'Oh, you have given us a chance again. We will always be grateful to
you.' Her tears smeared Vicky's cheek, and she drew back, sniffing
wetly, and wiped her own tears from Vicky's face with the palm of her
hand. 'We will never forget you,' she said, and then smiled through
the tears. 'We must go and tell my grandfather.' They found it
impossible to convey to the Ras the exact nature of this new
advancement of the Ethiopian cause. He was very hazy in his exact
understanding of the role and importance of the League of Nations, or
the power and influence of the international press. After the first
few pints of tej he had made sure in his own mind that in some
miraculous fashion the great Queen of England had espoused their
cause,
and that the armies of Great Britain would soon join him in the
field.
Both Gregorius and Sara spoke to him at great length, trying to explain
his error, and he nodded and grinned benevolently at them but remained
completely unshaken in his conviction, and ended by embracing Gareth
Swales, making a long rambling speech in Amharic, hailing him as an
Englishman and a comrade in arms. Then, before the speech ended, the
Ras fell suddenly and dramatically asleep in mid-sentence, falling face
forward into a large bowl of mutton wat. The day's battle, the
excitement of learning of his new and powerful ally, and the large
quantities of tej were too much for him, and four of his bodyguard
lifted him from the bowl and carried him snoring loudly to his
household tent.
'Do not worry,' Sara told his guests. 'My grandfather will not be gone
for long after a small rest he will return.'
'Tell him not to put himself out,' murmured Gareth Swales. 'I for one
have seen about enough of him for one day.' The glow of the bonfires
turned the sky ruddy and paled the moon that sailed above the mountain
peaks. It shone on the steel and polished wood of the huge pile of
captured weapons, rifles and pistols and ammunition bandoliers, that
were heaped triumphantly in the open space before the royal party.
The sparks from the fires rose straight upwards into the still night
and the laughter and voices of the guests became more unrestrained as
the tej gourds circulated.
Farther along the valley, also within the acacia grove, the Gallas of
Ras Kullah were celebrating the victory also, and there was the
occasional faint outburst of drunken shouts and a fusillade of shots
from captured Italian rifles.
Vicky sat between Gareth and Jake. She had not arranged it so,
and if given the choice would have sat alone with Jake, but Gareth
Swales had not been as easily discouraged as she had believed he
might.
Sara came from her place beside Gregorius. Crossing the squatting
circle of feasting guests, she knelt on the pile of leather cushions
beside Vicky, pushing herself in between Gareth and the girl and she
leaned close to Vicky, an arm around her shoulder and her lips touching
her ear.
'You should have told me,' she accused her sadly. 'I did not know that
