They shrugged their shoulders and one of them answered with a rather dreadful laugh: 

“Because, Chief, these Arabs, being black-hearted, kill those who can walk no more, or tie them up to die.  If they let them go they might recover and escape, and it makes the Arabs sad that those who have been their slaves should live to be free and happy.”

“Does it?  Does it indeed?” exclaimed Stephen with a snort of rage that reminded me of his father.  “Well, if ever I get a chance I’ll make them sad with a vengeance.”

Stephen was a tender-hearted young man, and for all his soft and indolent ways, an awkward customer when roused.

Within forty-eight hours he got his chance, thus:  That day we camped early for two reasons.  The first was that the woman and child we had rescued wee so weak they could not walk without rest, and we had no men to spare to carry them; the second that we came to an ideal spot to pass the night.  It was, as usual, a deserted village through which ran a beautiful stream of water.  Here we took possession of some outlying huts with a fence round them, and as Mavovo had managed to shoot a fat eland cow and her half-grown calf, we prepared to have a regular feast.  Whilst Sammy was making some broth for the rescued woman, and Stephen and I smoked our pipes and watched him, Hans slipped through the broken gate of the thorn fence, or boma, and announced that Arabs were coming, two lots of them with many slaves.

We ran out to look and saw that, as he had said, two caravans were approaching, or rather had reached the village, but at some distance from us, and were now camping on what had once been the market-place.  One of these was that whose track we had followed, although during the last few hours of our march we had struck away from it, chiefly because we could not bear such sights as I have described.  It seemed to comprise about two hundred and fifty slaves and over forty guards, all black men carrying guns, and most of them by their dress Arabs, or bastard Arabs.  In the second caravan, which approached from another direction, were not more than one hundred slaves and about twenty or thirty captors.

“Now,” I said, “let us eat our dinner and then, if you like, we will go to call upon those gentlemen, just to show that we are not afraid of them.  Hans, get the flag and tie it to the top of that tree; it will show them to what country we belong.”

Up went the Union Jack duly, and presently through our glasses we saw the slavers running about in a state of excitement; also we saw the poor slaves turn and stare at the bit of flapping bunting and then begin to talk to each other.  It struck me as possible that someone among their number had seen a Union Jack in the hands of an English traveller, or had heard of it as flying upon ships or at points on the coast, and what it meant to slaves.  Or they may have understood some of the remarks of the Arabs, which no doubt were pointed and explanatory.  At any rate, they turned and stared till the Arabs ran among them with sjambocks, that is, whips of hippopotamus hide, and suppressed their animated conversation with many blows.