traitor this time. Brown was sleeping off
his headache in the shade. Kazimoto and all the boys were accounted
for. The prisoners were safe. No donkeys were missing--no
firearms--and no loads. The earth had simply opened up and swallowed
Schillingschen, and that was all about it!

He had not made off with his pocket diary. Fred had that. There and
then we packed it in an empty biscuit tin and buried it under a rock,
Will and I keeping watch while Fred did the digging and covering up.
It was too likely that Schillingschen would come back in the night and
try to steal it for any of us to care about keeping it on his person.

It was too late to look far and wide for him that evening. A hunter
such as he could have lain unseen in the dark with us almost stepping
on him. Gone was all appetite for supper! We nibbled, and swore, and
smoked--locked up the whisky--defied either Brown or Coutlass to try to
break the boxes open--and arranged to take turns on sentry-go all that
night, Will, Fred, and I--declining very pointedly offers by the other
two to have their part in keeping watch. In spite of lack of evidence
we suspected Coutlass; and we knew no particular reason for having
confidence in Brown.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE SONG OF THE DARK-LORDS

Turn in! Turn in! The jungle lords come forth
Cat-footed, blazing-eyed--the owners of the dark,
What though ye steal the day! We know the worth
Of vain tubes spitting at a phantom mark
With only human eyes to guide the fire!
Tremble, ye hairless ones, who only see by day,
The night is ours! Who challenges our ire?
Urrumph! Urrarrgh! Turn in there! Way!

Ye come with iron lines and dare to camp
Where we were lords when Daniel stood a test!
Where once the tired safaris used to tramp
On noisy wheels ye loll along at rest!
Tremble, ye long-range lovers of the day,
'Twas we who shook the circus walls of ancient Rome!
The dark is ours! Take cover! Way there! Way!
Urmmph! Urrarrgh! Take cover! Home!

The man who tries to explain away coincidences to men who were the
victims of them is likely to need more sympathy than he will get. The
dictionary defines them clumsily as instances of coinciding, apparently
accidental, but which suggest a casual connection.

Lions paid us a visit that first night after Schillingschen's
escape--the first lions we had seen or heard since lan