h the Congo border to the west of Victoria Nyanza in
German East Africa, and he was counting on finding natives who could
tell him this and that that might put him on the trail of it! I could
beat that game! I could cross-examine fool natives twice as well as
any fat rascal of an ex-slave! Seeing he had paid all expenses so far,
however, I was not much to the bad, so I picked a quarrel with him and
we parted company. Wouldn't you have done the same, my lord?"

But Fred did not walk into the trap. "What did you do next?" he asked.

"Next? I got a job with the agent of an Italian firm to go north and
buy skins. He made me a good advance of trade goods--melikani,* beads,
iron and brass wire, kangas,** and all that sort of thing, and I did
well. Made money on that trip. Traveled north until I reached
Ruanda--went on until I could see the Fire Mountains in the distance,
and the country all smothered in lava. Reached a cannibal country,
where the devils had eaten all the surrounding tribes until they had to
take to vegetarianism at last."

-----------------
* Melikani, the unbleached calico made in America that is the most
useful trade goods from sea to sea of Central Africa.
** Kanga, cotton piece goods.
-----------------

"But did you find the ivory?" Fred insisted.

"No, or by Jiminy, I wouldn't be here! If I'd found it I'd have
settled down with a wife in Greece long ago. I'd be keeping an inn,
and growing wine, and living like a gentleman! But I found out enough
to know there's a system that goes with the ivory Tippoo Tib buried.
If you found one lot, that would lead you to the next, and so on. I
got a suspicion where one lot is, although I couldn't prove it. And I
made up my mind that the German government knows darned well where a
lot of it is!"

"Then why don't the Germans dig it up?" demanded Fred.

"Aha!" laughed Coutlass. "If I know, why should I tell! If they know,
why should they tell? Suppose that some of it were in Congo territory,
and some in British East Africa? Suppose they should want to get the
lot? What then? If they uncovered their bit in German East Africa
mightn't that put the Congo and the British on the trail?"

"If they know where it is," said I, "they'll certainly guard it."

"Which of you is the lord?" demanded Coutlass earnestly.

"What do you suppose Hassan is doing, then, here in Zanzibar?" asked
Fred.

"Rum and eggs! I know what he is doing! When I snapped m