"What about the farm?"
"Gillespie will have sent somebody up by the time we could get back."
"But don't you think we've done for Juma? To-night's work will damage his prestige, and I shouldn't wonder if the 'bad men,' as Bill calls them, round on him now."
"I don't know. It will take him some time to recover from the blow, of course, but you see he still has some of our rifles and a certain amount of ammunition, I should think, and they'll go a long way in this country of bows and arrows. No: I confess I'd like to follow him up. The chief difficulty is our natives. They've recovered their property, which is what they came for, and I rather doubt whether they'll be willing to go any farther from home. If they won't there's no more to be said."
"In any case we aren't strong enough to storm the fort, if it is a fort."
"I shouldn't propose to do that. My idea is to start at sunrise or before, and get to the fort in advance of Juma. His men are quite demoralized: they'll take some time to rally. They'll probably hide in trees during the night, and they'll have to find one another in the morning, so that if we start early we can easily outstrip them."
"We don't know the way."
"But we've got some prisoners, my boy. No, we haven't though; I called our men off before they caught them. That's awkward."
"I wonder if the fellow who tried to pot me is still alive."
"You didn't tell me of that. When was it?"