Tom Willoughby's Scouts

e pleased, and see anything and everything. The natives worked industriously: there was no lack of talk and laughter among them, no indication of discontent or ill-treatment. Tom's mis

parently about seventeen, looked at him with a peculiar intentness. Once, when, in lighting his pipe, he dropped his box of matches, the yo

hed by a severe look from the overseer with whom Tom had

son, except what you can see with your own eyes. In seedtime, if you still favour me with your company, I shall have more opp

l be de

s to-morrow. We shall find wild geese and snipe at the stream a few miles sou

n his movements, and with large eyes of piercing brilliance. With him was a youth whom even a white man, not easily able to distinguish one negro from another, could hardly fail to recognise as his son. Reinecke gave them their instructions in th

below. The morning was still young. By starting early, Reinecke had explained, they would make as large a bag as the men could carry before the midday heat became oppressive, and after a brief rest could stroll l

en eyes moved restlessly, alert to mark the spoor of beasts in the woods and on the open park-like spaces dotted with acacias,

cke explained. "The beast evident

aid Tom. "Couldn't we tr

rds. Still, I daresay the niggers could dispo

g the tracks in the direction in which the animal h

g away from h

smile. "Speak low--or better

uttering no sound, and keeping their eyes fixed on the hole. Wondering at this strange performance, Tom looked inquiringly at Reinecke, who shook his head and signed to him to be on the alert. Presently there appeared in the hole the ugly

d Reinecke. "B

lmost indistinguishable from the background of brownish bush, his shot missed the vital spot and inflicted only a gash in the shoulder. The infuriated animal w

AREFUL AIM

s his first shot at a wart-hog. I remember a famous sportsman once having to dodge round a tree f

the negroes? He passed wit

tead of towards it. That's not cunning, as it was in the case of that cattle-stealer, wasn't it? in classical story who pulled oxen into a cave by the tails. It's sheer necessity. T

tly, and tied it to one of the hind legs with thongs of creeper. Then Mirambo

would be at the carcase already, but in this dry weather it will probably not suffer much before the

miles away. Here, in the course of a couple of hours, the two white men had shot as many geese, quail, and guinea-fowl as the negroes could conveniently carry slung about their bodies, with the prospect of the addition of a goo

his experiences so far. He had confined himself to statements of fact, saying nothing about the problems he found himself faced with--the character of Reinecke and the

eral hartebeeste and waterbuck, which Mirambo was accustomed to skin and cut up on the spot. On these occasions Tom was tempted sometimes to question the negro directly about t

e drawer in which he had usually found it was empty, and he tried the drawer below. This, however, would not open fully: it stuck half way. He put his hand in, thinking that something had probably become wedged between the upper part of the drawer and the one above. It was as he

ut that series had corresponded exactly with the entries in the stock book--or had he made a mistake? To reassure himself he got out the file, turned to the vouchers for November, and once more compared them with the book. There was

nt. Yet there was only one entry of that date in the book. If one had been a duplicate or a carbon copy of the o

wn a suspicion, Tom put the voucher into hi

. At the back of his mind there was the feeling t

d spirits when he r

w house," he said. "He'll take all next season's crop, at a good pric

dial that he was almost ashamed of his suspicion. "By the way, I f

folded. The German opened it, an

voucher I lost, and I got the shipping clerk to gi

es

d it wedged between the drawers? Extraordinary way things have of d

threw the pieces into

ope your appetite is as good as mine. An

later, in the privacy of his room, some rather troublesome questions suggested themselves. Was it not unlike a shipping clerk to issue a duplicate without writing "duplicate" upon it? How was it that duplicate and original bore consecutive numbers, when at least

certain," he went back to the living-room to examine the fragments in the waste-pape

t had bee

h "duplicates" in existence? Did the books account for only a part of the consignments? Had Reinecke, in fact, been systematically robbing his partners? Tom felt worried and perplexed. Here, thousands of miles from home, young and inexperienced, he was hardly in a position to deal with a clever rogue, if Reinecke was in truth a rogue; and he wished t

rt in studying his host. To play the part of detective was abhorrent, but there seemed to be no help for it, and he writhed inwardly at

ro postman just as the latter was starting. Reinecke's correspondence was as usual placed in a padlocked bag.

," he said. "Pu

voucher slip bearing the number of letters enclosed; this would be

hby's had better go in too,

ity he put it into his pocket. Having altered the figures on the slip, he relocked the bag and dismisse

to him in so unusual a manner. But he could not find the man, and on asking where he was, learnt that he had been sent on an errand to Bismarckb