"Now," I asked, "what is to be done? My fate is sealed, since for
purposes of their own, of which probably we know nothing, these people
intend to take me with them to their country, as indeed they are
justified in doing, since I have been fool enough to keep a kind of
assignation with them here. But they don't want anybody else. Therefore
there is nothing to prevent you Ragnall, and you Savage, and you Hans,
from returning with the Mazitu."

"Oh! Baas," said Hans, who could understand English well enough
although he seldom spoke it, "why are you always bothering me with such
_praatjes_?"--(that is, chatter). "Whatever you do I will do, and I
don't care what you do, except for your own sake, Baas. If I am going to
die, let me die; it doesn't at all matter how, since I must go soon and
make report to your reverend father, the Predikant. And now, Baas, I
have been awake all night, for I heard those camels coming a long while
before the two spook men appeared, and as I have never heard camels
before, could not make out what they were, for they don't walk like
giraffes. So I am going to sleep, Baas, there in the sun. When you have
settled things, you can wake me up and give me your orders," and he
suited the action to the word, for when I glanced at him again he was,
or appeared to be, slumbering, just like a dog at its master's feet.

I looked at Ragnall in interrogation.

"I am going on," he said briefly.

"Despite the denial of these men of any complicity in your wife's
fate?" I asked. "If their words are true, what have you to gain by this
journey, Ragnall?"