He arranged for a watch to be kept up during the remainder of the night, and then threw himself down on the ground near the fire, not to sleep, for the negro is an untrustworthy sentry, but to turn things over in his mind. He remembered the store of ivory which Bill wished to recover, and would have been willing to help the old man; but when he considered the matter he concluded that it would be sheer lunacy to venture with his handful of men into the country of a tribe that had been strong enough to annihilate a large and well-armed Arab safari. There was no reason to suppose that the "bad men" were any less powerful now than they had been then. "And suppose I got the ivory," he thought, "how the dickens could I carry it? The men have got quite enough to carry, what with the loot here and the things left with Charley. Judging by the weight of billiard balls a single tusk of ivory would be a pretty heavy load for two or three men, and we might be two or three weeks getting back. Bill will be upset, without a doubt, but I can’t help that. A good rest, and then start for home: that’s my ticket." Pondering further, he came to the conclusion that there might after all not be the need for haste that he had at first imagined. Juma’s men were thoroughly disheartened, no doubt; the garrison at the fort had been turned adrift; they had lost the greater part of their firearms and ammunition and all their stores of food, and it was probable that for the present they would have enough to do to find subsistence without wasting their energies in attacking either him or Ferrier. His own men had been marching or fighting, with only a few hours’ sleep, for two days; a long rest was necessary for them; so he decided, before he fell into a half-doze from which the least sound would have roused him, that he might look forward to spending a day or two in the fort before he need set off to rejoin Ferrier. At dawn he was up, and went to the gate to look round. None of the enemy were in sight, except his wounded prisoner, whom he saw hobbling across the causeway. In the excitement of the attack he had clean forgotten the man, who, he remembered with compunction, must have been all night in the wood, hungry, a prey to terror and pain. He let down the bridge and admitted him at once. "Let me look at your leg," he said. Removing the bandages, he saw that it was a case for desperate remedies. "You must let me cut the bullet out," he said.