water lakes and the North Sea onlyknow. The big curved spar, now that it was hanging low, bucked andswung and the dhow steered like an omnibus on slippery pavement.Luckily, I had living ballast and could trim the ship how I chose.They all began to grow seasick, but I gave them something to thinkabout by making them shift backward and forward and from side to sideuntil I found which way the dhow rode easiest.

  When Fred had finished the sea-anchor he got out the tools and beganstriking off the iron rings on the porters' necks through which thechain passed. The job took him two hours, but at the end of it weowned a good serviceable chain, and a crew that could be drilled totake the brute hard labor off our shoulders.

  Coutlass meanwhile was busy on the seat in the stern beside me makingHellenic inflammatory love to Lady Waldon's maid, whom he had wrappedin his own blanket and held shivering in his arms. Lady Waldon herselfsat on the other side of me, affecting not to be aware of the existenceof either of them. The other Greek and the Goanese had been drivenbelow, where they started to smoke until I saw the glow of their pipesand shouted to Will to stop that foolishness. He snatched both pipesand threw them overboard. The thought of being seen from shore wasalmost incitement enough for murder. They refused to turn a hand toanything that night, but sat sulking below the sloping roof of reedsand tarpaulin that did duty for a deck, wedged alongside of seasickWanyamwezi.

  It was Kazimoto who chose the least disheartened of the gang, beat themand stung them into liveliness, and set them to bailing. There was atrough running thwartwise of the ship into which the water had to belifted from the midship well. It took the gang of eight men, workingin relays, until nearly dawn to get the water out of her; and to keepher bottom reasonably dry after that two men working constantly.

  I knew vaguely that the great island of Ukerewe lay to thenorthwestward of us. Between that and the mainland, running roughlynorth, was a passage that narrowed in more than one place to less thana hundred yards. That would have been the obvious course to take hadwe not been afraid of pursuit, had we dared get away by daylight, andprovided I had known the way. As it was I intended to add anotherhundred miles to the distance between us and the northern shore of thelake, by sailing well clear of and around Ukerewe, trusting to the lessfrequented water and the wilder islands to make escape easier.

  I judged it likely that the moment we were missed, the launch would besent off in search of us, and that the Germans would search the narrowpassage first. They would expect us to take the narrow passage, as theshortest, and depend on their ability to steam a dozen miles an hour tooverhaul us, even should we get a long start on the outside course.

  With gaining wind, a following sea, a little ship crowded tosuffocation, and a sail that might blow to shreds at any minute, it wasnot long before I began to pray for the lee of Ukerewe, and to stand incloser toward where I judged the end of the island ought to be thanperhaps I should have done. It was lucky, though, that I did.

  In making calculations I had overlooked the obvious fact that, steamingthree miles to our one, the launch could very well afford to take theoutside course to start with. Then they could take a good look for usin the open water next morning, and, failing to find us, steam allaround Ukerewe, come back down the inside passage, and catch us betweentwo banks.

  It was Lady Saffren Waldon on my left hand, looking anywhere but at hermaid and sweeping the dark waste of water with eyes as restless as thewaves themselves, who gave the first alarm.

  "What is that light?" she asked me.

  Following the direction of her hand I saw a red glow on the water toour left, not more than a mile behind.

  "Reflection from the burning town," I answered, but I had no soonersaid it than I knew the answer was foolish. It was the glow that ridesabove hot steamer funnels in the night.

  "Fred!" I shouted, for fear took hold of the very roots of my heart,"for the love of God make every one keep silence! Show no lights!Don't speak above a whisper! Keep all heads below the gunwa
le! Thatcursed German launch is after us!"

  We were in double danger. I could hear surf pounding on rocks tostarboard. I did not dare to come up into the wind because nobody butI knew how the spar would have to be passed around the mast, and in anycase the noise and the fluttering sail might attract attention.

  "Look out for breakers ahead!" I ordered. "I'm going to hold thiscourse and hope they pass us in the dark!"