their own people would be on short commons to make up for
the surfeit of ours.

We left them never doubting that they would send word to the nearest
German officer. (They told us there was a wood-cutting station within a
"few hours," and we prayed he might be only a non-commissioned man in
charge of it, but knew that prayer was too sweetly reasonable to be
answered where the German Gott makes war on foreigners.) Kazimoto
assured us he heard them telling one another they would make complaint
against us within the day.

It remained, then, only to guess where that steam launch might be. We
were approaching the northern end of Ukerewe, not a day's sail, if the
light wind held, from the narrow mouth of the channel between Ukerewe
and the mainland. That was the likeliest place for the launch to lie
in wait; it was where we would have waited had we been pursuers and
they the pursued. So we decided after a council of war to put the helm
over and sail almost due westward, hoping to meet with an island where
we might stop for a few days, catch fish and dry them, and caulk the
leaky dhow, without the risk of letting the Germans know our
whereabouts. (It is a peculiar fact that whatever the native secret
system of transferring messages may be, it does not work across water.)

Not all the little gods of Africa were fighting for the Germans,
although it began to seem so. An hour after putting up the helm we
sighted a school of hippopotami--fifty at least, and for half a day we
chased them, Fred trying to shoot one until Will and I objected to
further waste of ammunition. A dead hippo would have provided us with
meat enough for a month for the whole ship's company. We could have
towed the carcass ashore somewhere and dried the meat in slabs. But
the glare on the water made shooting very nearly impossible (Fred's
eyes were sore from it); and if we should meet the Germans those
remaining cartridges would be our only hope. But the diversion took us
out of sight of land, and that stood us in better stead presently than
tons of fresh meat.

Whether the Germans heard us, or were merely quartering that part of
the lake in wait, we never knew. Probably they heard the shooting in
the distance and gave chase. At any rate, within ten minutes of Fred's
last wasted shot Coutlass caught sight of smoke and announced the fact
with his favorite oath.

"Gassharamminy! The launch!"

At first we were all in a stew because there was n