"An excellent idea," I said, "but he, like you, might be reluctant, and it is you, not he, whose neck is now within my reach."
"What if there are tharlarion?" he asked.
"Are you afraid?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"You should be," I said. "There might be tharlarion."
"I am not going," he said.
"Take a deep breath," I told him, "and keep moving, for others must follow. Make for the mud raft. There are shovels there."
"I am not going," he said.
I seized him and thrust him head first downward through the hole. The next man slid feet first through the hole. The next, heavy, squeezed with difficulty through the aperture between the logs. Another man slipped through. The first man's head broke the surface sputtering. He started toward the mud aft. One after another, I and Kisu, and Ayari, toward the center of the chain, the same forty-six prisoners of the cage slipped free.
"Take shovels and bring the raft," I said.
"Which way shall we go?" asked Ayari.
"Follow me," I said.
"You are going west!" said Ayari.
"We must free ourselves," I said. "In the chain we cannot long escape. If we go west we may deceive inquiring askaris. And west, only a pasang away, lies the smiths' island, where men are added to the chain."
"There will be tools there," said Ayari.
"Precisely," I said.
"Let us go east, or toward the jungles north or south," said a man.
Kisu struck him on the side of the head, knocking him sideways.
I looked at Kisu. "Does it not seem wise to you, Mfalme," I asked him, "to proceed westward?"
He straightened himself. "Yes," he said. "We will go westward,"
His agreement pleased me. Without his cooperation, and the significance of his prestige and status, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce my will on the chain. Without his aid and influence I do not think it would have been possible to have escaped the cage. I had seen, from his striking the fellow in the chain, that he had been in agreement with me as to the advisability of proceeding westward. I had then, using the title of Mfalme, asked him to make this concurrence explicit. His declaration had helped to reassure the men. In asking him I had also, of course, indicated my respect for his opinion, which, incidentally, I did respect, and, in using the title of Mfalme, I had acknowledged that I, for one, would continue to recognize his lofty status in Ukungu. Had I not anticipated his agreement I do not know what I would have done. I suppose then one or the other of us would have had to beat or kill the other.
Soon, leading the chain from the center, its ends behind and on either side of us, I, and Kisu, and some others between us, were wading westward, shovels in hand. Some men behind, on either side, thrust the mud raft along with us.
"You are a clever fellow," said Kisu to me.
"Surely you do agree that our best direction at the moment is west?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"They will not expect us to head west, and there are tools there."
"There is something else there, too," he said, "which I want."
"What is that?" I asked.
"You will see," he said.
"Askaris!" said Ayari. "Ahead!"
"We have been released by other askaris, and sent westward for safety," I told him. "We were even given our tools. There were raiders."
"Who is there? Stop!" called an askari.
We stopped, obediently. Nervously I saw that there were several askaris about, more than I had originally realized, some twenty of them, with their shields and stabbing spears. The white feathers of the headdresses marked their positions. In raids askaris sometimes remove these headdresses. When actually engaged in combat in darkness, of course, it helps them keep their formations and tell friend from foe. Although doubtless there are advantages and disadvantages to the headdress it is, tactically, in my opinion, a liability. Like the shako of the hussar, it makes too good a target.
"Raiders!" called out, Ayari, pointing backward. "We were released by askaris and commanded to march west for protection."
"Raiders!" cried one of the askaris.
"It is a good night for them," said another.
"You will protect us, will you not?" begged Ayari.
"Where are the askaris who released you?" demanded one askari.
"Fighting!" said. Ayari.
"Sound the drums," said the man. An askari rushed away. "Prepare to relieve the beleaguered section," said the man.
"Column of twos!" called another.
The askaris formed themselves into a double column.
"Who will stay to protect us?" inquired Ayari.
"March to the rear," said the officer. "You will be safe there."
"There is a relief," said Ayari.
"Hurry!" said the officer.
We immediately began to wade westward again. The askaris hurriedly began to wade east. Soon we could hear a drum. Its sound would marshal new askaris.
"Hurry," said Ayari.
Twice in our march west we were passed by columns of askaris, and then by two canoes filled with such troops.
"They will soon discover it is a false alarm," said Kisu.
"Hurry," I said.
In a few moments we clambered onto the smiths' island. Askaris moved past us.
"What is going on?" asked one of the smiths, holding a torch, standing outside his sleeping shelter.
He, and his fellows, in the shelter, were then ringed with desperate men.
"Remove our chains," I told him.
"Never," said one.
"We can do it ourselves," said Ayari. Shovels were lifted. The smiths, threatened, hurried, escorted by chained men, to their anvils.
The collars, swiftly, were opened and the heavy bands, struck with sharp, expert blows, were bent wide. We thrust the smiths back into their sleeping shed and threw them to their bellies. We tied them hand and foot, gagging them with choking wads of marsh grass, forced into their mouths and fastened in place with wide strips of leather. I tied shut the door of the wooden shelter, to keep it from being pushed inward by tharlarion which might crawl to the surface of the small island.
"Disperse," I said to the men. "It is now each man for himself."
They disappeared into the darkness, making their way in various directions.
Kisu, I, and Ayari, remained on the island.
"Where are you going?" asked Kisu.
"I must go east," I said. "I follow one called Shaba. I seek the Ua River."
"That will suit my purposes well," he said, grimly.
"I do not understand," I said.
"You will, in time," he said.
"Do you menace me?" I asked.
He put his hands on my shoulders. "By the crops of Ukungu, no," he said.
"Then I do not understand you," I said.
"You will," he said.
"I must be on my way," I said. "Time is short."
"You are not facing east," he said. "I have a stop to make first," I said.
"I, too, have some business to attend to," he said.
"That is in accord with some plan of yours?" I asked.
"Exactly," he said. "It is my intention to recover a lost slave," I said. I recalled the lovely blond-haired barbarian, Janice Prentiss. I wanted her at my own feet.
"That is why you brought along the mud raft," smiled Kisu.
"Of course," I said.
"I think I, too, will take a slave," he said.
"I thought you might," I said.
"I do not understand why the askaris have not yet returned," said Ayari. "By now they must understand it to be a false alarm."
"I would think so," I said.
"Let us hurry," said Kisu.
We set off through the darkness, westward, pushing the mud raft with us, our shovels placed upon it.
"Why are you not with the other askaris, fighting in the east?" asked Ayari.
"I am guarding the Lady Tende," he said. "Who are you? What is that?"
"Where is the rogues' chain?" asked Ayari.