"

"Can you give us a hint?"

"There are caves near the summit of Mount Elgon that would hold the
world's revenues. None of them have ever been thoroughly explored.
Cannibals live in some of them. Cannibals and caverns is a combination
that might appeal to Tippoo Tib, but there's no likelihood that he
buried all that ivory in one place, you know. I suspect the greater
part is in the Congo, and that the Germans know its whereabouts within
a mile or two."

"How did they discover it?"

"Why don't they dig it out?"

"What keeps 'em from turning their knowledge into money?"

We had forgotten our own troubles. Courtney, too, seemed to forget for
the moment that he had began by asking us a question.

"Remember Emin Pasha? When was it--'87--'88--'89 that Stanley went and
rescued him? Perhaps you recall what was then described as Emin's
ingratitude after the event? British government offered him a billet.
Khedive of Egypt cabled him the promise of a job, all on Stanley's
recommendation. Emin turned 'em all down and accepted a job from the
Germans. Nobody understood it at the time. My own idea is that Emin
thought he knew more or less where that hoard is. He didn't really
want to come away with Stanley, you know. Being a German, I suppose he
preferred to share his secret with his own crowd. I dare say he
thought of telling Stanley but judged that the 'Rock breaker' might
demand a too large share. The value of the stuff must be so enormous
that it's almost worth going to war about, from the point of view of a
nation hungry for new colonies. Emin is dead, and it's likely he left
no exact particulars behind him. To my personal knowledge the Germans
have had a swarm of spies for a long time operating beyond the Congo
border."

"Were you looking for the stuff yourself?" I asked.

"Oh, no," he laughed. "But when I'm hunting I look about me. I'll
tell you where the stuff may possibly be. There's a section of country
called the Bahr el Gazal that the Congo people claim, but that I
believe will eventually prove to lie on the British side of the
boundary. It was good elephant country--which is to say bad living and
traveling for man--since the earth took shape out of ooze. Awful
swampy, malarious, densely wooded, dangerous country, sparsely
inhabited by savages not averse to cannibalism when they've
opportunity. The ivory may be there. If the Germans know it's there
they're naturally afraid the British go