The Ivory Trail

ST SHALL BE LAST;

uck has deserted and t

wa

to run to and even

carry i

rday's horror to-morrow

coming unknown is de

and th

on, what the Fathers fro

d stood up to alone, and

dn't be Father). So y

l

ut breath and good-wil

it naked,

hour that the plunder

ug

ye aspired with-and

sou

eds that ye cherished

he w

l for their counsel l

hi

hour and discover by

elf-will, and the l

s all are

sire, ye shall know t

that y

-born that the naked-t

gi

stars in their cours

our

you further, and nothin

of evil shall challeng

shall shine clear in

be

road shall be restful

your

be kind that was cr

tude

oomy aforetime and gra

i

n of desire, but the

sion,

rtion of each was made from a tree-trunk, hollowed out by burning, and chipped very roughly into

d loads as well it would have been a problem how to get the whole party away; but as Lady Saffren Waldon had left us nothing but three cooking-pots, we just contrived to crowd the last man in without passing the danger point, F

d a rhythmic thunder as they all bring their paddles hard against the boat's side at the end of each stroke. Fifty-sixty-seventy-perhaps a hundred strokes they take at top speed, and the passenger settles down to enjoy himself, for there is no more captivating motio

and within ten minutes we were using paddles ourselves to poke and beat our men into understanding of the laws

ewhere and the dried-out fiber cracked and broke. We had all to sit to one side while some one restitched the planking. L

ippo meat needs hours of cooking to be wholesome (our own share of it was still in the pot, waiting to be boiled more thoroughly at the next halting place). They had merely toasted their tough lum

think the matter over; wondering what we should do with two such women in case we shoul

posed at last. "We can claim our few belongings at any time if

on the slippery shoulders of partly submerged rocks-took long turns ourselves to relieve the weary men, Coutlass working h

hook of my right arm and only thought of how to win back the favor of the other she-hellion! And I was deceived by such a cabbage! Wait though! Nobody ever turned a trick on Georges Coutlass more than once

een the coming sun but the world is not yet aware of it, Fred called to us to turn in toward a barren-looking hill of granite that rose almost sheer out of the water but at one corner offered a shelvi

for more; one of the other boys had struck a match, and the first little flicker of crimson f

every one!" and repeated it twice i

me the first clue. There came a purring from the lake; and when I had searched for a minute for the source of it I saw the glow we had watched from the dhow in the storm the first n

the German la

y. He knew I knew it was the Germ

ve patched her b

peed! I've heard the British railway people have a launch or two, but they're small enough to have traveled

aring to light a fire, nor caring to sleep, Coutlass si

dead beat I'd be for

? Soon as it's daylight they'd see us, like as not. I hope to get drunk

d. "But what's the odds? It's us they're after. They'll da

the men were too weary to drive the canoes another mile at anything like speed. Coutlass, who had heard every w

from demoniacal delight

rges Coutlass, who need do nothing! I h

cond rock, and

reek. "Do you know that rock

ached with the long vigil we could not have copied them. About three hours after daylight we breakfasted off slices of hot boiled hippo tongue and cold la

ing, spreading smoke with a look of iniquity about it that sent our hearts to our mouths. We paddled toward it with frenzied energy, and long bef

f Sheba burning t

u fool, or yo

e flame is about finishe

ying idiot, and

yond the smoke of the dhow! They've burned the dhow and steamed away! I'll bet you a m

make you swim for shore-d'ye see those crocodiles? Ugh! Look at th

threat, but rocked the canoe re

! I bet you five million pounds to a kick they think they've drowne

him overboard, but nothing would stop his evil croaking any more than flat re

eared on them was surely that of the Queen of Sheba. When we came within fifty yards the water was full of loathsome reptiles; our paddles actually struck them as

that. We tried to go close enough to see whether there were dead bodies in the dhow's charred hull, but as if the very ripple from our paddles were the l

g stupidly for what we knew we could never find; crocodiles

people jump as the flames drove them overboard! Or d'you think they shot them all, and then threw them overboard and fired the dhow? No-then they'd have known we weren't on the dhow; they'd have steamed back then to find us; they thought we were in the dhow! They thought we were hiding bel

had killed all the snakes that had forestalled us in the shade. There, after again eating hippo-tongue unsea

nsider the other side of it. Suppose we don't make for a station. Schillingschen reports us dead. Nobody looks for us-unless perhaps out on the lake for a hat or some scrap of clothing by way of corroborative evidence. Suppose we paddle out of this gulf and take to shore somewhere along the north end of the lake. We've no food, no tents, only one gun, next to no ammunition, nothing but money and a purpose. We don't know what chance we have of get

ttered if he listened, and made the usual two-minds hash of it. Finally we put it to a vote, letting Brown have a voice with the rest of us. He was in favor of anything that offered prospec

ready and willing to prove it! Good! If you fellows had

e again. He came striding through the trees with somethi

in!" he

n the lake?"

trip to M

you'll tell tales? Blackmail, eh? Well, it won't work! We'll set you ashore on the mainland, and i

a hand on Fred's knee, and changed his tone to on

know me, too. You have seen me under all conditions. You are able to judge my character. You know how firm a friend I can be

over on his back and rocking his legs in the air-a performance that did not appear to discourag

cattle o' mine

a danger for my friends' enemies! What are the cattle of a drunkard like Brown-the poor unhappy sot!-compared to the momentary needs of a gentleman! Ah! By the ordeal! I am a gentleman, and that is the secret of it all! You, Mr. Oake

'll take you at your word!" and Brown of Lumbwa

calmly. "These others are not ge

good for anything

my bond!" sa

want to prove yo

you and bring you back t

mainland, to go and rec

who raided them! Retu

rown shall shake

wn! That

ing off his coat. "I've had enough of being

en little short of murder. Brown was in no condition to thrash that w

ordered Fred, and having saved his f

ed. "Let him get my cattle back af

t entailing his starvation. We had no right to have pity for the rascal; he had no claim whatever on our generosity; yet I think even Brown would not

detestable even to the natives after the second or third meal, although hippo tongue is good food. We tried green stuff gathered on the islands, but it proved either bitter or else nauseating, and although our boys gathered

manganese iron ore. Victoria Nyanza is the crater of a once enormous, long ago extinct volcano, and we stood on a shelf of rock about a thousand feet below what had been the up

ives a mile or two to either side of the old safari route that passed from east to west. We could see no villages, although we marched for hours, the

hands, and had munched our fill before we were seen by the jealous owners. A small boy herding hump-backed cattle down in the valley watched us for a minute, and then deserted his charge to repo

the act, all but one of us unarmed as far as they knew, to be judged by the tribal standard that for more centuries than men remember has decreed that the thief shall die. They

iskered face into a caricature, yelling a Greek monologue in a refrain consisting of five notes repeated over and ove

hang in a greasy lump over his neck, all down his naked body to the soles of his enormous feet. Each time he came in front of that individual Coutlass

nd behind her a bustle like a horse's tail that was her only garment. Her flight was the touch that settled the decision in our favor. We all began to do a mumbo-jumb

oudly, "will you still dismiss

fed and some provision could be made for his safety on the road. It was wonderful, the number of excuses that flocked through my mind for befriending the ruf

ass an' hang the s

the mere suggestion, was likely to bring us all down with fever. We preferred the thought of fever to the loneliness; for man is unlike all other nomads, and that is why the dog takes kindly to him; he must have a home of his own-a portable one, if

ted and decided to leave it and try to find another, Brown kept pointing out trees with suitable overhanging arms to which we might hang Coutlass. The Greek, with eye

ss, and we'll let Brown choose the tre

as Coutlass pointed out, they would have to open it up again to let the cattle in before dark, so we sat down and ate

the gate, putting genius into it and fear into the hearts of the defenders. Kazimoto helped

s beginning to be pretty obvious that a man who advised volleying through the crevices with spears was winning the argument when Kazimoto detected familia

ttle fire of sticks in the midst to give us light and keep mosquitoes at a distance at the expense of almost unbearable heat, we ate porridge made from mtama as they call t

heir eggs. (Nearly every native in the village had more than one toe missing.) And the chief felt obliged to insert his smelly presence among us and ask innumerable idiotic questions through the med

color; for two handfuls of them he expressed himself willing to be our friend for life. We had to educate him about money, and Kazimoto assur

we were wasikini-poor men; and that is a

you only

red strong men walking for a month would be unable to march across them-that Fred's wives (Fred seemed to live under a clou

hind? How did he dare? Who looked after them? Had he left the guns behind to guard the women? Why did such a rich

rey off all unfortunates. Failing evidence of wealth in our possession, the only feasible plan was to claim so much that he might believe some of it, and i

d promised him to exchange it when the loads should come for as many of the beads as he could seize in his two fists. The chief went out to brag to the village, opening and closing his fists to

the village herd be butchered. They made their meaning perfectly clear by taking the cow by the horns a

fected the chief that he entered our hut next morning disposed to hold us up for double promises of beads. It

him anything! The only loads likely to come alon

ass had given us all a new idea in an instant, and he was the only one who did not see i

u sup

od to h

inks we'r

believes in

awn on it to mark the Elgon district. All the old pencil marks have been r

without mili

. Remember, he's a professor of ethnology. That's how he puts it all over

eturn to British East and destroy us on the way. He thinks he made a clean job of that. I'll bet he loade

the cards lie,

and offered himself on the alta

s of this I will crawl into that Schillingschen's tent in the night and s

d. "When Mr. Brown's cattle are back in Lumbwa

g even Schillingschen, but must help ourselves to his outfit as our only chance of re-outfitting without

cape and run to the nearest Br

his beastly carcass-to say nothing of the everlasting disgrace of letting him be scoughed on British terr

. It did not occur to include Coutlass in the calculations, or to dismiss him from them; but without exchanging any remarks on the subject it was clear enough to

zing the strategic points of desperate situations, "that Schi

with him on the la

ouldn't trust himself to British porters. My word, no! That devil knows natives! He knows some of them might be British government spies! He'll have his own boys,-if they can

send natives to look out for Schillingschen, and Fred's amendment that reduced the messengers to one, and that one Kazimoto. Any of the othe

strously without his cunning fingers to hunt them out again. He also prophesied that without him to interpret there would swiftly be trouble between us

mtama pudding in a cloth and went his way, prophesying darkly of murder and sudden death lurking behind ro

hat now we could not dismiss him, he being under no obligation to understand gestures. Curiosity was the impelling motive, but he was

e miles away, at imminent risk of crocodiles and an even worse horror we had not yet suspected, shooting a hippopotamus. Forthwith the whole village, chief included, went to cut up and ca

, that crossed their wings in repose, resembling in all other respects th

walked many miles east-ward, taking with me the only two sober villagers I could find. They came willingly enough for five miles, thinking, I suppose, that I

were merely lusting after the meat and beer in the village, I took a stick to drive them across the s

small boy standing on an ant-hill to watch the cattle seemed too listless to be curious, and too indifferent to run away. The big brown tetse flies, that crossed their wings when resting, were everywhere, making no noise at all, but announcing themselves every once in a while

the gateway. There were black men and women there, sitting in the shadows of the eaves, who looked up and stared at me-men and women too intent on sitting still

uplifted in the act of self-defense. Nobody else in the village stirred. There were more huts than people, more kites on the roofs than huts. Some of the littlest children played in the hut doors, but nearly all

e flies. On one side of a narrow stream they were thick together; to the w

ficial," I announced. "There's a curtain of death between us