“You are mad!  You are crazy!”

“We are the men you have invited to trust you,” Fred answered kindly. 
        “Those are our conditions.  We will not ’bate one iota!  Take
’em or leave ’em, Lady Waldon!”

CHAPTER TEN

IN HOC SIGNO VADE

Lean, loveless, hungry lanes are these! 
        The longest has an end. 
Ill luck tasted to the bitter lees
        Soonest shall mend.
>From out the foe’s ranks if Heaven please
        Shall come your friend.

We came to no fixed decision that night, although we knew there was no alternative.  She held out, in the vain hope of making us agree to leave Kazimoto and Brown behind.  The porters, she agreed, might come in very handy, although it was at least doubtful that we should be able to slip out of Muanza by land.  The Germans had taken latterly to counting our porters every morning, to supplying them with ration money once every day, and to sending the bill to us by an askari, who waited for the cash.  At any rate, she conceded the porters, provided we would leave the two others behind.  And of course we were adamant.

She left us an hour and a half before dawn, we letting her return alone because of the greater danger of detection if we had tried to escort her.  It was after she had gone, while we sat listening for the sound of a challenge that would have ruined all her hopes, if not ours, that Will conceived the bright idea which finally saved us.

“The Heinies don’t know that we’re wise to their game,” he said cheerfully.  His ears were sticking out from his head and he had the naughty boy look that always presaged wisdom.  “Why don’t we play that card for all it’s worth?”

“We need five cards to make even a poker hand,” Fred objected.

“Will a full house suit you—­aces and queens?” he answered.  “I’ve named you one ace already.  Ace number two is the fact that these German officials are brutes pure and simple—­brutes who don’t understand how to be anything else, with brutal low cunning and no other cleverness.”

“That sounds like the joker!” said Fred.

“It’s ace number two, I tell you!  The third is the fact that Brown of Lumbwa can talk with Kazimoto in the night through that corrugated iron partition!  Three aces—­count ’em—­one, two, three!  Queens?  One of ’em left a few minutes ago!  The other’s the dhow!  We’ll call that blessed boat the Queen of Sheba for luck!  The Queen of Sheba got to her journey’s end, and found more than she expected, and by the lights of little old Broadway, so shall we!  I’ve dealt the cards—­is it up to me to play them?”

“Your hand, America!  Talk it over first, though!  There’s an awful lot hangs on the game!” said Fred.

I fell asleep while they argued over the points of Will’s strategy.  Africa is a land of sudden death and swift recoveries, but for a convalescent man I had been through a strenuous day and had right to be tired out.  It was broad daylight when I awoke, and breakfast was ready.  Fred and Will had returned from their march around the township with the native band, and to my surprise the commandant was standing in front of their tent, talking with them.  I threw on a jacket and joined them at table.