cattle: they roamed about and suffered heavy defeats in war: and at length Bill left them, when almost starving, and built himself the little hut in the wood where John had found him. Now he was happy. The msungu had been his friend. He had brought him into the very country of the bad men: and when he had punished the people who had robbed him, surely he would go farther, a little farther, and recover the ivory which lay in the earth awaiting its rightful master. "But did not the bad men take it when they had killed the Arabs?" asked John. No: they might have sought for it, but they would never find it. They could not tell where it had been concealed, and if they had returned to the camp they would not have discovered it, for the Arabs had strewed ashes from their fires over the spot, to hide the disturbance of the earth. Bill knew where it was; he could lead the msungu straight to the spot; and the msungu who had been his friend would show his friendliness still, and would perhaps buy the treasure when it was laid bare. "What do you think of it?" John asked Ferrier, as they talked it over together. "It sounds like a fairy tale. You may be sure that the ’bad men’ did find it. They would naturally suppose it had been buried in the camp and search for it there." "I’m not so sure. They’re not a very intelligent lot, to begin with. Imagine a crowd of chawbacons----" "What are they?" "Oh, I suppose you haven’t got ’em in Canada--raw country yokels who haven’t any ideas beyond beans and bacon. Imagine them in the same case, chasing a party for twenty miles or more and then finding that they hadn’t got what they supposed they had. They wouldn’t know but what the treasure had been hidden anywhere along the twenty miles run, and they’d adjourn to the nearest ’pub.’" "You may be right, though I guess no Canadian would give it up so soon. Anyway, we can’t help the old fellow, can we?" "We’ve got our own job to see through first, and that will be tough enough, I expect. The beggars must have marched at a tremendous pace, and we shall be short of food soon. If we don’t catch them to-morrow we shall be in a pretty bad way, for the country seems practically a wilderness. But we won’t croak yet. I’ll take first watch while you sleep: I’ll wake you at midnight; and we’ll make an early start."