in his ear:

"Berbera no place for Inglis man this day. Better go away, quick. Heed
what Makar tell you. Now go."

He fairly pushed Guy from him, and the latter, joining Melton, who had
witnessed the scene with the greatest curiosity, led the way out into
the street.

A curious crowd followed them closely for some distance, and not a word
was spoken until they had turned off into a side avenue lined with low
mud buildings.

"Now," said Melton quickly, "I need not tell you, my dear fellow, what a
pleasant surprise this meeting has been, but all explanation must be
deferred to a more suitable time. You have made a friend and an enemy
today, for Makar Makalo is the most powerful Arab in the whole Somali
country, while that big negro is Oko Sain, the head chief of all the
Gallas who dwell two hundred miles back from the coast. What did Makar
tell you?"

Guy repeated the Arab's warning, and Melton stood for a moment in deep
thought.

"I suspected as much," he said finally. "Never before have there been so
many Arabs and Somalis from the interior at Berbera. Only yesterday a
caravan of two thousand camels arrived from Harar in the Galla country.
Something is wrong, I have felt certain, and now Makar confirms my
fears."

A glimmering suspicion of the truth flashed over Guy's mind at this
juncture, but he hesitated to speak.

"Now then," continued Melton, "this can mean nothing but a massacre. The
only soldiers in the place are about sixty of the Bombay infantry, who
were sent down here from Zaila, and as for the fortifications, they are
nothing but a few mud walls. There they lie yonder," and he pointed to
an English flag floating over the house-tops some distance away.

"We are only wasting time here," he added. "We'll look about a little
and then I'll decide what to do. I don't want to raise any false alarm."

They turned back to the main avenue. The crowds still surged up and
down, and the tumult seemed as harsh and discordant as ever, but the
place had nevertheless undergone a change since they had left it a short
time before. Little bartering was going on, and but few Arabs and
Somalis were to be seen. Those on the street were mostly harmless
traders from Aden and Cairo.

"What has become of all the Arabs?" asked Guy.

"That is just what I want to know," said Melton; "I'll soon find out,
though. Walk as fast as you can now, Chutney, and look as unconcerned as
possible."

Melton led the way down the stree