Within ten minutes after the commencement of the fire there was under way a regular orgy of roof pulling.  Whoever had an enemy ran and tore his roof off, and there were several instances of reciprocity, two families tearing off each other’s roofs, each believing the other to be at the fire.

Muanza was a furious place—­a riot—­a home of din and tumult while the fire lasted, and when it was put out it took another hour to stop the fights between victims of the flames and unofficial salvage-men.

“D’ye get the idea of it?” asked Will.  “D’ye see the Achilles heel?”

In that second, I believe, Fred Oakes and I betrayed ourselves genuine adventurers.  Any fool could have talked glibly about setting the town on fire; any coward could have yelped about the danger of it, and improbability of success.  It needed adventurers to size up instantly all the odds against the idea, recognize the one infinitesimal chance, and plump for it.  And we were there!

“It’s the only chance we’ve got!” agreed Fred.  “I’m for it!  Lead on America!”

“I believe we can pull it off!” said I.  “I’m game!”

After that it seemed like waste of time to talk, yet every single detail of our plan had to be thought out beforehand and mentally rehearsed, if we hoped to have even the one slim chance we built on.  Luckily Professor Schillingschen continued drunk, which meant that he would sleep early and give Lady Waldon another chance to pay us a nocturnal visit.  One of our boys told us that according to market gossips the commandant was drinking with him and the two of them were watching a sort of prolonged native nautch they had staged in seclusion on the hill.

The next day we learned there was to be a murder trial of no less than nine men—­an event likely to keep the whole garrison’s attention drawn away from us.  And after the trial would come the hanging (it would have been impossible to convince any one, German or native, that the verdict and sentence were not foregone conclusions).  The stars in their courses appeared to be on our side.  For several nights to come the worst the moon could do would be to show a sliver of silver crescent for an hour or two.

Lady Waldon came earlier that night.  When we outlined our plan to her roughly she argued against it at first—­and it was impossible far-fetched—­ridiculous.  She insisted again on our simply sneaking away by night with her.  But Fred wasted no time on argument, and took the upper hand.

“Take us or leave us, Lady Waldon, as we are!  We’ve an unwritten rule that none of us has ever thought of breaking, that binds us to obey the member of the party whose plan we have adopted.  On this occasion we have agreed to Mr. Yerkes’ plan, and you’ve got to obey him implicitly if you want to have part with us!  We will not leave our men or Brown of Lumbwa behind, and we will not change the plan by a hair’s breadth!  Will you or won’t you obey?”