"What is the matter?"
"There are always misfortunes; we can't win everything."
"You don't mean to say----"
"I mean to say that the other Wissmann boat, the Hermann von Wissmann, allowed itself to be surprised at Sphinxhaven on Nyassa."
"And was captured? Really we must take that as a set-off against your defeat of our Navy--in the North Sea, I suppose. But to come back to Abercorn."
"You know as well as I do that we were beaten off. The English were four to one: what else could be expected?"
"I see! That explains why you have been ranging the country for recruits. But I understood that your forces in East Africa hopelessly outnumbered the British."
"So they do, but not everywhere. In the north we have cut the Uganda Railway, captured Mombasa and Nairobi, and are sweeping the English into the sea."
"Well, they'll be quite at home there! It's our native element, you know. These successes must console you for your failure at Abercorn: they'll lighten your captivity, Sergeant."
"That is true," said the German, blind to irony. "And I shall not be your prisoner long."