that was curious in a man so recently drunk. While he
cleaned and oiled be gave orders to his own boys; and what with having
servants of our own and having to talk to them mostly in the native
tongue, we were able to understand pretty well the whole of what he
said.

"You're not going to start after them to-night?" Fred objected. But he
and Will were also already overhauling weapons, for the second time
that evening. (It is religion with the true hunter never to eat supper
until his rifle is cleaned and oiled.) I got my own rifle down from
the shelf over Brown's stone mantelpiece.

"What d'you take me for?" demanded Brown. "There's one pace they'll go
at, an' that's the fastest possible. There's one place they'll head
for, an' that's German East. They can't march faster than the cattle,
an' the cattle'll have to eat. Maybe they'll drive 'em all through the
first night, and on into the next day; but after that they'll have to
rest 'em an' graze 'em a while. That's when we'll begin to gain. The
tireder the cattle get, the faster we'll overhaul 'em, for we can eat
while we're marchin', which the cattle can't! You chaps just stay here
an' look after my farm till I come back!"

"You mean you propose to go alone after them?" asked Fred.

"Why not? Whose cattle are they?"

He was actually disposed to argue the point.

"Man alive, there'll be shootin'!" he insisted. "If they once get over
the border with all those cattle, the Germans'll never hand 'em over
until every head o' cattle's gone. They'll fine 'em, an' arrest 'em,
an' trick 'em, an' fine 'em again until the Germans own the herd all
legal an' proper--an' then they'll chase the Greeks back to British
East for punishment same as they always do. What good 'ud that be to
me? No, no! Me--I'm going to catch 'em this side o' the line, or else
bu'st--an' I won't be too partic'lar where the line's drawn either!
There's maybe a hundred miles to the south o' their line that the
Germans don't patrol more often than once in a leap-year. If I catch
them Greeks in any o' that country, I'm going to kid myself deliberate
that it's British East, and act accordin'!"

At last we convinced him, although I don't remember how, for he was
obstinate from the aftermath of whisky, that we would no more permit
him to go alone than he would consider abandoning his cattle. Then we
had to decide who should follow with our string of porters, for if
forced marching was in o