Still, I said I would come too, partly because I had not shot a lion for many a day and had a score to settle with those beasts which, it may be remembered, nearly killed me on the Mountain of Mur, and partly because, knowing the desert and also the Zeu people much better than either the Professor or Orme, I thought that I might possibly be of service.
So we fetched our rifles and cartridges, to which by an afterthought we added two large water-bottles, and ate a hearty breakfast.

As we were preparing to start, Shadrach, the leader of the Abati camel-drivers, that man with the scarred face who was nicknamed the Cat, came up to me and asked me whither we were going.

I told him, whereon he said: "What have you to do with these savages and their troubles, lords?
If a few of them are killed it is no matter, but as you should know, O Doctor, if you wish to hunt lions there are plenty in that land whither you travel, seeing that the lion is the fetish of the Fung and therefore never killed.

But the desert about Zeu is dangerous and harm may come to you." "Then accompany us," broke in the Professor, between whom and Shadrach there was no love lost, "for, of course, with you we should be quite safe." "Not so," he replied, "I and my people rest; only madmen would go to hunt worthless wild beasts when they might rest.

Have we not enough of the desert and its dangers as it is?
If you knew all that I do of lions you would leave them alone." "Of the desert we have plenty also, but of shooting very little," remarked the Captain, who talked Arabic well.