Part 65 (1/2)

Then the rest of us, with Fred leading and Kazi which to reach the caschen's rifle and went next after Fred Coutlass followed so close on my heels that more than once he trod on them, and once so nearly tripped me that Fred called a halt behind some bushes and cursedThe ten boys had tied the donkeys up to a rope in line and sat crooning while their supper cooked at a long bright fire We caschen's tent from behind, crept around the side of it, and in a -bore elephant gun that had dealt with us so savagely on the lake, Coutlass seizing another Mauser, and Kaziun

The rest was child's play We marched out of the tent all abreast and called on the ten boys to surrender,them put up their hands until Coutlass had found their five rifles and ammunition They were too astonished even to ask questions Accustoschen's despotic orders, they obeyed ours silently, showing no sy nowhere to bolt to; but we took precautions

Kazi our party, and we took a coil of iron wire frooods and fastened every prisoner's hands fir the unconscious Geretable supper that the ten had cooked

Brown and Coutlass found Schillingschen's whisky after that, and under its influence again swore ceaseless friendshi+p beneath the non-committal stars While they feasted we took Coutlass' rifle away as a plain precaution

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

PARCERE SUBJECTIS?

'When the devil's at bay Ye may kneel down and pray For a year and a day To be spared the distress of dispatching hier ye kneel The more squeamish ye'll feel 'Cause the louder he'll squeal, And at brotherly talk there's nohiive heed to the sa extremes with compunction, Youyou in the night With much probonopublico unction

For a while we looked like having trouble with Coutlass We gave Brown a rifle, and distributed the other Mausers a Kazimoto and our best boys, but we did not dare trust the Greek with a weapon he ainst us, and he resented that bitterly He had an answer to Fred's subterfuge that as a whiteto carry firearued, and Fred nodded

That night we reveled in luxury, for after the life we had led recently it took time to reaccustoschen traveled with every provision for his carcass and his belly; and we plundered him

We put the prisoners and our own porters in a hut in the nearest native village (less than half a un, dividing Schillingschen's two large tents between ourselves The others offered me the camp-bed as a recent invalid, but I refused, and Will won it bycoins We divided the blankets in the same way, and all the spare underwear Brown and Coutlass had to be satisfied with cotton blankets froh to build up good thick s, there were still two apiece for our boys and all the porters

The chop-boxes were a revelation The , including all the canned delicacies that hungry men dream about in the wilderness Before we slept we ate so enors that it was a wonder that ere able to sleep at all

We all hoped Schillingschen would die, for it was a hard problem what to do with him He had no papers in his possession, beyond a diary written in German schrift that even Will could not e; and a very vague overnes he had passed on his way There was no proof that we could find that would have condemned him of nefarious practises in a British court of law

”And believethe sh his nose, ”your local British judges would take the word of Professor Schillingschen against all of ours, backed up by si native evidence! They're so in awe of Schillingschen's professorial degree, and of his passports, and his letters of introduction frouilty of arson if they caught hiot to be done with hi at ease on a pillow and a folded Jaeger blanket, s songs outside the tent and I sat in a genuine ar

(nobody knoho has not hungered on the high or low veld--who has not eaten e without salt or sugar--how good that co is! To sit with ance of affluence!)

”We have his stores and his papers,” said I ”We have his Baganda; and as tiin to come in, we shall have theo, to tell his own tale wherever he likes?”

”Maybe he'll die yet!” said the optiarette smoke

”Suppose he doesn't We've done our best to keep hio, and he lays a charge against us

Suppose they send after us and bring us in We've his diary and his h,” said I

”You bally ass!” Fred hed Will