Part 53 (1/2)
”Don't let's argue ethics!” Fred interrupted, for Will's ears were getting red ”Can you tell us for certain, Lady Waldon, whether all the askaris and Gereants really run to a fire? Or do a certain number remain in the boma?”
”Oh, I know about that,” she answered ”Until the prisoners are all locked in--that is to say, in case of fire in the daytiht askaris remain inside the boma The minute they are locked in, if the fire is serious, and in case of fire by night, they all go except tho stand on the eastern boma wall, one at each corner From there they are supposed to be able to see on every side except the water-front nobody guards the water-front; I don't knohy, unless it is that the gate on that side is kept locked ale”
”As a matter of fact,” said I, ”those two sentries on the ill be too busy staring at the fire, if the Greeks reallyelse unless we march by under their noses with a brass band”
”Bah!” sneered Lady Waldon ”If I get that rifle I would dare shoot them both for you uarantee to put you ashore on the first barren island we co to us!”
The next problem was to draay from the Greeks the attention of the askari at the cross-roads We could not see hihts when the stars look like tiny pin-pricks and there are no shadows because all is dark To go out and look what he was doing would have been to arouse his suspicion Yet there was always a chance that heon orders, he had a trick of approaching their tents very closely once in a while
So when Lady Waldon had slipped out into the darkness we lit half a dozen la the sort of 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 ground on the gravel just beyond the cactus hedge in front of us; and there he stayed, we entertaining him for an hour By that ti the road behind hiave him tobacco
”It's tiain!” he advised him
”You would be in trouble if they slipped away in the night!”
Now that a plan of can was finally decided on, there see out in our minds the way round the back of the hill to the dhoas perfectly simple; ent and smoked on the hilltop, and within an hour after breakfast had every turn and twist memorized Fred drew a chart of the track for safety's sake
Persuading Brown of Lumbwa proved unexpectedly to be much the most difficult task Added to the fact that the askaris who marched behind and the Greeks who marched in front were unusually inquisitive, Brown himself 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 for your money, or fed to the crocks in the doctor's pond?” And he told hie him
”They'll have to let ued
”Don't you believe it! In less than a week froe of filibustering! They'll not let you go back to British East to tell tales about their treatment of the rest of us,”
Will assured hied with a little streak of yellow somewhere It was not until the afternoon march that Fred and Will, one on either side of hi the methods of theproh to the end; but he was the weak link; he was afraid; and he disbelieved in the wisdom of the attempt
It was Kazimoto in the end who kept Brown up to the e Fred found a chance to speak to hi rested al noon under the narrow shade of a cactus hedge, and warned him in about fifty words of as intended
(The askaris, al at the far end of the line, ga at pitch-and-toss)
”Be sure you sleep as near to the partition as you can Get details of the plan from Mr Brown, and then drill the porters one by one! Don't let 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 to obey the askaris iood food and care they were getting, winking at the same time very emphatically, with the eye the askaris could not see
The night as the hardest, because, although ere quite sure about direction, even in the dark, it was another matter to feel our way and carry unaccustomed loads By day we decided what to take and what to leave behind, and we cut dohat to take with us to the irreducible, dangerous minies, so that e all three made the trip to the dhow the ht
In the condition I was in I could take not more than one trip to the others' two; after the first it was agreed that I would better stay behind and keep an eye on the askari Theinquisitive I was to invent so his attention; so all unsuspected by him I lay in the sand by the roadside within three yards of hi on his rifle Once a long snake crawled over ; but except for ion and sucked their fill, there was no other contretemps I don't knohat I would have done if the askari had taken alarate I trusted to intuition should that happen
The work of arranging the stuff in the dhoas the ht a lantern, yet we also dared not stow things carelessly for fear of confusion when the hour of action came
The space was ridiculously small for ourselves and all those men, and every inch had to be economized In addition to that the dhow had to be worked backward off the h to be shoved off easily, and then made fast by a rope to the bushes in such way as not to be noticeable Most of the ropes turned out to be rather rotten, and we could only guess at the condition of the sails; the feel of theave us small assurance But fortunately we had a couple of hundred feet of good half-inch manila in camp with us, and that Fred and Will took out and stowed in the hold the night following
We bought such things at the DOAG as we could without arousing suspicion, as, for instance, a quantity of German dried pea-soup--not that the porters would take to it kindly, but it would go a long way a them at a pinch Live stock we did not dare buy, for fear of the noise it would s and bananas Most of the thirty-pound loads were rice
It troubled us sorely to leave our good tents, beds, and equipladstone bag packed with clothes for us all Kettles and pots and pans were a noisy nuisance, yet we had to have them, and blankets for all those porters, ould escape from jail practically naked, were an essential; but fortunately we had a sixty-pound bale of trade-blankets ae all this while with Coutlass and his friends Not one overture did we make to them, or they to us But there was no doubt of their intention to do their worst They gloated over us--eyed us with lofty disdain and scornful superior knowledge
They were so full of the notion of having us jailed for their misdeed that they positively ached to co that by the shortness of the time