y thumb under
his fat nose and told him about the habits of his female ancestors be
went to the Germans and informed against me! The sneak-thief! The
turn-coat! The maggot! I shall not forget! I, Georges Coutlass,
forget nothing! He informed against me, and they set askaris* on my
trail who prevented me from making further search. I had to sit idle
in Usumbura or Ujiji, or else come away; and idleness ill suits my
blood! I came here, and Hassan followed me. The Germans made a
regular, salaried spy of him--the semi-Arab rat! The one-tenth Arab,
nine-tenths mud-rat! Here he stays in Zanzibar and spies on Tippoo
Tib, on me, on the British government, and on every stranger who comes
here. His information goes to the Germans. I know, for I intercepted
some of it! He writes it out in Arabic, and provided no woman goes
through the folds of his clothes or feels under that silken belly-piece
be wears, the Germans get it. But if a woman does, and she's a friend
of mine, that's different! Are you the lord, sir?"

------------------
* Askari, native soldier.
------------------

"What do you propose?" asked Fred.

"Help me find that ivory!" said Coutlass. "I have very little money
left, but I have guns, and courage! I know where to look, and I am not
afraid! No German can scare me! I am English-American-Greek!--better
than any hundred Germans! Let us find the ivory, and share it! Let us
get it out through British territory, or the Congo, so that no German
sausage can interfere with us or take away one tusk! Gee-rusalem, how
I hate the swine. Let us put one over on them! Let us get the ivory
to Europe, and then flaunt the deed under their noses! Let us send one
little tip of a female tusk to the Kaiser for a souvenir--female in
proof it is all illegitimate, illegal, outlawed! Let us send him a
piece of ivory and a letter telling him all about it, and what we think
of him and his swine-officials! His lieutenants and his captains! Let
us smuggle the ivory out through the Congo--it can be done! It can be
done! I, Georges Coutlass, will find the ivory, and find the way!"

"No need to smuggle it out," said Fred. "The British government will
give us ten per cent., or so I understand, of the value of all of it we
find in British East."

Georges Coutlass threw back his head and roared with laughter, slapped
his thighs, held his sides--then coughed for two or three minutes, and
spat blood.

"You are the