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Ten minutes later Second-Lieutenant Dudley Wilmshurst "jumped." The subaltern decided to go out alone. One man stood a far better chance of escaping detection than two; so greatly to the dismay of every Haussa in his platoon he faced the difficult task single handed.
Duke, the acting commissioner lately invalided, were sent abroad in all directions to act press-gang, and the natural lawlessness of the race came out strong. The force is injured by enlisting 'Haussas' who are not Haussa at all; merely semi-savage and half-pagan slaves. On detached duty they get quite out of hand; and they by no means serve to make our Government popular.
A few days after starting they overtook a large caravan belonging to Haussa, on its way from Gonga and Ashantee. It consisted of upwards of a thousand men and women, and as many beasts of burden. The head man offered to carry Clapperton's baggage to Kano for a certain sum. He said that he had been detained in Gonga twelve months on account of the wars.
The patrol hurried back to the spot where they had left their horses, Bela Moshi settling the question of how the physically weakened Rupert Wilmshurst was to be moved by lifting him in his strong arms. "Nothing ob him, sah," confided the Haussa. "Him weight of one-time porter load."
He quickly gained the confidence of his Haussa troops, and then set to work to improve the sanitary conditions of Jebba, where he was stationed. He equipped the town with a good water-supply, as well as with a system of drainage, and planted large vegetable gardens, so that the European residents need no longer be entirely dependent on tinned foods.
"Find me a man who can ride well," he said. A broad grin overspread the Haussa non-com.'s face. "No go for look, sah," he replied. "Me know one time quick. Good man; him ride like de wind." "Then bring him here," continued Wilmshurst. "Him here, sah me, Bela Moshi."
For these shops are of the store nature, each after his kind, and seem homogeneously stocked with tin pans, loud-patterned basins, iron pots, a few rolls of cloth and bottles of American rum. After passing these there are the Haussa lines, a few European houses, and the cathedral; and when nearly into Christiansborg, a cemetery on either side of the road.
He was dressed in a bournous of blue cloth, under which was a variegated tobe, made of figured satin, Haussa trousers, sandals of coloured leather, and a red cloth cap on his head. He was accompanied by six fine, handsome, jet-black girls, his wives, also picturesquely dressed, their wrists ornamented with silver bracelets and their necks with coloured necklaces.
The guide was engaged to accompany them no farther than the kingdom of Haussa. Before he departed, Park said to him, "Now, Amadi, you are at the end of your journey. I engaged you to conduct me here. You are going to leave me; but before you go, you must give me the names of the necessaries of life, &c. in the language of the countries through which I am going to pass."
Then, with a deft movement, Mutton Chop's fingers closed gently round the little animal, and to the astonishment of the four officers the Haussa placed the rodent in his breast pocket. "Me hab mascot same as officers, sahs!" he explained. "No put him here, sah; me make tidy." "And there's the officers' call!" exclaimed Dudley as a bugle rang out. "Dash it all, how's a fellow to put on the thing?"
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