Part 32 (1/2)
Nor yet you can't keep pigeons, 'cause the leopards take theeons--a dozen of eot all but one, so I put him in the loft above my own house, where it seeet, supposin' he'd dared Went away the next day for some shootin', an' lo and behold!--came back that evenin' to discover dom Come had took place at last Never heard or saw such a jamboree The blaeon, feathers and all, but couldn't get out again!”
”What happened? Nothin'! I was that riled I didn't stop to think--fixed a bayonet on the old Martini the gov'ment supplies to settlers out of the depths of its wisdoenerosity--climbed up by the same route the leopard took--invaded him--an' skewered hiain for a kingdoeons either!”
”What do you raise on your fars”
”What then?”
”Well--as I was explainin' to that Greek Georges Coutlass at Nairobi--there's a way of far the natives that beats keepin' 'ehts; an' besides, they know about the business
”All you need do is give 'em a heifer calf once in a while, and they're contented I keep a herd o' two hundred cows in a native village not far from my place The natural increase o' them will make me well-to-do some day”
The day before we reached Brown's tiny ho over the hill behind us
”That'll be railway men takin' a day off after leopards,” announced Broith the air of a man who can not be mistaken
Nevertheless, Fred and I went back to see, but could
We lay on the top of the hill and watched for two or three hours, but although we heard rifle firing repeatedly we did not once catch sight of sht with a feeling of foreboding that we could not explain but that troubled us both equally
Once or twice in the night we heard firing again, as if somebody's camp not very far aas invaded by leopards, or perhaps lions Yet at dawn there were no signs of tents And when that night we arrived at Brown's homestead we seemed to have the whole world to ourselves
Brown's house was a tiny wooden affair with a thick grass roof It boasted a big fireplace at one end of the living-rooly that so up and out but no leopards could coht to celebrate the ho, and stayed coive our porters a good rest By day we shot enoughfire, praying that Brown s to his infernal concertina, and all the natives who could crowd in the doorway listening to him with all their ears Fred made vast headway in native favor, and learned a lot of two languages at once
Every day we sent Kaziathering infores, and it was Kaziht just as Broas at last sobering up, with the news that some Greeks had swooped down on Brown's cattle, had wounded two or three of the villagers who herded them, and had driven the whole herd away southward
That news sobered Brown coht up from the cellar and replaced it unopened
”There's on'y one Greek in the world knehere rimly ”There's on'y one Greek I ever talked to about cattle Coutlass, by the great horn spoon! The blackguard swore he was after you chaps--swore he didn't care nothing about me! What he did to you was none o' ured anyway as you could look out for yourselves! Not that I told the swine any o'
your business, unnin' for you that I told him my own business to throw hioes an' turns onit, feverishly, yet with a deliberate care that was curious in a ave orders to his own boys; and ith having servants of our own and having to talk to theue, ere able to understand pretty well the whole of what he said
”You're not going to start after theht?” Fred objected But he and Will were also already overhauling weapons, for the second tiion with the true hunter never to eat supper until his rifle is cleaned and oiled) I got my own rifle down from the shelf over Brown's stone mantelpiece
”What d'you take o at, an' that's the fastest possible There's one place they'll head for, an' that's German East They can't march faster than the cattle, an' the cattle'll have to eat Maybe they'll drive 'eht, and on into the next day; but after that they'll have to rest 'eain The tireder the cattle get, the faster we'll overhaul 'em, for we can eat while we're marchin', which the cattle can't! You chaps just stay here an' look after o alone after them?” asked Fred
”Why not? Whose cattle are they?”
He was actually disposed to argue the point
”Man alive, there'll be shootin'!” he insisted ”If they once get over the border with all those cattle, the Gerone They'll fine 'eain until the Geral an' proper--an' then they'll chase the Greeks back to British East for punishood 'ud that be toto catch 'em this side o' the line, or else bu'st--an' I won't be too partic'lar where the line's drawn either!
There's maybe a hundred miles to the south o' their line that the Germans don't patrol more often than once in a leap-year If I catch the to kid myself deliberate that it's British East, and act accordin'!”
At last we convinced hih I don't remember how, for he was obstinate from the aftero alone than he would consider abandoning his cattle Then we had to decide who should folloith our string of porters, for if forcedwas in order it was obvious that we should far outdistance our train
We invited Brown to folloith all the men while we three skirmished ahead, but he waxed so apoplectically blaspheht of it that Fred assured hi ourselves, coaxed, blarneyed, persuaded, and tried to bribe one another Finally, all else failing, we tossed a coin for it, odd man out, and Fred lost