The black withdrew from the tent, crawling beneath the back wall to avoid being seen by any of his fellows who were in the center of the camp from which the front of the tent was in plain view. Immediately he was gone Flora walked casually into the open and went to Kraski’s tent, which the Russian occupied in common with Bluber. She found the two men and in low whispers apprised them of what the black had told her. Kraski then called Peebles and Throck, it being decided that they should give no outward sign of holding any suspicion that aught was wrong. The Englishmen were for jumping in upon the blacks and annihilating them, but Flora Hawkes dissuaded them from any such rash act by pointing out how greatly they were outnumbered by the natives, and how hopeless it would be to attempt to overpower them. Bluber, with his usual cunning and shrewdness which inclined always to double dealing where there was the slightest possibility for it, suggested that they secretly advise the Arabs of what they had learned, and joining forces with them take up as strong a position in the camp as possible and commence to fire into the blacks without waiting for their attack. Again Flora Hawkes vetoed the suggestion. “It will not do,” she said, “for the Arabs are at heart as much our enemies as the blacks. If we were successful in subduing the niggers it would be but a question of minutes before the Arabs knew every detail of the plot that we had laid against them, after which our lives would not be worth _that_,” and she snapped her fingers. “I guess Flora is right, as usual,” growled Peebles, “but what in ’ell are we goin’ to do wanderin’ around in this ’ere jungle without no niggers to hunt for us, or cook for us, or carry things for us, or find our way for us, that’s wot I’d like to know, and ’ere we are, ’n that’s that.” “No, I guess there ain’t nothin’ else to do,” said Throck; “but blime if I likes to run away, says I, leastwise not for no dirty niggers.” There came then to the ears of the whites, rumbling from the far distance in the jungle, the roar of a lion. “_Oi! Oi!_” cried Bluber. “Ve go out all alone in dot jungle? _Mein Gott!_ I just as soon stay here und get killed like a vite man.” “They won’t kill you like a white man,” said Kraski. “They’ll torture you if you stay.” Bluber wrung his hands, and the sweat of fear rolled down his oily face. “_Oi!_ vy did I done it? vy did I done it?” he wailed. “Vy didn’t I stay home in London vere I belong?” “Shut up!” snapped Flora. “Don’t you know that if you do anything to arouse the suspicion of these fellows they will be on us at once? There is only one thing for us to do and that is to wait until they precipitate the attack upon the Arabs. We will still have our weapons, for they do not plan to steal them from us until after the Arabs are killed. In the confusion of the fight, we must make our escape into the jungle, and after that—God knows—and God help us.”