not seem to hold water when we examined it, so we wrote as Fred
suggested--one letter telling Monty that we hoped to make some
arrangement with the Germans, and at all events to wait in German East
until he could join us--and the other telling him the real facts at
great length, laboriously set out in the code we had agreed
upon.

We sealed the second letter in several wrappers, and sewed it up
finally in a piece of waterproof silk. Then we sent for Kazimoto and
ordered him to find the sort of messenger we needed.

"Send me!" he urged. "I will start now, before it is light! I will
hide by day and travel by night until I reach the British border! Give
me only enough cooked food and my pay and I will take the letter
without fail!"

We refused, for he was too useful to us. He begged again and again to
be sent with the letter, promising faithfully to wait for us afterward
on the British side of the border at any place we should name. But we
upbraided him for cowardice, ordered him to find another messenger, and
promised him he need have no fear of Germans as long as he remained our
servant.

Before high noon we would each have given many years of Kazimoto's pay
if only we could have recalled that decision and have known that he was
speeding away from Muanza toward a border where white men knew the use
of mercy.

Just as the first peep of dawn began to color the sky Schubert came
swaggering down-street to us, wiping his mouth with the back of his
hand.

"How have you slept?" he asked us, laughing.

We answered something or other.

"I did not trouble to sleep! I stayed and finished the drinks. I have
just swallowed the last of the beer! Whoever wants a morning drink
must wait for it now until the overland safari comes!"

We displayed no interest. Brown, the only one likely to yearn for
alcohol before breakfast, snored in his still.

"What of it now? I go drill my troops. Parade is sharp! There remain
twenty minutes. Come with me tell your secret at the boma now, before
it is too late!"

"Explain why it would be too late after breakfast!" demanded Fred.

"All right," said Schubert. "I will tell you this much. There will
come a launch this morning from Kisumu in British East. There will be
people on that launch, one of whom has authority that overrides that of
the commandant of this place. The commandant desires to know your
information--and get the credit for it--before that individual, whose