igG DAHLAK 



Tirates? What are they?' 



^Bandits, brigands, people that kill. SciftaP 



*Ah,' it dawned on Tesfankièl. 'Sure there are. Always 

 have been. Not so many now. But they could be pirates.' 



'And what do they do around here ?' 



'Steal and kalàs.* 



^Kalàswhat?' 



*Kalàs your head.' 



TU give them kalàs your head,' I grunted. 



'What do you say we do?' Cecco asked me. 



'Nothing. Let's get the guns and when they arrive you and 

 I will go and meet them.' 



'O.K.' 



The sail wais coming in. It was about a hundred yards 

 from the beach now. There were four men and a boy on the 

 sambuk. Not too many for a brace of guns. Oh ho ! Wait a 

 minute. Another identical sail appeared unexpectedly to the 

 north with a full wind astern. 



'That's done it,' Cecco murmured. 



The second sail was making for us too. As it turned we 

 counted the crew : six plus a boy. Six and four's ten plus two 

 boys makes twelve. Cecco had five bullets in his Browning 

 and I had nine slugs in my Beretta. Five and nine's fourteen. 

 Well, it was in our favour. 



'Then in all probability they are fishermen,' I chirped in. 



The sails dropped. The sambuks were one hundred and 

 fifty yards from our bushes and were coming in to land. The 

 men were as quick as monkeys. They jumped overboard and 

 started managing the long thin vessels which appeared to 

 have been carved out of whole trunks. In a moment they had 

 moored them and were coming on to the beach. They were 

 different from the usual run of negroes. Some of them were 

 wearing the open tunic of the Arabs and almost every one 



