, packed it, and booked passages for British East
Africa. Between then and the next afternoon when the British India
steamboat sailed we were fairly bombarded by inquisitiveness, but
contrived not to tell much. And with patience beyond belief Monty
restrained us from paying court to Tippoo Tib.

"The U. S. Consul says he's better worth a visit than most of the
world's museums," Yerkes assured us two or three times. "He says
Tippoo Tib's a fine old sport--damned rogue--slave-hunter, but white
somewhere near the middle. What's the harm in our having a chin with
him?"

But Monty was adamant.

"A call on him would prove nothing, but he and his friends would
suspect. Spies would inform the German government. No. Let's act as
if Tippoo Tib were out of mind."

We grumbled, but we yielded. Hassan came again, shiny with sweat and
voluble with offers of information and assistance.

"Where you gentlemen going?" he kept asking.

"England," said Monty, and showed his own steamer ticket in proof of
it.

That settled Hassan for the time but Georges Coutlass was not so easy.
He came swaggering upstairs and thumped on Monty's door with the air of
a bearer of king's messages.

"What do you intend to do?" he asked. (We were all sitting on Monty's
bed, and it was Yerkes who opened the door.)

"Do you an injury," said Yerkes, "unless you take your foot away!" The
Greek had placed it deftly to keep the door open pending his
convenience.

"Let him have his say" advised Monty from the bed.

"Where are you going? Hassan told me England. Are you all going to
England? If so, why have you bought guns? What will you do with six
rifles, three shot-guns, and three pistols on the London streets? What
will you do with tents in London? Will you make campfires in Regent
Circus, that you take with you all those cooking pots? And all that
rice, is that for the English to eat? Bah! No tenderfoot can fool me!
You go to find my ivory, d'you hear! You think to get away with it
unknown to me! I tell you I have sharp ears! By Jingo; there is
nothing I can not find out that goes on in Africa! You think to cheat
me? Then you are as good as dead men! You shall die like dogs! I
will smithereen the whole damned lot of you before you touch a tusk!"

"Get out of here!" growled Yerkes.

"Give him a chance to go quietly, Will," urged Monty, and Coutlass
heard him. Peaceful advice seemed the last spark needed to explode his
cro