CHAPTER XX
NIPPED IN THE BUD
The two Haussas excitedly greeted their respective masters. Their previous disappointment was forgotten. Absolutely devoted to Colin and Desmond, their joy at being able to render them a good turn was unbounded.
It was quite by a lucky accident that Tenpenny Nail and his companion were on the right spot and at the right time.
Almost as soon as Sinclair and Desmond had ridden away, the two Haussas agreed to go out for an afternoon's shooting. They went. They shot nothing. They felt "fed up."
Then Tenpenny Nail suggested that they should sit down and palaver. The utter scarcity of sport they accounted for by reasoning that their young masters had driven the springbok away.
Blue Fly agreed that this was the reason, and suggested that if they waited long enough "Demon" and his companion would drive the springbok in front of them as they returned. They were, he said, almost sure to come home by that path.
So the Haussas basked in the sunshine until the reports of several rifle shots stirred them into activity. Grinning at each other, they grasped their rifles as they pictured the discomfiture of their young masters when they discovered that they had obligingly driven the springbok within easy range of the Haussas' rifles.
But when Colin and Desmond appeared in view, not as hunters but as hunted, Tenpenny Nail and Blue Fly acted promptly, and a rapid emptying of magazines quickly turned the tables on the advance party of Sibenga's warriors.