just like
Jack's story of the mammoth up in the north. You noticed the password,
'Me debbil man'? Well, there isn't a particle of doubt in my mind that
Mowbray and Selim are parts of a big underground concern for illicit
trading. I don't for a minute think Mowbray would traffic in slaves, but
of course he's the biggest ivory raider in the game."

"Then it's a sort of conspiracy?" shot out Jack quickly. "Any chance of
our gettin' mixed up in the business?"

"Not a bit of it," asserted the explorer, with a smile at von Hofe.
"I'll answer for that, Jack. Selim is satisfied, and we'll probably
never hear from him or Mowbray again. Our own trip is perfectly fair and
square, the authorities will know everything we do, and we can't afford
to soil our fingers with anything crooked. It doesn't pay."

"That is why," struck in Dr. von Hofe, "I came to you. 'Schoverling,'
they told me, 'he is straight.' It is a good reputation to have, my
friend."

The boys nodded, understanding. A look of gratification crossed the
explorer's face, such gratification as comes to a man when he knows that
he has won the esteem of other men.

"We are not looking for hot water and sea serpents," went on the doctor
with a broad smile at the boys. "We are looking for elephants, let us
remember, please!"

With that, the topic of Lake Quilqua was promptly dropped. At Ras al
Kyle, Selim ben Amoud went ashore--this time wearing sandals and
burnous--and the _Mombasa_ took up her interrupted journey south. But
late that night, as the boys swung into their bunks, Jack gave vent to
his long-repressed thought.

"Chuck, I wish to thunder we were goin' to hunt for that lake!"

"Forget it," advised Charlie. "Von Hofe isn't paying expenses for us to
chase around after sea serpents. Anyhow, Jack, when you come to think it
over it doesn't stand to reason that there's any such place as that.
There's a heap of sense in what the General said. I've heard that Injun
yarn about the mammoths up north; but you know's well as I do that when
it comes down to hard pan there's nothin' to it. Same with this magic
lake."

"Guess you're right," sighed Jack regretfully, turning out the light.
While the boys were turning in, Dr. Gross von Hofe was replying to a
certain question put to him by the General, before they retired.

"Yes, my friend, it could be. Lieutenant Graetz found just such gigantic
buffalo at Lake Bangweolo, and was all but killed by them. He has
promised t