THE END OF THE TRAIL 131 



was always telling them that at such and such a 

 place he would make a big stand ; and " then we 

 will see the vultures/' said the German com- 

 mandant. But some reason would make him 

 decide to choose instead another position further 

 back. That would be prepared, and again M we 

 will see the vultures " would be the boast, but 

 again the same thing was still repeated, and a still 

 farther retreat without a fight to yet another 

 position, preparatory, I suppose, " to seeing the 

 vultures." 



Leaving W.-S. in charge of our camp, we now 

 pushed down the Quito as rapidly as possible, 

 keeping a good look-out in case the " expedition 

 for German East " might be coming up. We did 

 not care how many of the " Square Heads " might 

 come poking up, so long as we could locate them 

 first, and ascertain their position before they saw 

 us. At the junction we picked up Johnson again, 

 and finding that one of the Germans, the man we 

 knew as the bogus officer, had split from the 

 others and made down the river towards Libebe, 

 Johnson and West went after him, and old Rens- 

 berg and I crossed the Quito and Okavango to 

 find out where the main body of these fellows had 

 got to. We found they were all about thirty 

 miles back from the river, camped at some water- 

 holes. From the bushmen we heard that " the 

 tame Ingiraffes " (i.e. camels) were dying, either 

 from weakness or, we thought, perhaps from 

 poison. I made old Yangana come across to see 



