108 WAR: A SCOUTS' PATROL 



and some white men in that direction. The 

 Portuguese fort had been completely levelled ; all 

 the buildings had been burnt and heavy rain had 

 flattened everything out afterwards. Thinking 

 this sight might be a discouraging start for my 

 carriers and Marosie runners, and knowing that 

 the great thing with a nigger, if you do not want 

 him to get scared, is to appear never to be hiding 

 anything, I asked them, while they were staring 

 at the ruins, if they did not see what the Germans 

 would do to them if they caught us. For a 

 second or two they looked serious, then, seeing 

 me trying to hide a smile at their long faces, their 

 spokesman said, " What does that matter ? We 

 are all men, aren't we, and can fight them if we 

 meet them ? " 



The country was greatly changed along the 

 Okavango since I had previously travelled it. 

 Then it had been newly burnt ; now the grass was 

 very high and rank everywhere, and I could hardly 

 recognise my old camps. The difference was as 

 great as between a fat and a poor horse, or as the 

 contrast between a lean and a well-fed beast. 



A couple of days later we turned off the river 

 and cut across through the sand veld, watering 

 at sand-pits till we hit the Quito about thirty 

 miles from the junction. It was too open a 

 country to travel right along the frontage without 

 knowing how things were, and whether any band 

 of the enemy was in the neighbourhood. Our 

 plan was to look for some suitable, but well- 



