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77?^ VELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



459 



all evidence of their desertion by putting us out of 

 the way. About 3 p.m. on the day that the Soudanese 

 deserted, I was seated in a straw shed I had had 

 built outside of the zeriba, when I saw a man wear- 

 ing a blue coat, such as those worn by my Sou- 

 danese, coming hurriedly towards the zeriba. He 

 proved to be a Soudanese, named Hussein Mahomet, 

 My first thought was to kill him. I dashed at him, 

 seized him by the throat with my right hand, and 

 with my left wrenched his Mannlicher from him, and 

 cocked it. He fell upon his knees, and stammered 

 out the word " khabar," which means news. Thank 

 Heaven he spoke ; for the tone of his voice brought 

 me to myself, and stayed my hand. I took him in- 

 side of my shed, and then had some of the Somali 

 called, who were conversant with Arabic. 



The intelligence he gave was as follows. The pre- 

 ceding night I had called Mahomet Aman (the head 

 of the Somali) to me, and told him to make ready 

 the chains ; for it was my intention, if the deserters 

 returned, and behaved in a refractory manner, to bind 

 the ringleaders at once. One of the Soudanese was 

 on duty near by, and heard some of the talk. His 

 guilty conscience (for I felt sure the Soudanese knew 

 of the plan of the porters, if they did not assist in 

 its consummation) made him think I was going to 

 chain up the Soudanese. They talked over the 

 matter during the night, but did not mention it to 

 Ramazan ; for they one and all hated him, owing to 

 the fact that he was their chief, and had forced them 

 to maintain a certain amount of discipline. Early 

 the following morning, when Mahomet Aman set to 



