father's slaves, whose right cheek was completely ripped off by a
prowling hyaena. The disturbance in the dead hour of night alarmed some
of the younger slaves, but they were calmed by the wise and experienced
Moto, who said sententiously that "the hyaena is a cowardly brute, who
would run away at the sight of a child in the daytime, and who could
only fight sleeping or dead men."

After these incidents, which occurred at the stagnant pools of the Lofu,
the caravans continued, their march uninterruptedly until they arrived
among the Wahehe, a tribe of predatory people who live south of the
great arid plain country of Ugogo.

The first night, before going to sleep after their arrival in Uhehe, the
kirangozi of Khamis bin Abdullah rose up at the command of his master--
and spoke out in a loud voice to the united caravans:

"Words, words, words! Listen, ye children of the Arabs, sons of the
great chiefs, Khamis bin Abdullah, Amer bin Osman, Sultan bin Ali, the
Sheikhs Mussoud, Abdullah, Bashid, Hamdan, Thani, and Nasib! Open your
ears, ye people of Zanzibar! Ye are among the Wahehe. Ye are in the
land of thieves, and night-prowlers. Be wary and alert, my friends;
sleep with one eye open; let not your hands forget your guns. When ye
meet the prowling Wahehe in your camps at night, shoot and kill all
such. Do ye hear?"

"We do," was answered by six hundred voices.

"Do ye understand?" he again asked.

"Yes," they all replied.

"It is well; the kirangozi Kingaru, slave of Khamis bin Abdullah, has
spoken."

For two days they travelled through Uhehe without molestation, but on
the evening of the third day Sheikh Amer commanded his tent-pitchers to
set his tent close against the hedge of brush and thorn (which always
surrounds a camp in Africa when it is procurable), for the convenience
of his household, the members of which could thus by a slight gap pass
in and out freely to the pool to get water or to procure wood for the
fire, without being compelled to traverse the length of the camp.

A couple of hours before dawn, when people sleep heaviest, and their
slumbers are supposed to be soundest, Simba, who always slept lightly at
night, because of the responsible cares which a just and faithful
conscience ever imposed on him, was awakened by the crushing of a twig.
He never stirred, but continued his regular breathing as before, and
compelled his ears to do their duty to the utmost. After a little time
his qu