The homeward journey was slow and laborious: only by the touch of their bare feet could the Wahehe distinguish in the darkness the tracks they had made as they came. Tom slumbered a part of the way, and when, at a late hour, they regained the nullah, he waited only to hear that nothing had disturbed the peace and to arrange for Reinecke's accommodation during the night, before seeking his hut and throwing himself, worn out, upon the mattress of plaited grass which some of the women had made for him.
Next morning, after ten hours' unbroken sleep, he rose, a little stiffly, to face the work of another day.
"First job, to dispose of Reinecke," he thought.
The German was in a furious temper.
"You wish to kill me," he cried, when Tom came to him. "You put me in a wretched native hut, without a fire, without blankets, to perish of cold, to be struck with ague. As a prisoner of war--you call it war?--I demand proper treatment, according to international law."
"I don't know anything about international law," said Tom; "common law and common sense would set you dangling from a tree, I suspect. But I'm not your judge. While you're here you'll be treated like the other prisoners. You'll join them on the island yonder."
"I must have a separate hut. In Germany officers and men are never lodged together: it is forbidden."
"We are not in Germany," said Tom, curtly. "The hut is large enough to hold you all: there's no room on the island for another, even if time could be spared to build it. If you feel contaminated by the company of fellow Germans you can spend your leisure in making for yourself a partition: there's plenty of material on the island. You can then live in your own first-class compartment: the men will probably prefer it."
Reinecke was patently surprised. The young cub, as he might have put it, seemed to have suddenly grown up. Even at that last dinner in the bungalow Tom had not taken quite this tone with him. He said no more at the moment: his thoughts were his own. In a few minutes he was punted across the lake on the raft, and left on the shore of the island to introduce himself to his fellow captives. Tom smiled as he watched them salute him, then step hastily aside as, without returning their salute, he pushed his way into the hut. In a few moments he came out and, gnawing his moustache, gazed across at the village, and up the side of the nullah. His lips moved: then he wheeled round and re-entered the hut, whence he emerged no more that day.
It was a busy day for Tom. He saw that the failure of Reinecke's expedition was sure to provoke the Germans to a serious attempt to deal with him. They would no longer hold him lightly, and suppose that he could be snuffed out by a handful of Askaris. When they came, they would come in force. It might be in a day or two; it might be perhaps after a week or more; much would depend on the state of the weather. Were the interval long or short, it must be utilised to the full in strengthening his position.