ght
an' it nigh finished me."

"Come along, boys," returned Mr. Wallace as he arose. "You get to sleep
again, Montenay. You'll be more fit in the morning."

They adjusted the mosquito curtains for the night and returned to find
dinner waiting for them. After dining sumptuously on eland tongue and
hartebeest tenderloin Burt pushed back his canvas chair with a sigh of
content.

"I s'pose we'll work up toward the Makua pretty quick, won't we?" he
asked his uncle.

"You bet we will," replied the latter fervently. "Just as soon as
Captain Mac's able to navigate. That'll be two or three days anyway. We
have a nice little bunch of ivory and we'll get more in by trading as we
go along. Mvita has four more tusks to bring in too."

"That ivory zareba'd mean a good bunch o' money, wouldn't it?" put in
Critch. "I'd hate to go through what Cap'n Mac has, though."

"By the way," said Mr. Wallace, "don't use all those chop-boxes. I want
a couple of zebra and giraffe skins. We'll get 'em farther north on our
way up."

"Mvita told me this morning," said Burt, "that there was some giraffe
about five miles to the northeast of here. Why couldn't we get 'em and
have a skin fixed by the time Cap'n Mac's ready to march?"

"We'd save time that way, but I don't want to leave him," returned his
uncle thoughtfully. "However, I might send you two out with John. I'd
trust him anywhere."

"Go ahead!" pleaded Critch excitedly. "That'd be great, Mr. Wallace!"

"John!" called the explorer with a smile. "If I send you out after
giraffe in the morning with these boys, will you take good care of 'em?"

"Sure, sar!" grinned the big Liberian cheerfully. "John him be beri
careful. Bring back safe!"

"All right. Get your stuff ready then. You can take my big rifle
yourself." As John went off with a wider grin than ever Mr. Wallace
turned to the boys. "I want you two to promise me that whatever happens
you'll obey John and do just as he tells you."

"All right, sir," replied Critch at once.

"So'll I," agreed Burt. "Five miles in this country won't be any joke,
though!"

"It'll take a good day right enough," nodded Mr. Wallace. "John is
pretty safe to be with and he'll take as good care of you as I would. If
you find the giraffes don't bring down more than two. You might run
across some zebra in the same country and if you do, you can get some of
'em too. But I guess there's not much danger of that, without horses.

"Now remember to obey J