Tom Willoughby's Scouts

eturned to their homes, a young negro left the large dwelling which he shared with a number o

ready, Mwesa?" ask

hungry. He has

ve failed to notice how strongly he resembled Mushota,

Leopard c

day. The Antelope wi

so, M

been whippi

ger. That information, however, given first to Mirambo, had spread through the whole community, and was talked of freely among themselves. But it had never reached the ears of the Arab overseers: oppression is always met by secrecy. Neither they nor Reinecke knew that the young negro who had marched from Bismarckburg among the porters, and had remained a willing worker

egroes knew that there was some intimate connection, obscure to them, between him and their taskmaster. They judged that the young Englishman was an object of respect or fear to the Germa

ed all that he did, but thought no more about it--except Mwesa, who watched all day for his hero's return. He had noticed, moreover, the going and th

said Mirambo after an in

urst in

mote spot, climbed up into a tree, and disappeared. Half an hour later he crept back to Mirambo's hut, restored the knife, which the man would have to account fo

hinned up the tree he had climbed the night before. A few minutes later he was running like a wild animal through the scrub outside the fence. He posted himself among the trees at a spot where he could not fail to see Reinecke as he left the gate. When the G

g to some one below him. When the German, his eyes alight with malign triumph, turned to retrace his steps there was nothing to show that he had been found out; the face had disappeared. Nor could Rein

looking up, saw a black shiny face gazing down upon him. Two rows of white teeth

!" called

?" Tom murmu

me come back b

m "sah"? He had never heard any of Reinecke's slaves use English, yet what negro in these parts could be other than one o

face beamed with excitement and joy. Making one end of the rope fast to a sapling that grew near the edge of the pit, he threw the o

b; all ri

ou?" Tom a

k now: talk bimeb

the pit. "Have I so little staying power?" he thought. But twenty-four hours in heat and squalor, without food or water, w

again, and hauled until sweat poured from his body. As soon as Tom was safely over the brink, the lad le

ah," he said:

e horrors of the past twenty-four hours. Mwesa led him along the old native track, in the opposite direction from the

ou taking me

ll right bimeby,"

ted. The forest was thick all round, and Tom, at another time, might have felt uneasy at this apparently aimle

more than an hour's painful walk, Tom found himself at the edge of what had once been an

ace, sah," s

them into the ground in a circle, at equal intervals apart, bending them at the top until all met. Then he wound long grasses and tendrils of creepers in and out around the whole circumference, until in a surprisingly short

nto the forest. When he returned he brought a w

in else," he sai

e eaten sawdust after his long fast. "Now tell me who yo

memory. Surely this was the boy who had rushed so eagerly to pick

esa sabe sah," said

hat do y

k, say frow me in water: sah

onsidered act of kindness had surely not won such devotion as to bring

roundabout was the course of the narrative, so much broken by explanations and cum

ied under their hardships, and the chief, left with Mwesa alone, had fled with the boy, and, more lucky than other negroes, had neither been recaptured nor killed in the forest. He had fallen in with an English trader, with whom he had taken service, accompanying him in his journeys through the country of the Great Lakes, and living at other times amon

had often spoken. He would return to the plantation, see if his uncle were yet alive, and perhaps help him, or any of his family who were still living, to escape with him to British territory. He took passage in a dhow that was sailing down the lake, but the vessel had been blown ashore, and t

was not long before he suspected that Reinecke had a grudge against his benefactor. Slight signs that might have escaped the notice of anybody who had not a personal interest in the Englishman had betrayed to him and to Mirambo the real feelings of the German; and Mwesa had now a double motive: the rescue of his uncle and the care of the white man. For the sake of the latter un

to Bismarckburg; the nearest British territory was forty or fifty miles away; how was it possible to accomplish so long a journey through difficult country and hostile people? At present, indeed, his injuries precluded even a much shorter journey. Until he should have fully recovered he must remain in hiding. How was he to subsist? There was game in the forest, no doubt plenty of vegetable food in the shape of berries and nuts, though only a na

ime slipped away and Mwesa did not return he grew uneasy. Then, however, common sense asserted itself. The boy who had already d

s a native grass bag stuffed with cassava; in one hand he carried an axe, in the other a sporting rifle, which Tom recognised as the property of

ack to the plant

me go back;

g to seize all the English lands in Africa; that he himself was a great officer in the German army, and had been ordered to turn every able-bodied man into a soldier. The gathering of the crops being finished

his announcement, Mwesa had managed to possess him

im boy," he s

e the boy in his own misfortunes, or to separate him from his new-found relatives? He reflected that the boy would be useful to him in helping him to find his way into British territory; and when

d, "you are my boy. Whatev

nanted, would almost certainly hunt for him in the neighbourhood. It was necessary to find a secure refuge where he could rest until he was able to undertake the journey. Almost as soon as the idea occurred to him, he remembered that he had passed this way with Reinecke and Goltermann, on the day when he had first made distant acquaintance with crocodiles. The nullah and the lake in the hills lay a few miles to the east. The former, with its windings, its ove

and when, as he ate his dinner of roast rabbit, he mentioned the matter to the negro, the latter instantly started up and ran off in the direction Tom pointed out. In twenty minutes he was back, and declared with his invariable

y served him faithfully, should share in it. They had once been great warriors; now they would learn how to be askaris, and under German leadership do great deeds and amass great riches. The negroes had listened to him in silence; and only when he had left them did their sullen discontent

then he declared that he could go no farther. It was already late in the after

mile an hour. The almost disused hunter's path was sometimes hard to find: here and there it was overgrown with thorns through which Mwesa had to cleave a way; and in the middle hou

wesa, "and see if the nul

away, returning

" he cried. "All

trickled down the middle: Tom could not doubt that the lake must be only a few hundred yards farther, and, in spite of his fatigue, he struggled on to make sure that he

f the lake before darkness fell. He cooked some manioc for Tom and himself;

rns as a defence against a chance marauder. Starting up on his elbow, he saw dimly some dark shape apparently edging its way between the lower part of the barrier and the

thorny barrier. Next moment the slight hut collapsed, and both occupants were half buried by the boughs. Extr

se, sah?" wh

snout of a crocod

ght up his axe, and rushed out.

when he came back. "Gun make him berry sick