Tom Willoughby's Scouts by Herbert Strang

Author:Herbert Strang
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620130971
Publisher: Duke Classics

Chapter XI - Tom's New Allies

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The more Tom thought over the probabilities of the case, the less likely it appeared to him that the Germans, if engaged in serious operations on the frontier, would spare a force for dealing immediately with mutineers who might be rounded up at leisure. At the same time the situation was so uncertain that he could not afford to neglect the opportunity of preparing for a possible attack. It was equally important that he should get timely notice of the enemy's approach, and that could be secured only by starting an efficient system of scouting. As soon as he had dealt with the askaris, therefore, he got Mirambo to choose a dozen active and trustworthy young men, and arranged that they should go out in parties of six on alternate days, to reconnoitre as much ground south of the nullah as they could cover between dawn and dark. He could not yet entrust them with rifles uncontrolled: they had no other arms than the agricultural implements; but while the first six were absent, the second could fashion wooden spears which would suffice for protection against wild animals. There were no villages in the immediate neighbourhood of the nullah, or between that and the plantation, so that collisions with hostile tribes were scarcely to be feared.

Tom then passed to the consideration of the problem of the camp. Accompanied by Mirambo and Mwesa he explored the whole length or the nullah between the bend and the lake, a distance of perhaps half a mile. The width varied a good deal; the sides were almost perpendicular; and the stream, being the outflow from an upland lake, descended in a series of cascades. At present there was little volume of water; but in a couple of months, with the opening of the rainy season, the level of the lake would rise, and what was now a trickling rivulet might become a raging torrent. Tom hoped that by that time his occupation of the nullah would be at an end. Preparing for the worst, however, he came to the conclusion that the ground on either side of the stream would be an insecure camping-place, and decided to plant his temporary village around the spot where he and Mwesa had found a refuge a few days before. It was in the heart of a wood, where the nullah broadened out to more than three times its average width, and was defended on the northern side by the lake. The building of huts would take a considerable time, because the wood must be cleared of beasts, and the able-bodied men must be employed in completing the defences lower down the nullah; but certain parts of the work could be done by the younger women and the elder children.

While some of the people were engaged in preparing this ex tempore village, Tom set others to strengthen the barricade across the nullah. As he watched them, it occurred to him that the position would

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