Reinecke’s party was still halted. Tom heard now and then the lower tones of the Germans mingling with the high-pitched voices of the askaris. What were they waiting for? After perhaps twenty minutes voices came from the other direction. The two askaris reappeared, followed by a string of native porters, some carrying what appeared to be the material of a tent; others, boxes and bales of provisions; others, lumps of freshly killed meat. The explanation of the delay flashed upon Tom. The game he had killed had been cut up; the two askaris had been sent back to hasten the march of the porters. "I might have been nabbed," Tom thought. When the porters joined the waiting askaris, a German voice gave the order to march. After a short interval Tom emerged from his place of concealment and followed. On reaching the spot on which they had halted, he found that it was skirted by a track evidently made not long before--almost certainly the path by which his men had come from the nullah that morning. To his surprise, Reinecke and his party, instead of pursuing this track, as they might have been expected to do if their destination was the nullah, had swerved northward and marched through the pathless scrub. Tom was standing at the angle between the two tracks, hesitating whether to follow the enemy or to take the shortest cut home, when a rustle among the bush behind him caused him to face round quickly, revolver in hand. His eyes fell not on an enemy, but on the ever-smiling countenance of Mwesa. "Savvy me find sah all right," said the boy, quietly. "You saw Reinecke?" asked Tom. Mwesa nodded. "Haroun too, sah. Him no eat up: how him get away?" "The sentries must have been napping, I suppose. But how did you come to find me here?" "Me hear shoot," he said. "Me run find sah: rhino no matter. Sah gone: ebery one gone--all ’cept fellas what cut up nudder rhino. Ah! Mwesa savvy all same. Me run back dis way: savvy sah come dis way bimeby." Tom reflected that the boy’s optimism had been justified by a lucky accident. "Where are the men?" he asked. "No savvy, sah. ’Spect dey all run home quick." "I hope so. Now, these Germans--I thought they were going to our nullah, but it seems that they are not. What is their game? Any suggestion, Mwesa?"