Tenpenny Nail grinned.
"All right, sah!" he replied. "Dey come one-time quick."
"Who?" demanded the Colonel.
"Massa Colin, I 'specks," answered Tenpenny Nail, quietly. "Three white mans an' heap plenty boys. You no make savee, den ask Blue Fly."
"Rot!" exclaimed Colonel Narfield, yet, curious to know how the rumour originated, he went out on to the stoep and called Blue Fly.
Evidently something was in the air, for the Haussas and the East African natives were greatly excited. All declared that Colin and Desmond were on the way to the house.
They seemed so emphatic about it that the Colonel and the old Boer went to the gate and looked down the road. Not a soul was in sight, although the track was clearly visible for at least two miles until it descended the remote sides of a hill.
None of the servants had gone in that direction, and no one had arrived with the exception of the postman, and he had not come from Sibenga's Kraal, but from an entirely opposite quarter.
"Blue Fly, you lying rascal!" exclaimed the Colonel. "You've been drinking."
"Me, no, sah," declared the Haussa emphatically. "Nyagava him tell. No lie, Nyagava."