"Hassan! Do you mean that the Arabs are coming?"
"Even so, O great one. They are well matched, the man-eaters and the man-stealers."
"And whom do they go against?"
"What should bring Hassan here but one thing, and that the fear of
Muata?"
"Humph!" muttered Mr. Hume.
"They go against my people, so that when Muata returns there will not be one left—man, woman, child, or dog—to greet him, not one hut left to shelter him, not a single manioc-root for him to eat. Hassan will let in the waters upon the Garden of Rest."
"Eh?"
"That is his word. He has sworn it in his beard, and these jackals howl it out. They talk of new fish that are to come to their nets."
"New fish?"
"Oh aye. When the water is let in, they will stand on the sloping banks of the Garden of Rest and net the drowned."