-gun section?" asked Spofforth.
"Look here, if you fellows want to be ready for tiffen you'd better get
a move on. Suppose----"

"Still they come!" exclaimed Laxdale, as a knock sounded on the
jalousie of the cabin door. "Come in."

It was Tari Barl in search of his master.

"Tarry Barrel, you old sinner," said Wilmshurst, "can you catch a rat?"

"Me lib for find Mutton Chop, sah," replied the Haussa saluting. "Find
him one time and come quick."

Dudley looked enquiringly at his cabin-mate, knowing that Mutton Chop
was Laxdale's servant.

"Oh, so that rascal's the culprit," declared Laxdale. "Didn't I say I
thought so?"

"Bring Mutton Chop here," ordered Wilmshurst, addressing the broadly
smiling Tari Barl.

The Haussa vanished, presently to reappear with almost an exact
counterpart of himself. It would be a difficult matter for a stranger
to tell the difference between the two natives.

"What d'ye mean, you black scoundrel, by putting a rat into my traps?"
demanded Laxdale.

"No did put, sah; him lib for come one time," expostulated Laxdale's
servant. "Me play, 'Come to cook-house door,' den him catchee."

Producing a small native flute Mutton Chop began to play a soft air.
For perhaps thirty seconds every one and everything else was still in
the desolated cabin; then slowly but without any signs of furtiveness
the rat pushed his head between the folds of Wilmshurst's tunic,
sniffed, and finally emerged, sat up on his hind legs, his long
whiskers quivering with evident delight.

Then, with a deft movement, Mutton Chop's fingers closed gently round
the little animal, and to the astonishment of the four officers the
Haussa placed the rodent in his breast pocket.

"Me hab mascot same as officers, sahs!" he explained. "No put him
here, sah; me make tidy."

"And there's the officers' call!" exclaimed Dudley as a bugle rang out.
"Dash it all, how's a fellow to put on the thing?"

And he indicated the crumpled tunic.

CHAPTER III

THE RAIDER

Accompanied by five other transports and escorted by the light cruiser
_Tompion_, the _Zungeru_ ploughed her way at a modest fifteen knots
through the tropical waters of the Atlantic. Although there was little
to fear from the attacks of U-boats, for up to the present these craft
had not appeared south of the Equator, mines had been laid by disguised
German ships right in the area where numerous trade routes converge in
the neighbourhood of the Cape