o enjoy the spectacle of our discomfort.

We judged it best to appear concerned, as if that was indeed our first
realization of the extent of the case against us and the nature of the
evidence. But we did not find it difficult. We were all three
startled by the fear that in some way he had got wind of our plans, and
that he meant to play with us cat-and-mouse fashion.

That night it stormed--not rain, but wind from east to west, blowing
such clouds of dust that one could scarcely see across the narrow
streets. Every element favored us. Even the askari at the
cross-roads, supposed to be watching the Greeks, turned his back to the
wind, and what with rubbing sand in and out of smarting eyes and
fingering it out of his ears, heard and saw nothing. It was scarcely
sunset when we saw both Greeks and the Goanese sneak out of the camping
place in Indian file with their pockets full of cotton waste. They had
soaked the stuff in kerosene right under our eye that afternoon.

There ought to have been a sliver of moon, but the wind and dust hid
it. Fifteen minutes after sundown the only light was from the lamps in
windows and the cooking fires glowing in the open here and there.
Thirty minutes later there began to be a red glow in three directions.
Less than one second after we saw the first indications of the
holocaust a regular volley of shots broke out from the boma as the
sentries on duty gave the general alarm. Less than five minutes after
that the whole of the southern, grass-roofed section of the town was
going up in flames, and every living man, black, white, gray, mulatto,
brown and mixed, was running full pelt to the scene of action.

We waited ten minutes longer, rather expecting the Greeks to double
back and begin denouncing us at once. In that case we intended to
stretch them out with the first weapons handy. I sat feeling the
weight of an ax, and wondering just how hard I could hit a Greek's head
with the back of it without killing him. Fred had a long tent-peg.
Will chose a wooden mallet that our porters carried to help in pitching
tents.

But the Greeks did not come, and there streamed such a perfect screen
of crimson dust, sparkling in the reflected blaze and more beautiful
than all the fireworks ever loosed off at a coronation, that it was
folly to linger. We each seized the load left for that last trip
(Fred's included the hammer, pincers, and cold chisel for striking off
the porters' chain) and