“Better arrange a signal,” Will advised.  “They might otherwise fire before we were ready!”

“Very well.  You men give me the word at midday of the day of the start, and I will spread red, white and blue laundry on the roof of the commandant’s house for the Greeks to see.”

“Good enough!” agreed Will.  “Now one more stunt!  We simply must have firearms.  The Germans have taken ours away and locked them up.  At a pinch I suppose we could manage with one rifle, provided we had lots of ammunition.  We would rather have one each.  In fact, the more the merrier.  One we must have!  What about it?”

She thought for several minutes.  At last she told us that one of the commandant’s rifles and one of Schillingschen’s stood leaning in a corner of the living-room beside a book-case.  Whether she could make away with one or both of those without detection she did not know, and she would have to use her wits regarding ammunition.  It was always kept locked up.

“Why not kill an askari and take his rifle and cartridges?” she asked.  “The sentry on duty watching the Greeks will be in the way.  Knock him on the head from behind!”

“Thank you!” grinned Will, exchanging glances with us.  “We shall have about enough on our consciences setting fire to half the township.  We’ll not kill except in self-defense.”

“But you won’t set the town on fire!  The Greeks will do that!”

“Don’t let’s argue ethics!” Fred interrupted, for Will’s cars were getting red.  “Can you tell us for certain, Lady Waldon, whether all the askaris and German sergeants really run to a fire?  Or do a certain number remain in the boma?”

“Oh, I know about that,” she answered.  “Until the prisoners are all locked in—­that is to say, in case of fire in the daytime—­six or eight askaris remain inside the boma.  The minute they are locked in, if the fire is serious, and in case of fire by night, they all go except two, who stand on the eastern boma wall, one at each corner.  From there they are supposed to be able to see on every side except the water-front.  Nobody guards the water-front; I don’t know why, unless it is that the gate on that side is kept locked almost always and the wall runs along the water’s edge.”

“As a matter of fact,” said I, “those two sentries on the wall will be too busy staring at the fire, if the Greeks really make a big one, to see anything else unless we march by under their noses with a brass band.”

“Bah!” sneered Lady Waldon.  “If I get that rifle I would dare shoot them both for you myself!”

“If you overstep one detail of Will’s plan, I guarantee to put you ashore on the first barren island we come to!” said Fred.  “Leave shooting to us!”

The next problem was to draw away from the Greeks the attention of the askari at the cross-roads.  We could not see him, for it was one of those black African nights when the stars look like tiny pin-pricks and there are no shadows because all is dark.  To go out and look what he was doing would have been to arouse his suspicion.  Yet there was always a chance that he might be patrolling down near the Greek camp; doubtless acting on orders, he had a trick of approaching their tents very closely once in a while.