e in his two fists. The chief went out to brag to the
village, opening and closing his fists to see how huge their compass
was; and later that night his wives had to be beaten for fighting.
They were jealous because the fattest and the youngest new one had both
been promised double shares.

There was another fight because our porters emerged from their hut and
demanded that a barren cow out of the village herd be butchered. They
made their meaning perfectly clear by taking the cow by the horns and
tail and throwing her on her back. Fred decided that argument with a
thick stick about four feet long.

The unusual spectacle of some one taking sides against his own men,
whatever the rights or wrongs of it, so affected the chief that he
entered our hut next morning disposed to hold us up for double promises
of beads. It was evident we had to deal with a born extortioner. He
would increase his demands with every fresh concession.

"Oh, what's the odds!" laughed Coutlass. "Promise him anything! The
only loads likely to come along this way for a year or two are
Schillingschen's!"

Fred told the chief he would think the matter over, and chased him out
of the hut. Coutlass had given us all a new idea in an instant, and he
was the only one who did not see its point--he, the only one who did
not give a snap of the fingers for the laws of any land!

"D'you suppose--"

"Too good to hope for!"

"If he thinks we're dead--?"

"And if he believes in that map--"

"He'll not need the map. He'll have memorized it. There's only a
circle drawn on it to mark the Elgon district. All the old pencil
marks have been rubbed out as he searched the other likely places and
drew them all blank."

"He'll travel without military escort?"

"Sure! He won't want witnesses! He'll make believe it's a scientific
trip. Remember, he's a professor of ethnology. That's how he puts it
all over the British and goes where he pleases without as much as
by-your-leave."

"Say, fellows! It's a moral cinch that when we broke away from Muanza
he made up his mind in a flash to return to British East and destroy us
on the way. He thinks he made a clean job of that. I'll bet he loaded
the launch down with stuff for a long safari, and thinks now he has a
clear run and can take his time!"

"If that's how the cards lie, the game's ours!"

Coutlass saw the point at last and offered himself on the altar of
forgiveness and friendship.

"Make m