heir chief was informed of what they had done, and he rode
out to the spot with a large body of men at his heels. Among the dead,
Giovanni Severi lay bleeding from a gash in the head, but not mortally
hurt. The chief was by no means a mere dull savage, and finding an
Italian officer alive, he recognised at once that it would be a
mistake to knock him on the head and leave him with his comrades to be
disposed of by the vultures and hyaenas. On the other hand, he must not
be allowed to escape to the Italian colony with news of the disaster.
At some future time, and from a safe distance, it might be possible to
obtain a large ransom for him; or, on the other hand, if a large force
were ever sent up the country to revenge the outrage, it might be to
the credit of the chief if he could prove that the deed had been done
without his knowledge and that he had treated the only survivor
humanely. He therefore took possession of Giovanni and provided for
his safety in a simple manner by merely stating that if the prisoner
escaped he would cut off ten heads, but if any harm came to him, he
would cut off at least a hundred. As no one doubted but that he would
keep his word, as he invariably did in such matters, Giovanni had but
small chance of ever regaining his liberty, and none at all presented
itself for nearly five years. During that time he travelled with his
captors or lived in camps, many hundreds of miles from the outposts of
civilisation; he learned their language and the chief insisted on
learning his, as it might be useful; furthermore, he was required to
teach his master whatever he could about modern warfare and what
little he knew of agriculture and its arts of peace. In return he was
well fed, well lodged when possible, and as well clad as any man in
the tribe except the chief himself, which was not saying much.

His chance came at last and he did not let it pass. It involved
killing one of his guards, stunning another, and seizing the chief's
own camel, and it was not without great risk to his life that he got
away. A fortnight later he had travelled five hundred miles and
reported himself at headquarters in Massowah, dressed in a long native
shirt, a dirty turban, and nothing else, as Captain Giovanni Severi,
formerly of the Staff and late of the expedition that had perished
five years earlier.

It chanced, for the inevitable was at work, that the mail steamer for
Italy was to leave the next morning and a small man