we weren't on the dhow;
they'd have steamed back then to find us; they thought we were in the
dhow! They thought we were hiding below deck! They're going to
British East to take their Bible oaths they saw us burn and drown!
Isn't that a joke! Isn't that a good one! Gassharamminy! But I'd
give my hope of heaven to know whether they shot the women first or
watched them jump among the crocodiles when the heat grew fierce!"

We paddled to another rocky island--one that had trees on it, and
rested through the heat of the day when we had killed all the snakes
that had forestalled us in the shade. There, after again eating
hippo-tongue unseasoned and ungarnished, we held a council of war, and
Fred produced the map that Rebecca stole from Coutlass.

"If we make for a township now--Kisumu is the nearest--about five and
twenty miles away," said Fred, "we can give ourselves the pleasure of
surprising Schillingschen, and of course we can get a square meal and
some clothes and soap and so on--incidentally perhaps some rifles and
ammunition. But we can't prove a thing against Schillingschen, and he
has enough pull with British officials to make things deuced unpleasant
for us, for a time at least. Consider the other side of it. Suppose
we don't make for a station. Schillingschen reports us dead. Nobody
looks for us--unless perhaps out on the lake for a hat or some scrap of
clothing by way of corroborative evidence. Suppose we paddle out of
this gulf and take to shore somewhere along the north end of the lake.
We've no food, no tents, only one gun, next to no ammunition, nothing
but money and a purpose. We don't know what chance we have of getting
supplies, and particularly rifles, without letting any one know where
we are, but we do know we've a clear field and a straight mark for
Elgon, where rumor says--and Courtney said--and Schillingschen
thinks--and this map says the ivory ought to be! The odds are against
us--climate--starvation--wild beasts--savages--last and not least, the
government, if they ever get wind of our being beyond bounds. Are we
willing to take the chance, or are we not?"

We talked it over for an hour, Coutlass listening all ears to most of
what we said, although we drove him to the farthest limit of the shade
trees. We were in two minds whether or not it mattered if he listened,
and made the usual two-minds hash of it. Finally we put it to a vote,
letting Brown have a voice with the rest of u