greatest difficulty that the Arabs prevented their men
a dozen times from throwing away their burdens and fleeing like
frightened rabbits up the trail toward the north. And so the day wore
on--a frightful nightmare of a day for the raiders--a day of weary but
well-repaid work for the Waziri. At night the Arabs constructed a rude
BOMA in a little clearing by a river, and went into camp.

At intervals during the night a rifle would bark close above their
heads, and one of the dozen sentries which they now had posted would
tumble to the ground. Such a condition was insupportable, for they saw
that by means of these hideous tactics they would be completely wiped
out, one by one, without inflicting a single death upon their enemy.
But yet, with the persistent avariciousness of the white man, the Arabs
clung to their loot, and when morning came forced the demoralized
Manyuema to take up their burdens of death and stagger on into the
jungle.

For three days the withering column kept up its frightful march. Each
hour was marked by its deadly arrow or cruel spear. The nights were
made hideous by the barking of the invisible gun that made sentry duty
equivalent to a death sentence.

On the morning of the fourth day the Arabs were compelled to shoot two
of their blacks before they could compel the balance to take up the
hated ivory, and as they did so a voice rang out, clear and strong,
from the jungle: "Today you die, oh, Manyuema, unless you lay down the
ivory. Fall upon your cruel masters and kill them! You have guns, why
do you not use them? Kill the Arabs, and we will not harm you. We
will take you back to our village and feed you, and lead you out of our
country in safety and in peace. Lay down the ivory, and fall upon your
masters--we will help you. Else you die!"

As the voice died down the raiders stood as though turned to stone.
The Arabs eyed their Manyuema slaves; the slaves looked first at one of
their fellows, and then at another--they were but waiting for some one
to take the initiative. There were some thirty Arabs left, and about
one hundred and fifty blacks. All were armed--even those who were
acting as porters had their rifles slung across their backs.

The Arabs drew together. The sheik ordered the Manyuema to take up the
march, and as he spoke he cocked his rifle and raised it. But at the
same instant one of the blacks threw down his load, and, snatching his
rifle from his back, fired poin