y round the room while they were talking. The second was to
miss not a word, for there lay my chance. The third was to be ready to
answer questions at any moment, and to show in the answering that I had
not followed the previous conversation. Likewise, I must not prove
myself a fool in these answers, for I had to convince them that I was
useful. It took some doing, and I felt like a witness in the box under
a stiff cross-examination, or a man trying to play three games of chess
at once.

I heard Stumm telling Gaudian the gist of my plan. The engineer shook
his head.

'Too late,' he said. 'It should have been done at the beginning. We
neglected Africa. You know the reason why.'

Stumm laughed. 'The von Einem! Perhaps, but her charm works well
enough.'

Gaudian glanced towards me while I was busy with an orange salad. 'I
have much to tell you of that. But it can wait. Your friend is right
in one thing. Uganda is a vital spot for the English, and a blow there
will make their whole fabric shiver. But how can we strike? They have
still the coast, and our supplies grow daily smaller.'

'We can send no reinforcements, but have we used all the local
resources? That is what I cannot satisfy myself about. Zimmerman says
we have, but Tressler thinks differently, and now we have this fellow
coming out of the void with a story which confirms my doubt. He seems
to know his job. You try him.'

Thereupon Gaudian set about questioning me, and his questions were very
thorough. I knew just enough and no more to get through, but I think I
came out with credit. You see I have a capacious memory, and in my
time I had met scores of hunters and pioneers and listened to their
yarns, so I could pretend to knowledge of a place even when I hadn't
been there. Besides, I had once been on the point of undertaking a job
up Tanganyika way, and I had got up that country-side pretty accurately.

'You say that with our help you can make trouble for the British on the
three borders?' Gaudian asked at length.

'I can spread the fire if some one else will kindle it,' I said.

'But there are thousands of tribes with no affinities.'

'They are all African. You can bear me out. All African peoples are
alike in one thing--they can go mad, and the madness of one infects the
others. The English know this well enough.'

'Where would you start the fire?' he asked.

'Where the fuel is dryest. Up in the North among the Mussulman