"Well, the point is," struck in Orwell, rather testily, "what are we going to do now? Yes. What the very devil are we going to do now? Supposing I--or rather Isard and I--get laagering up the township, we incur the devil's own responsibility, and then, if nothing comes of it, maybe we shan't get into high hot water at Buluwayo for raising an all-searching scare." "I still think we ought to have boned the witch-doctor," said Isard, "even if we waited until everybody had gone home. How's that, Lamont?" "It isn't. In the first place, I had pledged myself to let him go away safe. In the next, you'd have brought matters to a head a lively sight sooner than was wanted. As it is, we have nearly a fortnight to get ready in." "How do you get at that?" "Well, I've got at it--never mind how. The point is to see that you profit by the knowledge. I shall. I'm going back to my farm to-night." "Going back to your farm? The devil you are!" exclaimed Orwell. "Of course. I'm not going to be the one to start the scare. I've warned every fellow I could, but they took it as a howling joke--like in the case of old Noah when he was knocking up the ark." There was a laugh at this. "Well, I've done all I could," he went on. "If you see an idiot sprinting straight for the edge of a precipice and when you warn him off he persists in swearing there's no precipice there--what can you do? Nothing. Your responsibility ceases, unless you are physically strong enough to hold him back. Now, I am not physically strong enough to hold back the whole Matyantatu district. Give us another fill of your 'bacco, Orwell. Mine has all run to dust." "The thing is, what's to be done?" went on Orwell, now rather testily. "You and Isard must settle that," answered Lamont. "I'm not responsible for the safety of the township. Only remember," and here he became impressive, "you have women and children in the place, and lots of the houses are rather outlying. What I would suggest is to formulate some scheme by which you could run together some sort of laager at very short notice. Get all the waggons you can, and sand-bags and store-bags and so on, and warn quietly all the most level-headed of the community, and fix up that they shall get inside it if necessary. Only, do the thing quietly, so you will escape the obloquy of posing as scare-mongers and yet not give it away to the natives that you're funking them. Isard, with his knowledge of strategy, ought to be able to arrange all that to a hair." This was rather a nasty one to Isard, whom the speaker happened to know had been one of those who was too ready to take in the insinuations of cowardice that had been made against himself, and had been a bit short and supercilious in consequence. "That's all very fine and large," retorted the police captain. "But what we should like to know is, how the devil we're going to get that very short notice."