ibe, a man with trophies of all sorts of royal game and of no
less than forty men to his matrimonial credit. By the eleventh day
mutual irritation had nigh reached the fusing point. Fairfax had
carefully trained a gun crew to handle a Colt machine-gun that McMillan
was bringing as a present to Ras Makonnen, the victor of the field of
Adowa, and debated with his mates the question of risking an attack.

Luckily, however, the previous day McMillan had bethought him of a
letter of Menelek's he carried, a letter ordering all his subjects to
lend the bearer any aid or succor he might need. This letter he sent
by his Abyssinian headman to Mantoock, the nearest Abyssinian Ras and a
sort of overlord of the Danakils, with request for his advice and aid.
Promptly came Mantoock, with only one attendant, heard the story,
begged McMillan to have no further care, and raced away for Ali Gorah's
village, where happily he arrived in mid afternoon of the eleventh day,
just as Fairfax was making dispositions for opening a finish fight.

Mantoock's first act was to advise Fairfax to withdraw his command and
rejoin the caravan; and, assured that Mirach would be brought away a
prisoner, Fairfax assented and withdrew. Then Mantoock entered alone
the village of Ali Gorah and there spent the night. What passed that
night between the Christian and the pagan chiefs we do not know.
Probably little was said; nothing more was needed, indeed, than the
interpretation of the letter of the Negus and the exhibition of the
royal seal it bore. Full well Ali Gorah knew the heavy penalty of
disobedience.

So it happened that near noon of the twelfth day Mantoock brought
Mirach into McMillan's camp, accompanied by thirty of his family and
the headmen of the tribe, Mirach marching in fully armed with spears
and shield, insolent and fearless.

Asked why he had done the deed, Mirach replied:

"I was resting in the shade. The Feringee approached and asked me to
guide him to the river. I told him to pass on and not to disturb me.
Then he stayed and talked and talked till I got tired and told him not
to tempt me further; for I had never yet had such a chance to kill a
white man. Still he annoyed me with his foolish talk until, weary of
it, I led him away into the thickets to his death and won trophies dear
to Danakil's maidens."

Three camels, worth twenty dollars each, or a total of sixty dollars,
is usual blood-money in Abyssinia. When that is pai