“Masai not talking.  Masai using spear and kill!” remarked Kazimoto.

“One good thing our gov’ment’s done,” said Brown.  “Just one.  It has kept those rascals from owning rifles!  But lordy!  They’ve got spears that give a man the creeps to see!”

He began looking to his rifle.  So did Will and I.

“Now this here is my fight,” he explained.  “Them’s my cattle.  They’re all the wealth I own in the world.  If I lose ’em I’m minded to die anyhow.  There’s nothing in life for a drunkard like me with all his money gone and nothing to do but take a mean white’s job.  You chaps just wait here and watch while I ’tend to my own affairs.”

“Exactly!” Will answered dryly.  “I’ve a hundred rounds in my pockets.  That ought to be enough.”

While we made ready, leaving our loads and porters in a safe place and giving the boys orders, I saw two things happen.  First, the Masai became aware of the little Greek encampment and the two hundred head of cattle waiting at their mercy; and second, the Greeks grew aware of the Masai.

The Greeks had boys with them; I saw at least half a dozen go scattering to round up the cattle.  The tents began to come down, and I saw three figures that might be the Greeks and the Goanese holding a consultation near the tree.

“And now,” remarked Will, “I begin to see the humor in this comedy.  Which are we—­allies of the Greeks or of the Masai?  Are we to help the Greeks get away with Brown’s cattle, or help the Masai steal ’em from the Greeks?  Are your cattle all branded, Brown?”

“You blooming well bet they are!”

“Masai know enough to alter a brand?”

“Never heard o’ their doing it.”

“Then if the Masai get away with them to British East, if you can find ’em you can claim ’em, eh?”

“Claim ’em in court wi’ the whole blooming tribe o’ Masai—­more’n a quarter of a million of ’em—­all on hand to swear they bought ’em from me; an’ the British gov’ment takin’ sides with the black men, as it always does?  Oh, yes!  It sounds easy, that does!”

“But if the Greeks get away with ’em,” argued Will, “you’ve no chance of recovering at all.”

“I’ll not take sides with Masai—­even against Greeks!” Brown answered grimly, and Will laughed.

“If we attack the Greeks first,” I said, “perhaps they’ll run.  We’re nearer to them than the Masai are.  The Masai, will have to corral their own cattle before they can leave them to raid a new lot.  We can open fire at long range begin with.  If that scares the Greeks away, then we can, round up Brown’s cattle and drive them back northward.  We may possibly escape with them too quickly for the Masai to think it worth while to follow.”

Brown laughed cynically.

“We can try it,” he said.  “An’ if the Greeks don’t run pretty quick they’ll never run again—­I’ll warrant that!”

Nobody had a better plan to propose, so we emptied our pockets of all but fifty rounds of ammunition each, and gave the rest to Kazimoto to carry, with orders to keep in hiding and watch, and run with cartridges to whoever should first need them.