While the camp slept, a bronzed white giant, naked but for a loin
cloth, surveyed it--sometimes from the branches of overhanging trees,
again from the ground inside the circle of the sentries. Then, he
moved among the tents of the whites and the shelters of the blacks as
soundlessly as a shadow. He saw everything, he heard much. With the
coming of dawn he melted away into the mist that enveloped the forest.
It was long before dawn that the camp commenced to stir. Major White
had snatched a few hours sleep after midnight. He was up early routing
out the cooks, getting the whites up so that their tents could be
struck for an early start, directing the packing and loading by
Kwamudi's men. It was then that he learned that fully twenty-five of
the porters had deserted during the night.
He questioned the sentries, but none had seen any one leave the camp
during the night. He knew that some of them lied. When Orman came out
of his tent he told him what had happened.