Before they went to sleep, Bill, who was not usually communicative, told John more completely, with Coja’s aid, the story of which he had hitherto given only scattered hints. He said that they were now drawing near to his own country, which lay only four marches distant beyond the mountain. Between it and their present camp was the country of the bad men. A long time ago he had been one of a considerable tribe, who for many years had enjoyed good hunting. Large herds of elephants had infested their country, and they had slain some with their spears in open hunting, but more by snaring them in pits. The flesh they ate, the tusks they buried for fear of the Masai and the Rendili, who plundered the weaker tribes. They were waiting for the coming of a safari to which they might sell their store of ivory. The waiting was long, but the safari came at last--a large safari, commanded by brown men, not white men like the _bwana_, nor black like the people of those parts. Coja explained that Bill referred to Arabs. One member of the safari was the very man whom he had seen among the raiders. The Wanderobbo began to bargain with the Arabs, but these, as soon as they learnt where the ivory was buried, had treacherously fallen upon the tribe, and massacred all except a few women whom they spared to make slaves of, for the transport of the treasure. Bill had escaped by shamming dead when the slaughter was going on, and, lurking in the woods, he saw his wife among the slaves whom the Arabs loaded with the ivory. He followed the safari when it marched off with the spoils, and came in its track into the country of the bad men, who secretly gathered around it, and early one morning fell upon it in a fierce assault. From the shelter of a thick tree Bill watched the fighting. The Arabs had fire-sticks, and slew many of the bad men; but after a time they ceased to make the big noises; the fire-sticks had lost their magic. Seeing this, the bad men attacked still more fiercely, and in greater numbers. A whole day the fight lasted, and did not cease until night fell. Creeping up to the Arabs’ camp and climbing a tree, Bill saw them bury the ivory by the light of their fires, working hard all night, and before morning came they broke out of their camp and forced a way through the enemy. These, following their custom, waited until daylight before they pursued the Arabs; then they set off, having no fear of them now that the firesticks were silent. Bill was too frightened to follow them up, but he learnt afterwards that the bad men caught the party up in two days and slew every one, and also the Wanderobbo whom they had enslaved. It was clear, however, that one at least had escaped. Bill remained in the tree until the bad men had gone, and then slipped away and took refuge with a Masai tribe south of his old home. But a time came when disaster overtook the Masai. Disease seized upon their