"Well, if ever I get a chance I'll make them sad with a vengeance." Stephen was a tender-hearted young man, and for all his soft and indolent ways, an awkward customer when roused.
Within forty-eight hours he got his chance, thus: That day we camped early for two reasons.

The first was that the woman and child we had rescued wee so weak they could not walk without rest, and we had no men to spare to carry them; the second that we came to an ideal spot to pass the night.

It was, as usual, a deserted village through which ran a beautiful stream of water.

Here we took possession of some outlying huts with a fence round them, and as Mavovo had managed to shoot a fat eland cow and her half-grown calf, we prepared to have a regular feast.

Whilst Sammy was making some broth for the rescued woman, and Stephen and I smoked our pipes and watched him, Hans slipped through the broken gate of the thorn fence, or _boma_, and announced that Arabs were coming, two lots of them with many slaves.
We ran out to look and saw that, as he had said, two caravans were approaching, or rather had reached the village, but at some distance from us, and were now camping on what had once been the market-place.
One of these was that whose track we had followed, although during the last few hours of our march we had struck away from it, chiefly because we could not bear such sights as I have described.