"Doesn't Mean To Make A
Target Of Himself," He Said; But His Chuckle Died Out When Sambo,
Preparing To Curl
Up in the safest place in the camp, explained his
presumption tersely by announcing that "Monkey sit down longa camp.
"
Monkey was a law unto himself, and a very unpleasant law, being a reputed
murderer several times over, and when he and his followers were about,
white men saw to their rifles; and as we turned in we also agreed "that
this wasn't exactly the kind of nigger hunt we had set out for." "It
makes a difference when the other chap's doing the hunting, Sool'em, old
girl," Dan added, cautioning her to keep her "weather eye open," as he
saw to his rifle and laid it, muzzle outwards, in his net. Then, as we
settled down for the night with revolvers and rifle at hand, and Brown at
the head of our net, he "hoped" the missus would not "go getting
nightmare, and make things unpleasant by shooting round promiscuous
like," and having by this tucked himself in to his satisfaction, he lay
down, "reckoning this ought to just about finish off her education, if
she doesn't get finished off herself by niggers before morning."
A cheerful nightcap; but such was our faith in Sool'em and Brown as
danger signals, that the camp was asleep in a few minutes. Perhaps also
because nigger alarms were by no means the exception: the bush-folk would
get little sleep if they lay awake whenever they were camped near
doubtful company.
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