If any important matters are to be adjusted it is usually at the camp-fire that the things are settled.

If punishment is to be meted out to a transgressor, it is there that the trial is held and judgment rendered.
Well, on, this night as we sat talking by the camp-fire, Abdi, our head-man, suddenly appeared and squatted down.

Soon after up came Askar, who also squatted down, and we knew that we were in for some unusual sort of a _shauri_.

It was then that Askar told of the strange mystery of the mountain.
[Photograph: Curious as to Our Home Life] [Photograph: On the Rim of the Crater] [Photograph: A Birthday Dinner] "Askar says," spoke Abdi, interpreting Askar's imperfect English, "that up in the mountain there is a big door and a great cave.

He went up with a Frenchman, and the guides refused to go.