"You bet," laughed the other. "He's dying to know whether we've found that cache, and he'd trust me well enough. But we've got to make ready. Jack, go and sling a tent over that pile of ivory. Gholab!"
"Ready, sahib."
"Make tea for all of us, with Selim thrown in. A slice of that impalla for him, too, as he's apt to be hungry. Guru, you and Akram and Ali keep hidden. When I call for you, come alone."
"Yes, sahib."
"What you goin' to do, General?" asked Charlie as the explorer told him to return to the zareba with von Hofe and make every preparation to receive their visitor.
"I'm goin' to run a big bluff on him," said Schoverling. "Remember, those chaps are watching everything we do. Ah, Selim's taking a camel. Keep well hidden up there, Guru!"
With this parting admonition he departed. As they walked slowly back toward the camp, Charlie saw Schoverling pause amid the bushes, fling out his arm as if talking to some one, and point toward the shore. At one place he called Bakari and two of the warriors, whose appearance and disappearance caused a flutter in the group of Arabs.
Selim, meanwhile, had mounted a camel and was approaching the shore. It was only three in the afternoon, and the stately Arab, clad in pure white from head to foot, gleamed in the sunshine, to the admiration of the boys. He drove his ungainly steed into the water and they splashed across. Schoverling, returning, met them at the shore of the island, and led the camel forward to the camp.
Selim cast quick glances to right and left, but the gate-post hole and the treasure were hid beneath canvas and behind the grazing horses—a touch of Jack's. The camel knelt, and the Arab slipped off, Charlie dividing his attention between the man and the ugly, thick-lipped camel.
They all shook hands with smiling courtesy, as if rifles had not been leveled five minutes before, and squatted on blankets around the folding canvas table. Gholab was just making ready tea and a slice of game for the Arab.