spoiling his chop boxes, the corporal had
contemptuously thrown him a half eaten tin of sardines and a cigarette. He
let the cigarette lie. Nourishment he must have; and so after an inward
struggle he had eaten it, having to claw out the fish like a monkey, while
the big black and his women sprawled and laughed.

The soldiers, except the one on sentry who still paced a trifle
erratically, were grouped on their haunches around the fire in front of
the tent on the threshold of which the corporal presided with as much
pomposity as if he were the great Mogul, all drinking and smoking and
eating. Now and again the women would screech insults over their heads at
the white; and once the corporal threw an empty bottle at him, evoking a
gale of applause. The women began the belly dance, crooning while the men
accompanied with the rhythmic grunt, which ever leads to hysterical
exaltation.

The sun was dipping. They might come for him at any moment. He watched the
sentry and contemplated making a rush, taking a venture on the man's bad
aim and unsteady hand. They would not follow him far in the dark for dread
of the spirits that walk by night. The only alternative to suicide was the
river, in flood and full of crocodiles, a slender chance. He determined to
try it. He considered making the attempt then. But the darker the better;
they would more easily miss. At any risk he must never let them get their
hands upon him. He drew himself together, flexing his limbs for a leap and
a rush, anxiously observing the chanting crowd around the fire in the
sunset glow.

The leashes of discipline were fraying. The sentry still plodded up and
down, but with a rolling eye for his companions. The working of his mind
was revealed when he walked round tying knots in the long grass which, as
every Munyamwezi knows, is a sure method to prevent a prisoner's escape;
then he halted in front of Birnier, grinned, and pointed to the fire;
evidently he knew or had heard that an orgy was coming. The man stood and
watched him. Fearful that the fellow was about to drag him over or suggest
that the victim be seized, if only in order to release him from his
irksome duty, Birnier snatched up the cigarette lying in the grass and
asked for a light to distract the man's attention. The sentry shook his
head and pointed to the fire. Hastily Birnier searched his pockets for a
match; recollected that he had used the last, and took out a small tin box
of wax vestas wrap