es--English when it suits me--always Greek when I am wronged!"

"You certainly have been put upon" Fred answered. "Tell us how your
Greek spirit justified deserting us."

"Why not?" snarled Coutlass. "Do you love me? What would you do to me
if you could get me to British East in your power? You would hand me
over as a cattle thief!"

"You bet I will!" admitted Brown of Lumbwa. "You dog, you've ruined
me!"

"What did I tell you?" demanded Coutlass. "Why, then, should I not
look out for myself?"

"I think we'd better leave you on this island," Fred told him quietly.
"We can't trust you out of sight. The only way to prevent you from
stealing this rifle and murdering us all would be to lie awake in
turns."

"Bah!" grinned the Greek, striding back toward the fire. "How many
cartridges have you left? Five, eh? After I had murdered all of you,
how many would remain?"

"You'll have to think of a better argument than that," smiled Fred, and
for the first time I suspected he was speaking in deadly earnest.
Coutlass suspected it, too, and grew still. The sweat burst out on his
face, and his eyes bulged from their sockets.

"You will leave me here?" he stammered.

Fred nodded, smiling up at him.

"You see, you're such on all-in scoundrel!" Brown assured him.

"You! You poor drunkard!" Coutlass turned his back on Brown, and faced
Fred squarely. "You are a man, Mr. Oakes! I can speak to you as to my
brother."

Fred smiled blandly.

"I will speak to you God's truth!"

Fred grinned.

"I will tell you where the ivory is!"

Fred threw his head back and laughed outright.

"I speak to you on my honor! That mother of misery, Lady Saffren
Waldon, stole a map from Shillingschen. Before I would agree to set
the town on fire I made her give me that for a hostage, lest she should
prove treacherous and leave me behind after all! I have it now! It is
marked with a circle to show where Schillingschen believes the stuff
must be, because he has searched everywhere else!"

"If that map is worth anything," Fred countered, "how did Lady Saffren
Waldon care to leave you behind with it?"

"The harridan forgot it!" answered Coutlass. "She was so delighted to
get vengeance on Rebecca by taking her away from me that she did not
care for anything else! She hates you! She hates me! She hates
Rebecca! Those who hate--as I can hate!--would rather have revenge
than all the riches of Africa! Do you think I would he