"And those men whose presence he suddenly remembered, and who are to meet us to-night, will be Hassan's slave-robbers, too?"
"Ow aye," said Muata, with a ferocious gleam in his eyes.
"So, then, they have been waiting for us?"
"On both sides of the river they have been waiting;" and the chief looked out over the brown flood towards the north bank.
"It was well you talked to the man, for he was skillfully disguised, even to me, who am no child in these matters."
"Muata is old in cunning," said the chief, quietly. "If he were not wise, he would not be dreaded by the Wolf."
"I never recognized the beggar," said Venning, "and even now I cannot recall a feature that was like the Zanzibar! How did you discover him, Muata?"
"Wow! He wore nothing in his ears, there were no marks on his body, he had rubbed the dark juice of the chewing-leaf over his skin, and there was a lie on his tongue, and in his eyes. Ho!—white men, this is my word, that we fall on them to-night." The chief picked up a Ghoorka knife. "This is my weapon."
"We are not man-hunters," said Mr. Hume. "We will, however, hang about till evening, so that they may think we have no suspicions, and then in the dusk we will push on."
"Wow!" said the chief. "My plan would be to land above, to creep down and take them unprepared."