condition, that I should "leave all my transport animals and baggage
behind me."

To this insane request, which completely nullified their offer to start,
I only replied by vowing vengeance against the vakeel.

Their time was passed in vociferously quarrelling among themselves
during the day, and in close conference with the vakeel during the
night, the substance of which was reported on the following morning by
the faithful Saat. The boy recounted their plot. They agreed to march to
the east, with the intention of deserting me at the station of a trader
named Chenooda, seven days' march from Gondokoro, in the Latooka
country, whose men were, like them selves, Dongolowas; they had
conspired to mutiny at that place, and to desert to the slave-hunting
party with my arms and ammunition, and to shoot me should I attempt to
disarm them. They also threatened to shoot my vakeel, who now, through
fear of punishment at Khartoum, exerted his influence to induce them to
start. Altogether, it was a pleasant state of things.

That night I was asleep in my tent, when I was suddenly awoke by loud
screams, and upon listening attentively I distinctly heard the heavy
breathing of something in the tent, and I could distinguish a dark
object crouching close to the head of my bed. A slight pull at my sleeve
showed me that my wife also noticed the object, as this was always the
signal that she made if anything occured at night that required
vigilance. Possessing a share of sangfroid admirably adapted for African
travel, Mrs. Baker was not a screamer, and never even whispered; in the
moment of suspected danger, a touch of my sleeve was considered a
sufficient warning. My hand had quietly drawn the revolver from under my
pillow and noiselessly pointed it within two feet of the dark crouching