ours ought to find him in at least
the temporary shelter of the German fortified post of Twashi.

With a sardonic expression on his face von Gobendorff waited and
watched. For a full five minutes the grim struggle was maintained.
The trapped Birwa's strength was fast failing. Already greatly
exhausted by his strenuous work with the paddle he was rapidly
collapsing under the strain.

Suddenly he relaxed his grip. The water-logged canoe dipped, and was
swept under the tree, taking with it the doomed native, whose last
despairing cry was drowned in the roar of the rushing river. For a few
moments the surviving Birwa remained kneeling on the inclined mass of
timber, trembling in every limb, then, slowly and with every sign of
temerity he began to make his way up the trunk to dry land.

Raising his pistol the Hun fired straight at the man's head. The
Birwa's arms collapsed, he fell at full length upon the rounded mass of
timber, and, slipping sideways, toppled inertly into the foaming
torrent.

"Hamba gachle!" exclaimed von Gobendorff, using a Zulu expression that
he had picked up in his many and diverse wanderings through South and
Central Africa. "Dead men tell no tales, and you were in my way."

Then, recharging the magazine of his automatic pistol, the German
turned, and, setting his face towards the north-west, strode rapidly
towards the Karewenda Hills.

CHAPTER XIV.

ON THE TRACK

"Mr. Wilmshurst, I shall require you to proceed on special service,"
said Colonel Quarrier.

"Very good, sir," replied Dudley promptly, and awaited the C.O.'s
instructions.

It was the evening of the fall of M'ganga. The prisoners had been
collected and were about to be sent under escort to Kilwa. Fully under
the impression that he was to be detailed for this monotonous but
necessary duty Wilmshurst had reported himself to his colonel, but to
his intense satisfaction he soon found that such was not the C.O.'s
intention.

"Concerning this MacGregor-Gobendorff fellow," continued Colonel
Quarrier. "It seems as if he has slipped through our fingers. We have
been robbed of much of the satisfaction of capturing the position on
that account. The Rhodesian Light Horse patrols are all back and
report no luck as far as the capture of von Gobendorff is concerned,
and the same applies to the Indian troops. From some of the prisoners
we learnt that the fellow slipped away during the preliminary
bombardment, and that he w