"'Another year of this,' says I to myself, 'and I'll retire home and grow roses, drive a pony-trap and be a churchwarden.' "Then one day the Arab headman blows into camp, and squatting outside our tent, commences to lamentate and pipe his eye in a way that would make you think he'd ate a skinful of prickly pears. "'What's biting you, Bluebell?' I asked. "'_Allah akbar_! God is good but business is rotten,' says he, and pitches a woeful yarn how that columns of Askaris was marching thither and thence, poking their flat noses in where they wasn't invited; Inglische gunboats were riding every wave, scaring seven bells out of the coast dhows, and consequently commerce was sent to blazes and a poor man couldn't get an honest living no-how. The long and short of it was that ivory smuggling was off for the period of the War. "'What war, you scum?' says Gustav, pricking his freckled ears. 'Who's warring?' "'The Inglische and Germans, of course,' says the Arab. 'Didn't the B'wana know?' "'No, the B'wana doesn't,' says I; 'our private Marconi outfit is broke down owing to the monkeys swinging on the wires. Now trot home, you barbarous ape, while me and my colleague throws a ray of pure intellect on the problem. _Bassi_.' "So he soon dismisses at the double and is seen no more in them vicinities. "'Well, partner,' says I to Gustav, 'this is a fair knock-out--what?' "But Gustav, he grumbles something I couldn't catch and walks off into the bush with his head down, afflicted with thought. "He didn't come in for supper, so I scoffed his share and turned in. "At moonrise I thought I heard a bull elephant trumpeting like he was love-sick, but it wasn't. It was Gustav coming home singing the _Wacht am Rhein_. He brings up opposite my bed. "'Oh, give over and let the poor lions and leopards snatch some sleep,' says I. "'I was born in Shermany,' says he. "'Don't let that keep you awake, ole man,' says I. 'What saith the prophet? "If a cat kittens on a fish-plate they ain't necessarily herrings."' "'I'm a Sherman,' says he. "'You've been so long with white men that nobody'd know it,' says I. 'Forget it, and I won't tell on you. Why, you ain't seen Shermany these thirty years, and you wouldn't know a squarehead if you was to trip over one. Go to bed, Mr. Caruso.' "'Well, I'm going to be a mighty good Sherman now, to make up for lost time,' says he grim-like, 'and in case you got any objections I'll point out that you've the double express proximitous to your stomach.'