han the
physical weariness and thirst.

We slept a night in that grass, burning some of it for a smudge to keep
mosquitoes at bay, and an hour after dawn, reaching rising ground
again, realized that we had our quarry within reach at last.

They were out in the open on short good grazing. The Greeks' tent was
pitched. We could see their mules, like brown insects, tied under a
tree, and the cattle dotted here and there, some lying down, some
feeding.

"At last!" said Brown. "Boys, they're our meat! There's a tree to
hang the Greeks and the Goa to! When we've done that, if you'll all
come back with me I'll send to Nairobi for an extra jar of Irish
whisky, and we'll have a spree at Lumbwa that'll make the fall of Rome
sound like a Sunday-school picnic! We're in German territory now, all
right. There's not a white man for a hundred miles in any
direction--except your friend that's coming along behind. There's
nobody to carry tales or prevent! I'm no savage. I'm no degenerate.
I don't hold with too much of anything, but--"

"There'll be no dirty work, if that's what you mean," said Will quietly.

Brown stared hard at him.

"D'you mean you'll object to hanging 'em?"

"Not in the least. We hang or shoot cattle thieves in the States. I
said there'll be no dirty work, that's all."

"Shall we rest a while, and come on them fresh in the morning?" I
proposed.

"Forward!" snorted Brown. "Why d'you want to wait?"

"Forward it is!" agreed Will. "When we get a bit closer we'll stop and
hold council of war."

"One minute!" said I. "Tell me what that is?"

I had been searching the whole countryside, looking for some means of
stealing on the marauders unawares and finding none. They had chosen
their camping place very wisely from the point of view of men unwilling
to be taken by surprise. Far away over to our right, appearing and
disappearing as I watched them, were a number of tiny black dots in
sort of wide half-moon formation, and a larger number of rather larger
dots contained within the semicircle.

"Cattle!" exploded Brown.

"And men!" added Will.

"Black men!" said I. "Black men with spears!"

"Masai!" said Kazimoto excitedly. He had far the keenest eyes of all
of us.

We were silent for several minutes. The veriest stranger in that land
knows about the feats and bravery of the Masai, who alone of all tribes
did not fear the Arabs, and who terrorized a quarter of a continent
before the Brit