A CAPTURE 127 



It appeared they were runaways from down 

 below, eight with camels, and the rest horsemen. 

 The camel men had come straight through the 

 dry country from Tsumeb, and did a lot of blowing 

 and boasting as to what they were going to do. 

 They said they were going to get right to German 

 East, fighting their way through. They swore 

 they would never surrender : " We will die rather 

 than give up our rifles. Let the English take us if 

 they can/' and that sort of talk. As it happened 

 that both Johnson and I could speak German, 

 we told them not to be fools, and advised them 

 to go back and surrender with the main forces 

 while they had the chance, warning them at the 

 same time, though, of course, without giving them 

 any idea as to what our numbers were, that if they 

 attempted to cross the river they would immedi- 

 ately be fired on. At night we had quite a friendly 

 chat with them and swapped experiences. We 

 could have got away easily enough with their 

 horses, but the camels, the one thing that we 

 thought might give us trouble, were away back in 

 the bush and too well guarded for us to catch 

 sight of them. 



The Germans all disappeared during the night, 

 and early next morning Johnson left for Libebe 

 to send word to our authorities. After making 

 sure from the tracks that the Germans had 

 retreated to the sand veld, and had not yet made 

 any attempt to cross the river, I pushed on to re- 

 join the other scouts higher up. On the way I 



