Part 33 (2/2)
At four that afternoon we had theof loads as his sixty porters dropped their burdens inside the village stockade He had scorned the ferry and crossed the ford on foot, ious splash to keep crocodiles away, and was as full of life and fun as a schoolboy on vacation
”Wake up, you vorloopers!” he shouted ”Wake up! Shake off the fleas and co”
He had already had the tale of our night's misfortune in detail froround that we had lost no loads in spite of over-turning ”The last really white man who crossed lost all his loads!” he explained)
”Co you never saw before, you scouts!--you advance guard!--you line of skirmishers!”
Will hurled a lump of earth at hi to throw each other in, until both were breathless Then, when neither could asped Fred
There was an island in mid-stream belohere we ht, and from where we stood we could see more than half a mile of alluvial mud with an arm of the river on either side
The mud hite, not black--so white that it dazzled the eyes to look at it
”Knohat it is?” Fred panted
We did not know, and it was no use guessing It looked like burned lime, or else the secretions of about a billion birds; and there were no birds to speak of
”Crocodile eggs!” said Fred
We did not believe that Even Brown did not believe it There was no tireed, so we took the absurd canoe and poled down to investigate As we came nearer the solid white broke up into a myriad dots, and Fred's tale stood confirs laid end to end, or longer They lay in the sun in batches in every stage of incubation, and fro, that ht for the water What worse monster preyed on them to keep their numbers down, or what disease took care of their prolixity we could not guess
Perhaps they ate one another, or just died of hunger The owner of the boat vowed there were no fish left in the river, and that the crocodiles did not eat hippo unless it were first dead
We took another tent froer ones, and went forward that evening; for it began to be obvious that the speed had been telling on the cattle We passed two more dead heifers within a few ns that for all our long sleep ere gaining on theht they had shaken off pursuit Judging by the compass they were headed for the shore of Victoria Nyanza, where the grazing would be better, food for es closely spaced wouldvastly easier There isn't a village in that part of Africa that is not proud to be a host to anybody's cattle, if only because the ownershi+p of so lory on all who co whether or not ere over the German border The boundary line had not been surveyed yet, and on the map the part where as set down as ”unexplored,” although that was scarcely accurate; the route ell enough known to Greeks and Arabs, and other bad characters bent on s the ends of justice
We ht, slept until dawn, and were off again At noon we reached rising ground, and Kaziaze for three or fourhis eyes before he ca back, as excited as if his own fortune were in the balance
”Hooko-chini!” he shouted ”Hooko-chini--mba-a-a-li sana!”--(They're down below there, very far away!)
We hurried up-hill, but for rass higher than a man's head and almost as impenetrable as bamboo-country that carried small hope in it for man or beast, that would be a holocaust in the dry season when the heat set fire to the grass, and was an insect-haunted marsh at most other times
However, path across it there must be, for the Greeks had driven Brown's cattle that way that very , and Kazih Brown, and Will, and I--all three keen-sighted--could see nothing whatever but irass
At last I detected a movement near the horizon that did not synchronize with the wind-blown motion of the rest I pointed it out to the others, and after a few ainst the wind
”They're hurrying again,” said Brown, peering under both hands
”There's no feed for cattle on all this plain They're racing to get to short grass before the cattle all die Come on--let's hurry after 'em!”
For the second tiht as a bee would fly for the point on the horizon where we knew the Greeks to be And for the second ti our lives in it We had to pull one another out, using even our precious rifles as supports in the yieldinglocks and sights again
After that we hunted for the cattle trail and followed that closely; and that was not so easy as it reads, because the traain, and cattle and round that delays men on foot
The heat was that of an oven The water--what there was of it in the holes and swareet us as their only prospect of food that year The rass-steh a waving curtain overhead wasthan the physical weariness and thirst
We slept a night in that grass, burning soe to keep round again, realized that we had our quarry within reach at last