Then, knowing that he had no retreat by sea, he had shouted to Miss Helmuth's mission-boys to join him in the jungle, and had plunged into the midst of it, chancing upon the real ruins of the fort.
At this point his story was full of fanciful interpolations, as Hammer termed them, concerning monkeys who threw skulls at him, and pits full of snakes. After weird and wholly impossible adventures he had met Solomon's party of Arabs, who were later joined by Sara Helmuth's mission-boys.
Since the Arabs, whom he wrathfully described as "men without shame", were determined to carry out Solomon's orders, and laughed at his stories of the ruins, he had come on to Melindi with the mission-boys.
Midway, however, he had come down with fever, which explained his delay. The mission-boys had cared for him, and Hammer shrewdly judged that he had made the most of his illness, for at present he displayed no great signs of emaciation.
On the day before, as he was coming into town, he had seen a party of nine men leaving; of these stalwart Masai askaris, bearing the eagle of the German Consulate on the collars of their tunics. Here the American interrupted wrathfully:
"What manner of lie is this, Omar ibn Kasim? How should these men get here from Mombasa?"
"Did not the Juba arrive the day before yesterday, and does it not arrive again to-morrow, Yaum el Ahad?"
"Yes, to-morrow is Sunday," retorted the American, "but that doesn't explain how Jenson could have fetched those askaris from Mombasa."
"A week has passed, effendi," and the other struck into Arabic. "Am I a liar, then? Al Nar wa la al Ar! May fire seize on me, but not shame! If I lie, effendi, may I be childless, may my——"
"Oh, cut it out and go on!" groaned Hammer wearily, recognizing his want of tact in dealing with the man. "You are more truthful than the Koran, Omar Ibn Kasim, so finish the story and I will doubt no more."