At any rate, they turned and stared till the Arabs ran
among them with sjambocks, that is, whips of hippopotamus hide, and
suppressed their animated conversation with many blows.
At first I thought that they would break camp and march away; indeed,
they began to make preparations to do this, then abandoned the idea,
probably because the slaves were exhausted and there was no other
water they could reach before nightfall. In the end they settled down
and lit cooking fires. Also, as I observed, they took precautions
against attack by stationing sentries and forcing the slaves to
construct a /boma/ of thorns about their camp.
"Well," said Stephen, when we had finished our dinner, "are you ready
for that call?"
"No!" I answered, "I do not think that I am. I have been considering
things, and concluded that we had better leave well alone. By this
time those Arabs will know all the story of our dealings with their
worthy master, Hassan, for no doubt he has sent messengers to them.
Therefore, if we go to their camp, they may shoot us at sight.
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