Tom Willoughby's Scouts

re no better than slaves! Have you seen anything to confirm tha

inecke had given the overseers strict orders not to use their whips while the Englishman was

. "Don't they laugh enough?

nderstand. But the older men seem rather apathetic. Apart from actual ill-treatment, of which I do you the justice to say

smiled grimly. "But now, what would be a convincing proof to you that things here are aft

one who had esc

--have either been caught and brought back or have no doubt come to grief in the forest. But I can give

dee

ed on the same day as you. You won't

k, still more the tone in which it

anded our stores from the Hedwig von Wissmann that day, we were one porter short, and this fellow, a sturdy lad, was hanging about and appeared to have nothing to do. He was engaged and came up with the others and stayed on--works well, and is quite cheerful, I'm told. He's ast

d soon have to quarrel with his host. As soon as he should have come to a

Once or twice, when he asked that Mirambo or his son might accompany him shooting, Reinecke declared

leness boring," he added once. "There are no dangerous beasts in

panionship was impossible. So he went occasionally into the woods alone, never straying more than a mile or two from the plantation, and taking even more pleasure in quie

found Reinecke in a pa

udenheim," he said: "an excellent soldier. He came on the boat wit

e too much of what

ehr? So we met, as it were, on equal terms, though he is a step higher in rank. And I have another piece of news for you. Eland have been

ring in his estimate of Reinecke. "He real

had letters to write, Tom feared that he was to be dis

you and meet you near the edge of the lake--you remember, by that fallen tree where we ate our lunch. Don't

nsiderable. He reached the appointed spot, and ventured to cast about in various directions, without, howe

own," he said ruefully. "I

to stalk them, and we'll see what we can do without Mirambo's ass

elf would hardly have discovered it. They pushed their way through the vegetation, and after

a glade just ahead," he said.

ps when he suddenly felt the earth give way beneath his feet, and next moment found himself lying at the bottom of a deep pit, amidst a litter of earth and brushwood, and con

osing that his voice from the depth of the pit had not penetrated to Reinecke's ears through the vegetation above, he reached for his rifle, which lay beside him, and fired a couple of shots into the ai

he thought. "Reinecke

overed that his righ

sooner the better; the stuff here must have been rotti

y stand. It struck him that he had better bind up the gash in his leg as well as he could. When the men came he would get them to carry him to the lake and bathe the wound. How lucky it

really uneasy. Reinecke's call to him had been very faint, and had not been repeated. If they were both in the same predicament there was no hope of relief until the negroes

few notches in the earth: one of the spikes would form a serviceable tool. He worked one out of the ground, and rose to his feet, wincing with the pain that shot through his sprained ankle. To his chagri

ught, and sat down again

ions. And then at last he was startled by a suspicion that sprang up suddenly in his mind--a suspicion so horrible that he strove to crush it. Reinecke might have lied to him about the vouchers; was he villain enough

y by Tom's active imagination. Granted the man's intention of putting him out of the way, how easily one detail fitted into another! How naturally the Englishman's disappearance could be explained! It was known to every one on the plantation that he had sometimes gone shooting alone. Reinecke could say, and his statement could be corroborated, that his guest had started alone on this morning, he himself being engaged with correspondence. He had followed later, according to arrangement, but ha

occurred to him to heap up debris at the foot of the wall, to form a mounting block; but at the stirring of the putrid mass innumerable insects, beetles, reptiles, foul nameless things issued forth, causing him to shudder with loathing, and to shrink at actual pain from their bites and stings. Over

s of the senses and the mind. For a time he was scarcely conscious of pain, of the things moving at his feet, of the gradual cooling of the air as evening drew on. Then he roused himself with a start, and heedless of stings and the loathsome touch of obscene

of hyenas prowling in quest of prey and calling to one another with increasing frequency as the night stole towards dawn. A sudden raucous cry, apparently near at hand, caused him to seize the spike for defence in case some unwar

the pit and the sunlight filtering through the foliage and dispersing the mist. Listless, unconscious of the flight of time, he was just aware of the lengthening day as a sunbeam climbed down the side of his prison. All at once he was shaken into attention by a soun

t words were these, that struck u

. mad English ... war with Germany ... l

ing about? "Expedition to conquer Rhodesia ... months before I return ... a

in a last flash of illumination before the darkness of unconsciousness enshro