"Get a move on, Didums, for God's sake!" he growled.
"Well," said Monty, "there seems something in this ivory business. Our
chance ought to be as good as anybody's. But there are one or two
stiff hurdles. In the first place, the story is common property.
Every one knows it--Arabs--Swahili--Greeks--Germans--English. To be
suspected of looking for it would spell failure, for the simple reason
that every adventurer on the coast would trail us, and if we did find
it we shouldn't be able to keep the secret for five minutes. If we
found it anywhere except on British territory it 'ud be taken away from
us before we'd time to turn round. And it isn't buried on British
territory! I've found out that much."
"Good God, Didums! D'you mean you know where the stuff is?"
Fred sat forward like a man at a play.
"I know where it isn't," said Monty. "They told me at the Residency
that in all human probability it's buried part in German East, and by
far the greater part in the Congo."
"Then that ten per cent. offer by the British is a bluff?" asked Yerkes.
"Out of date," said Monty. "The other governments offer nothing. The
German government might make terms with a German or a Greek--not with
an Englishman. The Congo government is an unknown quantity, but would
probably see reason if approached the proper way."
"The U. S. Consul tells me," said Yerkes, "that the Congo government is
the rottenest aggregate of cutthroats, horse-thieves, thugs, yeggs,
common-or-ordinary hold-ups, and sleight-of-hand professors that the
world ever saw in one God-forsaken country. He says they're of every
nationality, but without squeam of any kind--hang or shoot you as soon
as look at you! He says if there's any ivory buried in those parts
they've either got it and sold it, or else they buried it themselves
and spread the story for a trap to fetch greenhorns over the border!"
"That man's after the stuff himself!" said Fred. "All he wanted to do
was stall you off!"
"That man Schillingschen the doctor told us about," said Monty, "is
suspected of knowing where to look for some of the Congo hoard. He'll
bear watching. He's in British East Africa at present--said to be
combing Nairobi and other places for a certain native. He is known to
stand high in the favor of the German government, but poses as a
professor of ethnology."
"He shall study deathnology," said Fred, "if he gets in my way!"
"The Congo people," said Monty, "would have dug up the stuff, of
course, if they'd known where to look for it. Our people believe that
the Germans do know whereabouts to look for it, but dread putting the
Congo crowd on the scent. If we're after it we've got to do two things
besides agreeing between ourselves."
"Deal me in, Monty!" said Yerkes.
"Nil desperandum, Didums duce, then!" said Fred. "I propose Monty for
leader. Those against the motion take their shirts off, and see if
they can lick me! Nobody pugnacious? The ayes have it! Talk along,
Didums!"
For all Fred's playfulness, Yerkes and I came in of our free and
considered will, and Monty understood that.
"We've got to separate," he said, "and I've got to interview the King
of Belgium."
"If that were my job," grinned Yerkes, "I'd prob'ly tell him things!"
"I don't pretend to like him," said Monty. "But it seems to me I can
serve our best interests by going to Brussels. He can't very well
refuse me a private audience. I should get a contract with the Congo
government satisfactory to all concerned. He's rapacious--but I think
not ninety per cent. rapacious."
"Good," said I, "but why separate?"
"If we traveled toward the Congo from this place in a bunch," said
Monty, "we should give the game away completely and have all the
rag-tag and bob-tail on our heels. As it is, our only chance of
shaking all of them would be to go round by sea and enter the Congo
from the other side; but that would destroy our chance of picking up
the trail in German East Africa. So I'll go to Brussels, and get back
to British East as fast as possible. Fred must go to British East and
watch Schillingschen. You two fellows may as well go by way of British
East Africa to Muanza on Victoria Nyanza, and on from there to the
Congo border by way of Ujiji. Yerkes is an American, and they'll
suspect him less than any of us (they'd nail me, of course, in a
minute!) So let Yerkes make a great show of looking for land to settle
on. We'll all four meet on the Congo border, at some other place to be
decided later. We'll have to agree on a code, and keep in touch by
telegraph as often as possible. Now, is all that clear?"
"We two'll have all the Greeks of Zanzibar trailing us all the way!"
objected Yerkes.
"That'll be better than having them trail the lot of us," said Monty.
"You'll be able to shake them somewhere on the way. We'll count on
your ingenuity, Will."
"But what am I to do to Schillingschen?" asked Fred.
"Keep an eye on him."
"Do you see me Sherlock-Holmesing him across the high veld? Piffle!
Give America that job! I'll go through German East and keep ahead of
the Greeks!"
But Monty was firm. "Yerkes has a plausible excuse, Fred. They may
wonder why an American should look for land in German East Africa, but
they'll let him do it, and perhaps not spy on him to any extent. It's
me they've their eye on. I'll try to keep 'em dazzled. You go to
British East and dazzle Schillingschen! Now, are we agreed?"
We were. But we talked, nevertheless, long into the afternoon, and in
the end there was not one of us really satisfied. Over and over we
tried to persuade Monty to omit the Brussels part of the plan. We
wanted him with us. But he stuck to his point, and had his way, as he
always did when we were quite sure he really wanted it.