"May he roast in hell!" said Bosambo, shocked to profanity. "But what

manner of dog is your master that he does so shameful a thing? For

between night and day is twilight, and twilight is the light of evil,

being neither one thing nor the other; and between men there is this

same. Black is black and white is white, and all that is between is

foul and horrible; for if the moon mated with the sun we should have

neither day nor night, but a day that was too dark for work and a night

that was too light for sleep."

Here there was a subject which touched the Monrovian deeply, pierced his

armour of superficial cynicism, overset his pinnacle of self-interest.

"I tell you, Kilimini," he said, "I know white folk, having once been on

ship to go to the edge of the world. Also, I have seen nations where

white and black are mingled, and these people are without shame, with no

pride, for the half of them that is proud is swallowed by the half of

them that is shameful, and there is nothing of them but white man's

clothing and black man's thoughts."

"Lord," said Kilimini timidly, "this I know, though I fear to say such

things, for my king is lately very terrible. Now we Isisi have great

sorrow because he is foolish."

Bosambo turned abruptly.

"Go now, Kilimini," he said. "Later I shall see you."

He waved the messenger out of his thoughts. Into his hut, through this

to his inner hut, he went.

His wife sat on the carpeted floor of Bosambo's harem, her brown baby on

her knees.

"Heart of gold," said Bosambo, "I go to a war palaver, obeying Sandi.

All gods be with you and my fine son.

"And with you, Bosambo, husband and lord," she said calmly; "for if this

is Sandi's palaver it is good."

He left her, and sent for his fighting headman, the one-eyed Tembidini,

strong in loyalty.

"I shall take one war canoe to the lower river," said Bosambo. "See to

this: fifty fighting men follow me, and you shall raise the country and

bring me an army to the place where the Isisi River turns twice like a

dying snake."

"Lord, this is war," said his headman.

"That we shall see," said Bosambo.

"Lord, is it against the Isisi?"

"Against the king. As to the people, we shall know in good time."

* * * * *

Miss Millie Tavish, seated luxuriously upon soft cushions under the

thatched roof of a deck-house, dreamt dreams of royalty and of an urbane

negro who had raised his hat to her. She watched the sweating paddlers

as they dug the water rhythmically singing a little song, and already

she tasted the joys of dominion.

She had the haziest notion of the new position she was to occupy. If

she had been told that she would share her husband with half-a-dozen

other women--and those interchangeable from time to time--she would have

been horrified.

Sanders had not explained that arrangement to her, partly because he was

a man with a delicate mind, and partly because he thought he had solved

the problem without such explanation.

She smiled a triumphant little smile every time she thought of him and

her method of outwitting him. It had been easier than she had

anticipated.

She had watched the Commissioner out of sight and had ordered the boat

to return to shore, for standing an impassive witness to her embarkation

had been the headman Tobolaka had sent. Moreover, in the letter of the

king had been a few simple words of Isisi and the English equivalent.

She thought of many things--of the busy city she had left, of the dreary

boarding-house, of the relations who had opposed her leaving, of the

little legacy which had come to her just before she sailed, and which

had caused her to hesitate, for with that she could have lived in fair

comfort.

But the glamour of a throne--even a Central African throne--was upon

her--she--Miss Tavish--Millie Tavish--a hired help----

And here was the actuality. A broad river, tree-fringed banks, high

rushes at the water edge, the feather-headed palms of her dreams showing

at intervals, and the royal paddlers with their plaintive song.

She came to earth as the paddlers ceased, not together as at a word of

command but one by one as they saw the obstruction.

There were two canoes ahead, and the locked shields that were turned to

the king's canoe were bright with red n'gola--and red n'gola means war.

The king's headman reached for his spear half-heartedly. The girl's

heart beat faster.

"Ho, Soka!"

Bosambo, standing in the stern of the canoe, spoke:

"Let no man touch his spear, or he dies!" said Bosambo.

"Lord, this is the king's canoe," spluttered Soka, wiping his streaming

brow, "and you do a shameful thing, for there is peace in the land."

"So men say," said Bosambo evasively.

He brought his craft round so that it lay alongside the other.

"Lady," he said in his best coast-English, "you lib for go with me one

time; I be good feller; I be big chap--no hurt 'um--no fight 'um."

The girl was sick with terror. For all she knew, and for all she could

gather, this man was a cruel and wicked monster. She shrank back and

screamed.

"I no hurt 'um," said Bosambo. "I be dam good chap; I be Christian,

Marki, Luki, Johni; you savee dem fellers? I be same like."

She fainted, sinking in a heap to the bottom of the canoe. In an

instant Bosambo's arm was around her. He lifted her into his canoe as

lightly as though she was a child.

Then from the rushes came a third canoe with a full force of paddlers

and, remarkable of a savage man's delicacy, two women of the Ochori.

She was in this canoe when she recovered consciousness, a woman bathing

her forehead from the river. Bosambo, from another boat, watched the

operation with interest.

"Go now," he said to the chief of the paddlers, "taking this woman to

Sandi, and if ill comes to her, behold, I will take your wives and your

children and burn them alive--go swiftly."

Swiftly enough they went, for the river was high, and at the river head

the floods were out.

"As for you," said Bosambo to the king's headman, "you may carry word to

your master, saying thus have I done because it was my pleasure."

"Lord," said the head of the paddlers, "we men have spoken together and

fear for our lives; yet we will go to our king and tell him, and if he

illtreats us we will come back to you."

Which arrangement Bosambo confirmed.

King Tobolaka had made preparations worthy of Independence Day to greet

his bride. He had improvised flags at the expense of his people's

scanty wardrobe. Strings of tattered garments crossed the streets, but

beneath those same strings people stood in little groups, their arms

folded, their faces lowering, and they said things behind their hands

which Tobolaka did not hear.

For he had outraged their most sacred tradition--outraged it in the face

of all protest. A rent garment, fluttering in the wind--that was the

sign of death and of graves. Wherever a little graveyard lies, there

will be found the poor wisps of cloth flapping sadly to keep away

devils.

This Tobolaka did not know or, if he did know, scorned.

On another such occasion he had told his councillors that he had no

respect for the "superstitions of the indigenous native," and had quoted

a wise saying of Cicero, which was to the effect that precedents and

traditions were made only to be broken.

Now he stood, ultra-magnificent, for a _lokali_ sounding in the night

had brought him news of his bride's progress.

It is true that there was a fly in the ointment of his self-esteem. His

invitation, couched in the choicest American, to the missionaries had

been rejected. Neither Baptist nor Church of England nor Jesuit would

be party to what they, usually divergent in their views, were unanimous

in regarding as a crime.

But the fact did not weigh heavily on Tobolaka. He was a resplendent

figure in speckless white. Across his dress he wore the broad blue

ribbon of an Order to which he was in no sense entitled.

In places of vantage, look-out men had been stationed, and Tobolaka

waited with growing impatience for news of the canoe.

He sprang up from his throne as one of the watchers came pelting up the

street.

"Lord," said the man, gasping for breath, "two war canoes have passed."

"Fool!" said Tobolaka. "What do I care for war canoes?

"But, lord," persisted the man, "they are of the Ochori and with them

goes Bosambo, very terrible in his war dress; and the Ochori have

reddened their shields."

"Which way did he come?" asked Tobolaka, impressed in spite of himself.

"Lord," said the man, "they came from below to above."

"And what of my canoe?" asked Tobolaka.

"That we have not seen," replied the man.

"Go and watch."

Tobolaka was not as perturbed as his councillors, for he had never

looked upon reddened shields or their consequences. He waited for half

an hour, and then the news came that the canoe was rounding the point,

but no woman was there.

Half mad with rage and chagrin, Tobolaka struck down the man who brought

the intelligence. He was at the beach to meet the crestfallen headman,

and heard his story in silence.

"Take this man," said Tobolaka, "and all the men who were with him, and

bind them with ropes. By Death! we will have a feast and a dance and

some blood!"

That night the war drums of the Isisi beat from one end of the land to

the other, and canoes filled with armed men shot out of little creeks

and paddled to the city.

Tobolaka, naked save for his skin robe and his anklets of feathers,

danced the dance of quick killing, and the paddlers of the royal canoe

were publicly executed--with elaborate attention to detail.

In the dark hours before the dawn the Isisi went out against the Ochori.

At the first flash of daylight they landed, twelve thousand strong, in

Ochori territory. Bosambo was strongly placed, and his chosen regiments

fell on the Isisi right and crumpled it up. Then he turned sharply and

struck into the Isisi main body. It was a desperate venture, but it

succeeded. Raging like a veritable devil, Tobolaka sought to rally his

personal guard, but the men of the Isisi city who formed it had no heart

for the business. They broke back to the river.

Whirling his long-handed axe (he had been a famous club swinger in the

Philadelphia seminary), Tobolaka cut a way into the heart of the Ochori

vanguard.

"Ho, Bosambo!" he called, and his voice was thick with hate. "You have

stolen my wife; first I will take your head, then I will kill Sandi,

your master."

Bosambo's answer was short, to the point, and in English:

"Dam nigger!" he said.

It needed but this. With a yelp like the howl of a wolf, Tobolaka,

B.A., sprang at him, his axe swirling.

But Bosambo moved as only a Krooman can move.

There was the flash of a brown body, the thud of an impact, and Tobolaka

was down with a steel grip at his throat and a knee like a battering-ram

in his stomach.

* * * * *

The _Zaire_ came fussing up, her decks black with Houssas, the polished

barrels of her guns swung out. Sanders interviewed King Tobolaka the

First--and last.

The latter would have carried the affair off with a high hand.

"Fortune of war, Mr. Sanders," he said airily. "I'm afraid you

precipitated this conduct by your unwarrantable and provocative conduct.

As Cicero says somewhere----"

"Cut it out," said Sanders. "I want you, primarily for the killing of

Cala. You have behaved badly."

"I am a king and above criticism," said Tobolaka philosophically.

"I am sending you to the Coast for trial," said Sanders promptly.

"Afterwards, if you are lucky, you will probably be sent home--whither

Miss Tavish has already gone."

*CHAPTER V*

*THE KILLING OF OLANDI*

Chief of Sanders's spies in the wild country was Kambara, the N'gombi

man, resolute, fearless, and very zealous for his lord. He lived in the

deep of the N'gombi forest, in one of those unexpected towns perched

upon a little hill with a meandering tributary to the great river, half

ringing its base.

His people knew him for a wise and silent chief, who dispensed justice

evenhandedly, and wore about his neck the chain and medal of his office

(a wonder-working medal with a bearded face in relief and certain devil

marks).

He made long journeys, leaving his village without warning and returning

without notice. At night he would be sitting before his fire, brooding

and voiceless; in the morning he would be missing. Some of his people

said that he was a witch-doctor, practising his magic in hidden places

of the forest; others that he changed himself into a leopard by his

magic and went hunting men. Figuratively speaking, the latter was near

the truth, for Kambara was a great tracker of criminals, and there was

none so wily as could escape his relentless search.

Thus, when Bolobo, the chief, plotted a rising, it was Kambara's word

which brought Sanders and his soldiers, to the unbounded dismay of

Bolobo, who thought his secret known only to himself and his two

brothers.

It was Kambara who accomplished the undoing of Sesikmi, the great king;

it was Kambara who held the vaguely-defined border line of the N'gombi

country more effectively than a brigade of infantry against the raider

and the Arab trader.

Sanders left him to his devices, sending such rewards as his services

merited, and receiving in exchange information of a particularly

valuable character.

Kambara was a man of discretion. When Olandi of the Akasava came into

the N'gombi forest, Kambara lodged him regally, although Olandi was

breaking the law in crossing the border. But Olandi was a powerful

chief and, ordinarily, a law-abiding man, and there are crimes which

Kambara preferred to shut his eyes upon.

So he entertained Olandi for two days--not knowing that somewhere down

the little river, in Olandi's camp, was a stolen woman who moaned and

wrung her hands and greatly desired death.

For Olandi's benefit the little village made merry, and Tisini, the wife

of Kambara, danced the dance of the two buffaloes--an exhibition which

would have been sufficient to close the doors of any London music-hall

and send its manager to hard labour.

At the same time that Olandi departed, Kambara disappeared; for there

were rumours of raiding on the frontier, and he was curious in the

interests of government.

Three weeks afterwards a man whose face none saw came swiftly and

secretly to the frontiers of the Akasava country, and with him came such

of his kindred as were closely enough related to feel the shame which

Olandi had put upon them.

For Olandi of the Akasava had carried off the favourite wife of the man,

though not against her will.

This Olandi was a fine animal, tall and broad of shoulder, muscled like

an ox, arrogant and pitiless. They called him the native name for

leopard because he wore robes of that beast's skin, two so cunningly

joined that a grinning head lay over each broad shoulder.

He was a hunter and a fighting man. His shield was of wicker,

delicately patterned and polished with copal; his spears were made by

the greatest of the N'gombi craftsmen, and were burnished till they

shone like silver; and about his head he wore a ring of silver. A fine

man in every way.

Some say that he aspired to the kingship of the Akasava, and that

Tombili's death might with justice be laid at his door; but as to that

we have no means of knowing the truth, for Tombili was dead when they

found him in the forest.

Men might tolerate his tyrannies, sit meekly under his drastic

judgments, might uncomplainingly accept death at his hands; but no man

is so weak that he would take the loss of his favourite wife without

fighting, and thus it came about that these men came paddling furiously

through the black night.

Save for the "flip-flap" of the paddles, as they struck the water, and

the little groan which accompanied each stroke, there was no sound.

They came to the village where Olandi lorded it just as the moon cleared

the feathery tops of the N'gombi woods.

Bondondo lay white and silent under the moon, two rows of roofs yellow

thatched, and in the centre the big rambling hut of the chief, with its

verandah propped with twisted saplings.

The secret man and his brothers made fast their two canoes and leapt

lightly to land. They made no sound, and their leader guiding them,

they went through the street like ghostly shadows.

Before the chief's hut the embers of a dull fire glowed. He hesitated

before the doors. Three huts built to form a triangle composed the

chief's habitation. To the right and left was an entrance with a

hanging curtain of skins.

Likely as not Olandi slept in the third hut, which opened from either of

these.

He hesitated a moment, then he drew aside the curtains of the right-hand

door and went in, his brother, his uncle, and his two cousins following.

A sleepy voice asked who was there.

"I come to see the lord Olandi," said the intruder.

He heard a rustle at the farthermost end of the room and the creaking of

a skin bed.

"What seek you?" said a voice, and it was that of a man used to command.

"Is that my lord?" demanded the visitor.

He had a broad-bladed elephant sword gripped fast, so keen of edge that

a man might shave the hair from the back of his hand therewith.

"I am Olandi," said the man in the darkness, and came forward.

There was absolute stillness. They who waited could hear the steady

breathing of the sleepers; they heard, too, a "whish!" such as a

civilised man hears when his womenfolk thrust a hatpin through a soft

straw shape.

Another tense silence, then:

"It is as it should be," said the murderer calmly, and softly called a

name. Somebody came blundering from the inner room sobbing with chokes

and gulps.

"Come," said the man, then: "Is the foreign woman there also? Let her

also go with us."

The girl called another in a low voice, and a woman joined them. Olandi

was catholic in his tastes and raided indiscriminately.

The first girl shrank back as her husband laid his hand on her arm.

"Where is my lord?" she whimpered.

"I am your lord," said the secret man dryly; "as for the other, he has

no need of women, unless there be women in hell, which is very likely."

None attempted to stop the party as it went through the street and back

to the canoes, though there were wails and moanings in Olandi's hut and

uneasy stirrings in the villages.

Men hailed them sharply as they passed, saying, "Oilo?" which means,

"Who walks?" But they made no reply.

Then with the river and safety before them, there arose the village

watchman who challenged the party.

He had heard the faint death-cry from Olandi's hut, and advanced his

terrible cutting-spear to emphasise his challenge.

The leader leapt at him, but the watchman parried the blow skilfully and

brought the blade of his spear down as a man of olden times might sweep

his battle-axe.

The other's sword had been struck from his hold, and he put up his

defenceless arm to ward off the blow.

Twice the sharp edge of the spear slashed his hand, for in the uncertain

light of the moon the watchman misjudged his distance.

Then, as he recovered for a decisive stroke, one of the kinsmen drove at

his throat, and the watchman went down, his limbs jerking feebly.

The injured man stopped long enough roughly to dress his bleeding palm,

then led his wife, shivering and talking to herself like a thing

demented, to the canoe, the second wife following.

In the early hours before the dawn four swift paddlers brought the news

to Sanders, who was sleeping aboard the _Zaire_, made fast to the beach

of Akasava city.

Sanders sat on the edge of his tiny bed, dangling his pyjama'd legs over

the side, and listened thoroughly--which is a kind of listening which

absorbs not only the story, but takes into account the inflexion of the

teller's voice, the sympathy--or lack of it--the rage, the despair, or

the resignation of the story-teller.

"So I see," said Sanders when the man had finished, for all four were

hot with the news and eager to supply the deficiencies of the others,

"this Olandi was killed by one whose wife he had stolen, also the

watchman was killed, but none other was injured."

"None, lord," said one of the men, "for we were greatly afraid because

of the man's brethren. Yet if he had sought to stop him, many others

would have been killed."

"'If the sun were to set in the river, the waters would boil fish,'"

quoted Sanders. "I will find this man, whoever he be, and he shall

answer for his crime."

He reached the scene of the killing and made prompt inquiry. None had

seen the face of the secret man save the watchman--and he was dead. As

for the women--the villagers flapped their arms hopelessly. Who could

say from what nation, from what tribes, Olandi stole his women?

One, so other inmates of Olandi's house said, was undoubtedly Ochori; as

to the other, none knew her, and she had not spoken, for, so they said,

she loved the dead man and was a willing captive.

This Olandi had hunted far afield, and was a hurricane lover and a tamer

of women; how perfect a tamer Sanders discovered, for, as the Isisi

saying goes, "The man who can bribe a woman's tongue could teach a snake

to grind corn."

In a civilised country he would have found written evidence in the

chief's hut, but barbarous man establishes no clues for the prying

detective, and he must needs match primitive cunning with such powers of

reason and instinct as his civilisation had given to him.

A diligent search of the river revealed nothing. The river had washed

away the marks where the canoes had been beached. Sanders saw the

bodies of both men who had fallen without being very much the wiser. It

was just before he left the village that Abiboo the sergeant made a

discovery.

There is a certain tree on the river with leaves which are credited with

extraordinary curative powers. A few paces from where the watchman fell

such a tree grew.

Abiboo found beneath its low branches a number of leaves that had been

newly plucked. Some were stained with blood, and one bore the clear

impression of a palm.

Sanders examined it carefully. The lines of the hand were clearly to be

seen on the glossy surface of the leaf, and in the centre of the palm

was an irregular cut, shaped like a roughly-drawn St. Andrew's Cross.

He carefully put the leaf away in his safe and went on to pursue his

inquiries.

Now, of all crimes difficult to detect, none offers such obstacles as

the blood feud which is based on a woman palaver.

Men will speak openly of other crimes, tell all there is to be told, be

willing--nay, eager--to put their sometime comrade's head in the noose,

if the murder be murder according to accepted native standards. But

when murder is justice, a man does not speak; for, in the near future,

might not he stand in similar case, dependent upon the silence of his

friends for very life?

Sanders searched diligently for the murderers, but none had seen them

pass. What direction they took none knew. Indeed, as soon as the

motive for the crime became evident, all the people of the river became

blind. Then it was that Sanders thought of Kambara and sent for him,

but Kambara was on the border, importantly engaged.

Sanders pursued a course to the Ochori country.

"One of these women was of your people," he said to Bosambo the chief.

"Now I desire that you shall find her husband."

Bosambo shifted his feet uneasily.

"Lord," he said, "it was no man of my people who did this. As to the

woman, many women are stolen from far-away villages, and I know nothing.

And in all these women palavers my people are as dumb beasts."

Bosambo had a wife who ruled him absolutely, and when Sanders had

departed, he writhed helplessly under her keen tongue.

"Lord and chief," she said, "why did you speak falsely to Sandi, for you

know the woman of the Ochori who was stolen was the girl Michimi of

Tasali by the river? And, behold, you yourself were in search of her

when the news of Olandi's killing came."

"These things are not for women," said Bosambo: "therefore, joy of my

life, let us talk of other things."

"Father of my child," persisted the girl, "has Michimi no lover who did

this killing, nor a husband? Will you summon the headman of Tasali by

the river and question him?"

She was interested--more interested than Bosambo.

"God is all-seeing and beneficent," he said devoutly. "Leave me now,

for I have holy thoughts and certain magical ideas for finding this

killer of Olandi, though I wish him no harm."

* * * * *

Sanders had a trick of accepting alarming statements with a

disconcerting calm.

People who essayed the task of making his flesh creep had no reward for

their labours; his politely incredulous "O, ko!" which, uttered in

certain tones, means, "Oh, indeed!" made his informant curl up inwardly.

Komo, pompous to a degree, anxious to impress his lord with the fact

that he, Komo, was no ordinary chief, but a watchful, zealous, and

conscientious regent, came fussing down the river in a glad sweat to

speak of happenings on the edge of his territory.

Sanders granted the man an immediate audience, though he arrived in the

dark hours of the night.

If you will visualise the scene, you have Sanders sitting up in bed in

his pyjamas, and two Houssas splashed with rain--for a thunderstorm was

raging--one of whom holds a lantern, all the light necessary to reveal a

reeking Komo, shiny and wet, who, squatting on the floor, is voluble and

ominous.

"As is my practice, lord," said Komo, "I watch men and things for your

honour's comfort, being filled with a desire to serve you. And thus it

is that I have learnt of certain things, dances and spells of evil,

which are practised by the Ochori."

"The Ochori?"

Sanders was puzzled.

"By the Ochori--the trusted."

There was no mistaking the arch turn to his speech; the two words were

charged with gentle irony.

"Is Bosambo dead that these things should be?" asked Sanders dryly. "Or

has he perchance joined with the dancers?"

"Lord," said Komo impressively, "Bosambo dances with his people. For,

being chief, he is the first to stamp his foot and say 'Ho!' He, too,

assists at sacrifices and is ripe for abominable treachery."

"Oh, indeed!" said Sanders, with an inward sigh of relief. "Now I tell

you this, Komo; there was once a great lord who trusted no man, nor did

he trust his household, his wives, nor his slaves, and he walked ever

with his back to the sun so that his shadow should run before him, for

he did not trust his shadow. And one day he came to a river in flood,

and behold! his shadow lay before him. And because he feared to turn

his back upon his shadow, he plunged in and was drowned."

"Lord, I have heard the story. He was a king, and a great one," said

Komo. Sanders nodded.

"Therefore, Komo, heed this: I trust all men--a little. I trust Bosambo

much, for he has been my man in fair weather and foul." He turned to

the silent Houssas. "Let this man be lodged according to his dignity

and give him a present of cloth. The palaver is finished."

And Sanders, drawing the bedclothes up to his neck, the night being

cold, turned over and was asleep before the chief and his escort had

cleared the verandah.

"A busybody," was Sanders's verdict on Komo; yet, since there is no

smoke without fire, he deemed it advisable to investigate at first hand.

Two days after the crestfallen chief had started on his way home the

_Zaire_ passed his canoe in mid-stream, going the same way, and the

sight of her white hull and twin smokestacks brought consolation to

Komo.

"My lord has considered my words," said he to his headman; "for at his

village they said that the puc-a-puc did not leave till the new moon

came, and here he comes, though the old moon is still sowing his rind."

"Chief," said the headman, "you are great in council, and even Sandi

hearkens and obeys. You are wiser than an owl, swift and terrible as a

hawk, and your voice is like the winds of a storm."

"You speak truly," said Komo, who had no false sense of modesty. "I am

also very cunning, as you shall see."

Sanders was indeed beating up to the Ochori country. He was perturbed,

not by reason of Komo's sinister suggestion, but because his spies had

been silent. If there were dances in the Ochori country he should have

been told, however innocent those dances were.

Pigeons had gone ahead of him to tell of his journey, and he found the

first of his agents awaiting him at the junction of the Ikeli with the

Isisi.

"Lord, it is true that the Ochori dance," said the man, "yet, knowing

your lordship trusted Bosambo, I did not make report."

"There you did wrong," said Sanders; "for I tell you that if a hawk

kills a parrot, or the crocodiles find new breeding-places, I wish to

know what there is to know."

He gleaned more of these mysterious revels which Bosambo held in the

forest as he grew nearer to the Ochori country, and was more puzzled

than ever.

"Master," said the chief of the N'gombi village, "many folk go to the

Ochori dance, for Bosambo the chief has a great magic."

"What manner of magic?"

"Lord, it is a magic with whiteness," and he exhibited his hand proudly.

Straight across the reddish-brown palm was an irregular streak of white

paint.

"This the lord Bosambo did," he said, "and, behold, every day this

remains will be fortunate for me."

Sanders regarded the sign with every evidence of strong emotion.

Two months before Sanders had sent many tins of white paint with

instructions to the Ochori chief that his men should seek out the

boundary posts of his kingdom--and particularly those that impinged upon

foreign territories--and restore them to startling freshness.

"Many people of the Isisi, N'gombi, and Akasava go to Bosambo," the

little chief continued; "for, behold, this magic of Bosambo's wipes away

all soil. And if a man has been guilty of wickedness he is released of

punishment. I," he added proudly, "once killed my wife's father _cala

cala_, and frequently I have sorrowed because of this and because my

wife often reminds me. Now, lord, I am a clean man, so clean that when

the woman spoke to me this morning about my faraway sin, I hit her with

my spear, knowing that I am now innocent."

Sanders thought rapidly.

"And what do you pay Bosambo for this?" he asked.

"Nothing, lord," said the man.

"Nothing!" repeated Sanders incredulously.

"Lord, Bosambo gives his magic freely, saying he has made a vow to

strange gods to do this; and because it is free, many men go to his

dance for purification. The lord Kambara, the Silent One, he himself

passed at sunrise to-day."

Sanders smiled to himself. Kambara would have an interest in stray

confessions of guilt----

That was it! The meaning of Bosambo's practice came to him in a flash.

The painting of hands--the lure of purification; Bosambo was waiting for

the man with the scarred hand.

Sanders continued his journey, tied up five miles short of the Ochori

city, and went on foot through the forest to the place of meeting.

It was dark by the time he had covered half the journey, but there was

no need of compass to guide him, even had the path been more difficult

to follow. Ahead was a dull red glow in the sky where Bosambo's fires

burnt.

Four fires there were, set at the points of an imaginary square. In the

centre a round circle of stones, and in the centre again three spears

with red hafts.

Bosambo had evidently witnessed, or been participant in, an initiation

ceremony of a Monrovian secret society.

Within the circle moved Bosambo, and without it, two or three deep, the

moving figures of those who sought his merciful services.

Slowly he moved. In one hand a bright tin of Government paint, in the

other a Government brush.

Sanders, from his place of observation, grinned approvingly at the

solemnity in which Bosambo clothed the ceremony.

One by one he daubed the men--a flick of the brush, a muttered

incantation, and the magic was performed.

Sanders saw Kambara in the front rank and was puzzled, for the man was

in earnest. If he had come to scoff he remained to pray. Big beads of

perspiration glistened on his forehead, the outstretched hands were

shaking.

Bosambo approached him, lifted his brush, peered down, then with a sweep

of his arm he drew the N'gombi chief to him.

"Brother," he said pleasantly, "I have need of you."

Sanders saw what it meant, and went crashing through the undergrowth to

Bosambo's side, and the yelling throng that had closed round the

struggling pair drew back.

"Lord, here is your man!" said Bosambo, and forcibly pulled forward

Kambara's palm.

Sanders took his prisoner back to the _Zaire_, and from thenceforward,

so far as the crime was concerned, there was no difficulty, for Kambara

told the truth.

"Lord," he said, "my hand alone is in fault; for, though my people were

with me, none struck Olandi but I. Now do with me what you will, for my

wife hates me and I am sick for sleep."

"This is a bad palaver," said Sanders gravely, "for I trusted you."

"Lord, you may trust no man," said Kambara, "when his woman is the

palaver. I shall be glad to die, for I was her dog. And Olandi came

and stayed one night in my village, and all that I was to her and all

that I have given her was as nothing. And now she weeps all day for

him, as does the Ochori woman I took with her. And, lord, if women

worship only the dead, make an end, for I am sick of her scorn."

Sanders, with his head sunk, his hands clasped behind, his eyes

examining the floor of his cabin--they were on board the

_Zaire_--whistled a tune, a trick of his when he was worried.

"Go back to your village," he said. "You shall pay the family of Olandi

thirty goats and ten bags of salt for his blood."

* * * * *

"Master," said Bosambo. "I have great joy in my heart that you did not

hang this man, for it seems that Olandi did not die too soon. As for

the Ochori girl," he went on, "I would have killed Olandi on her

account--only Kambara was there first. This," he added, "I tell you,

lord, for your secret hearing, for I knew this girl."

Sanders looked at Bosambo keenly.

"They tell me that you have but one wife, Bosambo," he said.

"I have one," said Bosambo evasively, "but in my lifetime I have many

perils, of which the woman my wife knows nothing, for it is written in

the Sura of the Djinn, 'Men know best who know most, but a woman's

happiness lies in her delusions.'"

*CHAPTER VI*

*THE PEDOMETER*

Bosambo, the chief of the Ochori, was wont to style himself in moments

of magnificent conceit, King of the Ochori, Lord Chief of the Elebi

River, High Herd of Untamable Buffaloes and of all Goats.

There were other titles which I forget, but I merely mention his claims

in order that I may remark that he no longer refers to the goats of his

land. There is a reason.

Hikilari, the wise old chief of the Akasava, went hunting in strange

territories. That was the year when game went unaccountably westward,

some say through the spell of M'Shimba M'Shamba; but, as Sanders knew,

because of the floods.

Hikilari went by river for three days and across a swamp, he and his

hunters, before they found elephant. Then they had a good kill, and his

bearers came rollicking back to Akasava city, laden with good teeth,

some weighing as much as two hundred kilos.

It was good fortune, but he paid for it tremendously, for when he

yearned to return he was troubled with extraordinary drowsiness, and had

strange pains in his head. For this he employed the native remedy,

which was binding a wire tightly round his head. None the less he grew

no better, and there came a time when Hikilari, the Wise One, rose in

the middle of the night and, going out into the main street of the

village, danced and sang foolishly, snapping his fingers.

His sons, with his nephews and his brothers, held a palaver, and the

elder of his sons, M'Kovo, an evil man, spoke thuswise:

"It seems that my father is sick with the sickness mongo, for he is now

foolish, and will soon be dead. Yet I desire that no word of this shall

go to Sandi. Let us therefore put my father away safely, saying he has

gone a long journey; and, whilst he is absent, there are many things we

may do and many enemies of whom we may rid ourselves. And if Sandi

comes with the soldiers and says, 'Why did you these things?' we shall

say, 'Lord, who is chief here? A madman. We did as he bid; let it be

on his head.'"

The brother of the sick king thought it would be best to kill him

privily, but against this the king's son set his face.

"Whilst he is alive he is chief," he said significantly; "if he be dead,

be sure Sandi will find somebody to punish, and it may well be me."

For three days they kept the king to his hut, whilst witch-doctors

smeared him with red clay and ingola and chanted and put wet clay on his

eyes. At the end of that time they removed him by night to a hastily

thatched hut in the forest, and there he was left to M'Kovo's creatures.

Sanders, who knew many things of which he was supposed to be ignorant,

did not know this. He knew that Hikilari was a wise man; that he had

been on a journey; that there were no reasons why he (Sanders) should

not make a tour to investigate affairs in the Akasava.

He was collecting hut tax in the N'gombl country from a simple pastoral

people who objected on principle to pay anything, when the news came to

him that a party of Akasava folk had crossed the Ochori border, raided a

village, and, having killed the men, had expeditiously carried away the

women and goats.

Sanders was in the midst of an interminable palaver when the news came,

and the N'gombi people who squatted at his feet regarded him with

expectant hope, a hope which was expressed by a small chief who at the

moment had the ear of the assembly.

"Lord, this is bad news," he said in the friendly manner of his kind,

"and we will not trouble your lordship any farther with our grievances,

which are very small. So, therefore, if on account of our bad crops you

remit a half of our taxation, we will go peaceably to our villages

saying good words about your honour's justice."

"You shall pay all your taxation," said Sanders brusquely. "I waste my

time talking with you."

"Remit one-third," murmured the melancholy speaker. "We are poor men,

and there has been no fish in the river----"

Sanders rose from his seat of state wearily.

"I will return with the moon," he said, "and if all taxes be not paid,

there will be sad hearts in this village and sore backs, believe me.

The palaver is finished."

He sent one messenger to the chief of the Akasava, and he himself went

by a short cut through the forest to the Ochori city, for at the

psychological moment a cylinder head on the _Zaire_ had blown out.

He reached the Ochori by way of Elebi River, through Tunberi--which was

swamp, owing to unexpected, unseasonable, and most atrocious rains.

Three days he waded, from knee-deep to waist-high, till his arms ached

maddeningly from holding his rifle above the black ooze and mud.

And he came upon hippo and water-snake, and once the "boy" who walked

ahead yelled shrilly and went down, and Sanders himself was nearly

knocked off his feet by the quick rush of the crocodile bearing his

victim to the near-by river.

At the end of three days Sanders came to the higher land, where a man

might sleep elsewhere than in trees, and where, too, it was possible to

bathe in spring water, unpack shirts from headborne loads and count

noses.

He was now a day's march from the Ochori, but considerably less than a

day's march from the Ochori army, for two hours after he had resumed his

journey he came upon the chief Bosambo and with him a thousand spears.

And Bosambo was naked, save for his kilt of monkey-tails, and in the

crook of the arm which carried his wicker shield, he carried his five

fighting spears.

He halted his army at the sight of Sanders, and came out to meet him.

"Bosambo," said Sanders quietly, "you do me honour that you bring the

pick of your fighting men to guard me."

"Lord," said Bosambo with commendable frankness, "this is no honour to

you, for I go to settle an account with the King of the Akasava."

Sanders stood before him, his head perched on one side like a bird's,

and he slapped his leg absent-mindedly with his pliant cane.

"Behold," he said, "I am he who settles all accounts as between kings

and kings and men and men, and I tell you that you go back to your city

and sit in patience whilst I do the work for which my lord the King

appointed me."

Bosambo hesitated. He was pardonably annoyed.

"Go back to your city, Bosambo," said Sanders gently.

The chief squared his broad shoulders.

"I am your man," he said, and turned without another word.

Sanders stopped him before he had taken half a dozen paces.

"Give me twenty fighting men," he said, "and two canoes. You shall hold

your men in check whilst I go about the King's business."

An hour later he was going down-stream as fast as a five-knot current

and his swift paddlers could take him.

He came to the Akasava city at noon of the following day, and found it

peaceable enough.

M'Kovo, the king's son, came to the beach to meet him.

"Lord Sandi," he said with an extravagant gesture of surprise, "I see

that the summer comes twice in one season, for you----"

Sanders was in no mood for compliments.

"Where is the old chief, your father?" he asked.

"Master," said M'Kovo earnestly, "I will not lie to you. My father has

taken his warriors into the forest, and I fear that he will do evil."

And he told a story which was long and circumstantial, of the sudden

flaming up of an old man's rages and animosities.

Sanders listened patiently.

An unwavering instinct, which he had developed to a point where it rose

superior to reason, told him that the man was lying. Nor was his faith

in his own judgment shaken when M'Kovo produced his elder men and

witnesses to his sire's sudden fit of depravity.

But Sanders was a cunning man and full of guile.

He dropped his hand of a sudden upon the other's shoulder.

"M'Kovo," he said mildly, "it seems that your chief and father is no

longer worthy. Therefore you shall dwell in the chief's hut. Yet first

you shall bring me the chief Hikilari, and you shall bring him unhurt

and he shall have his eyes. Bring him quickly, M'Kovo."

"Lord," said M'Kovo sullenly, "he will not come, and how may I force

him, for he has many warriors with him?"

Sanders thought the matter out.

"Go now," he said after a while, "and speak with him, telling him that I

await him."

"Lord, that I will do," said M'Kovo, "but I cannot go till night because

I fear your men will follow me, and my father, seeing them, will put me

to death."

Sanders nodded.

That night M'Kovo came to him ready for his journey, and Sanders took

from his pocket a round silver box.

"This you shall hang about your neck," he said, "that your father may

know you come from me."

M'Kovo hung the round box by a piece of string and walked quickly toward

the forest.

Two miles on the forest path he met his cousins and brothers, an

apprehensive assembly.

"My stomach is sick with fear," said his elder cousin Tangiri; "for

Sandi has an eye that sees through trees."

"You are a fool," snarled M'Kovo; "for Sandi is a bat who sees nothing.

What of Hikilari, my father?"

His younger brother extended the point of his spear and M'Kovo saw that

it was caked brown with blood.

"That was best," he said. "Now we will all go to sleep, and in the

morning I will go back to Sandi and tell him a tale."

In the morning his relatives scratched his legs with thorns and threw

dust over him, and an hour later, artificially exhausted, he staggered

to the hut before which Mr. Commissioner Sanders sat at breakfast.

Sanders glanced keenly at the travel-worn figure.

"My friend," he said softly, "you have come a long way?"

"Lord," said M'Kovo, weak of voice, "since I left you I have not rested

save before my father, who sent me away with evil words concerning your

honour."

And the exact and unabridged text of those "evil words" he delivered

with relish.

Sanders reached down and took the little silver box that lay upon the

heaving chest.

"And this you showed to your father?" he asked.

"Lord, I showed him this," repeated the man.

"And you travelled through the night--many miles?"

"Master, I did as I have told," M'Kovo replied.

Sanders touched a spring, and the case of the box flew open. There was

revealed a dial like that of a watch save that it contained many little

hands.

M'Kovo watched curiously as Sanders examined the instrument.

"Look well at this, M'Kovo," said Sanders dryly; "for it is a small

devil which talks truly--and it tells me that you have travelled no

farther than a man may walk in the time that the full moon climbs a

tree."

The _Zaire_ had arrived during the night, and a Houssa guard stood

waiting.

Sanders slipped the pedometer into his pocket, gave a characteristic

jerk of his head, and Sergeant Abiboo seized his prisoner.

"Let him sit in irons," said Sanders in Arabic, "and take six men along

the forest road and bring me any man you may find."

Abiboo returned in an hour with four prisoners, and they were very

voluble--too voluble for the safety of M'Kovo and his younger brother,

for by night Sanders had discovered a forest grave where Hikilari the

wise chief lay.

It was under a tree with wide-spreading branches, and was eminently

suitable for the sequel to that tragedy.

* * * * *

Bosambo was not to blame for every crime laid at his door. He had a

feud with the Akasava, not without reason. The death of M'Kovo his

enemy was not sufficient to extinguish the obligation, for the Akasava

had spilt blood, and that rankled for many months. He was by nature a

thief, being a Krooman from the Liberian coast before he came to be king

over the simple and fearful Ochori.

So when all the trouble between the Akasava and Ochori seemed at rest,

Sanders had occasion to come to the Ochori country in a hurry--and the

river was low.

There is no chart of the big river worth two cents in the dry season,

because unexpected sand banks come barking up in the fairway, and there

are whole stretches of river wherein less than a fathom of water runs.

Sometimes the boy sitting on the bow of the _Zaire_, thrusting a pliant

rod into the stream, would cry through his nose that there were two

fathoms of water when there was but one.

He was, as I have beforetime said, of the Kano folk, and somewhat

religious, dreaming of a pilgrimage to Mecca, and a green band round his

tarboosh.

"I declare to you the glory of God and a fathom and a little."

Bump!

"Get overboard, you talkative devil!" said Sanders, who was more annoyed

because this was the fourteenth bank he had struck since he left

headquarters. So the whole crew jumped waist deep into the water, and

singing a little song as they toiled, pushed the boat clear.

Sanders struck his thirty-ninth bank just before he came to the village

of Ochori, and he landed in a most unamiable mood.

"Bosambo," he said, "I have two minds about you--the one is to hang you

for your many wickednesses, the other is to whip you."

"Master," said Bosambo with grave piety, "all things shall be as

ordained."

"Have no fear but that it will be one or the other," warned the

Commissioner. "I am no dog that I should run from one end of the state

to the other because a thieving black man raids in forbidden territory."

Bosambo, whose guilty conscience suggested many reasons for the

unexpected visit of the Commissioner, seemed less genuinely astonished.

"Master, I am no nigger," he said, "being related by birth and previous

marriages to several kings, also----"

"You are a liar," said Sanders, fuming, "and related by birth and

marriage to the father of liars; and I did not come to talk about your

uninteresting family, but rather to discuss a matter of night raiding."

"As to night raiding" said Bosambo frankly, "I know nothing about that.

I went with my councillors to the Akasava, being anxious to see the new

chief and tell him of my love; also," he said piously, "to say certain

Christian prayers by the grave of my enemy, for, as you know, lord, our

faith teaches this."

"By night you went," said Sanders, ignoring the challenge of "our

faith," "and Akasava city may easily be gained in broad daylight; also,

when the Akasava fell upon you, you had many goats tied up in your

canoes.

"They were my goats," said Bosambo with dignity. "These I brought with

me as a present to the new chief."

In his exasperation Sanders swore long and fluently.

"Blood has paid for blood," he said wrathfully, "and there shall be no

more raidings. More than this, you shall stay in this city and shall

not move therefrom till you have my word."

"Lord Sandi," said Bosambo, "I hear to obey."

A light of unholy joy came momentarily into the eyes of the

Commissioner, flickered a moment, and was gone, leaving his face

impassive.

"You know, Bosambo," he said mildly--for him, "that I have great faith

in you; therefore I leave you a powerful fetish, who shall be as me in

my absence."

He took from the pocket of his uniform jacket a certain round box of

silver, very pleasant to the touch, being somewhat like a flattened egg.

Sanders had set his pedometer that morning.

"Take this and wear it for my sake," he said.

Bosambo threaded a chain through its loop of silver and hung it about

his neck.

"Lord," he said gratefully, "you have done this thing before the eyes of

my people, and now they will believe all I tell them regarding your love

for me."

Sanders left the Ochori city next morning.

"Remember," he warned, "you do not go beyond the borders of your city."

"Master," said Bosambo, "I sit fasting and without movement until your

lordship returns."

He watched the _Zaire_ until she was a white speck on the placid face of

the water; then he went to his hut.

Very carefully he removed the silver case from his neck and laid it in

the palm of his hand.

"Now, little devil," he addressed it, "who watches the coming and going

of men, I think I will learn all about you. O hanger of M'Kovo!"

He pressed the knob--he had once possessed a watch, and was wise in the

way of stem springs--the case flew open, and showed him the little

dials.

He shook the instrument violently, and heard a faint clicking. He saw a

large hand move across the second of a circle.

Bearing the pedometer in his hand, he paced the length of the village

street, and at every pace the instrument clicked and the hand moved.

When he was still it did not move.

"Praise be to all gods!" said Bosambo. "Now I know you, O Talker! For

I have seen your wicked tongue wagging, and I know the manner of your

speech."

He made his way slowly back to his hut.

Before the door his new baby, the light of his eyes, sprawled upon a

skin rug, clutching frantically at the family goat, a staid veteran,

tolerant of the indignities which a small brown man-child might put upon

him. Bosambo stopped to rub the child's little brown head and pat the

goat's sleek neck.

Then he went into the hut, carefully removed the tell-tale instrument

from the chain at his neck, and hid it with other household treasures in

a hole beneath his bed.

At sundown his _lokali_ brought the fighting men together.

"We go to the Akasava," he said, addressing them briefly, "for I know a

village that is fat with corn and the stolen goats of the Ochori. Also

the blood of our brothers calls us, though not so loudly as the goats."

He marched away, and was gone three days, at the end of which time he

returned minus three men--for the Akasava village had resisted his

attentions strenuously--but bringing with him some notable loot.

News travels fast on the river, especially bad news, and this reached

Sanders, who, continuing his quest for hut tax, had reached the Isisi.

On the top of this arrived a messenger from the Akasava chief, and

Sanders went as fast as the _Zaire_ could carry him to the Ochori city.

Bosambo heard of his coming.

"Bring me, O my life and pride," he said to his wife, "a certain silver

box which is under my bed; it is so large and of such a shape."

"Lord," said his wife, "I know the box well."

He slipped the loop of the string that held it over his head, and in all

calmness awaited his master's coming.

Sanders was very angry indeed, so angry that he was almost polite to his

erring chief.

"Lord," said Bosambo, when the question was put to him, "I have not left

my city by day or by night. As you find me, so have I been--sitting

before my hut thinking of holy things and your lordship's goodness."

"Give me that box," said Sanders.

He took it in his hand and snapped it open. He looked at the dials for a

long time; then he looked at Bosambo, and that worthy man returned his

glance without embarrassment.

"Bosambo," said Sanders, "my little devil tells me that you have

travelled for many miles----"

"Lord," said the bewildered chief, "if it says that it lies."

"It is true enough for me," said Sanders. "Now I tell you that you have

gone too far, and therefore I fine you and your people fifty goats, also

I increase your taxation, revoke your hunting privileges in the Isisi

forest, and order you to find me fifty workmen every day to labour in

the Government service."

"Oh, ko!" groaned Bosambo, standing on one leg in his anguish. "That is

just, but hard, for I tell you, Lord Sandi, that I did raid the Akasava,

yet how your devil box should know this I cannot tell, for I wrapped it

in cloth and hid it under my bed."

"You did not carry it?" asked Sanders incredulously.

"I speak the truth, and my wife shall testify," said Bosambo.

He called her by name, and the graceful Kano girl who domineered him

came to the door of his hut.

"Lord, it is true," she said, "for I have seen it, and all the people

have seen it, even while my lord Bosambo was absent."

She stooped down and lifted her fat baby from the dust.

"This one also saw it," she said, the light of pride in her eyes, "and

to please my Lord Bosambo's son, I hung it round the neck of Neta the

goat. Did I wrong?"

"Bright eyes," said Bosambo, "you can do no wrong, yet tell me, did Neta

the goat go far from the city?"

The woman nodded.

"Once only," she said. "She was gone for a day and a night, and I

feared for your box, for this is the season when goats are very

restless."

Bosambo turned to his overlord.

"You have heard, O Sandi," he said. "I am in fault, and will pay the

price."

"That you will," said Sanders, "for the other goat has done no wrong."

*CHAPTER VII*

*THE BROTHER OF BOSAMBO*

Bosambo was a Monrovian. Therefore he was a thief. For just as most

Swedes are born fair and with blue eyes, and most Spaniards come into

this world with swarthy skins, so all Monrovians come into this life

constitutionally dishonest.

In another place I have told the story of the chief's arrival in

Sanders's territory, of the audacious methods by which he usurped the

throne, of that crazy stool of chieftainship, and I hinted at the sudden

and unexpected ends, discreditable to Bosambo, which befell the rightful

heirs to the chieftainship.

Bosambo was a good man by many standards--Christian and pagan. He ruled

his people wisely, and extracted more revenue in one year than any

previous chief had taken from the lazy Ochori in ten years.

Incidentally he made an excellent commission, for it was Bosambo's way

to collect one for the Government and two for himself. He had in those

far-off days, if I remember rightly, been an unruly subject of the

President of Liberia. Before a solemn tribunal he had been convicted of

having stolen a buoy-bell which had been placed in the fairway to warn

navigators of a wreck, and had converted the same to his own use. He

had escaped from captivity and, after months of weary travelling, had

arrived in the Ochori country.

Sanders had found him a loyal man, and trusted him in all matters

affecting good government. There were others who did not trust Bosambo

at all--notably certain chiefs of the Isisi, of the Akasava, and of the

N'gombi.

These men had measured their wits with the foreigner, the ruler of the

Ochori, and been worsted. And because of certain courageous acts

performed in the defence of his country it was well known from one end

of the territories to the other that Bosambo was "well loved by Sandi,"

who rumour said--in no complimentary manner--was related to the chief.

As to how this rumour arose Bosambo knows best. It is an elementary

fact that travelling news accumulates material in its transit.

Thus it came about that in Monrovia, and in Liberia itself, the fame of

the ex-convict grew apace, and he was exalted to a position which he

never pretended to occupy. I believe a Liberian journal, published by a

black man, or men, so far forgot the heinous offence of which Bosambo

stood convicted as to refer to him as "our worthy fellow-citizen, Mr.

Bosambo, High Commissioner for the Ochori."

He was a wealthy prince; he was a king. He was above Commissioner

Sanders in point of importance. He was even credited with exercising an

influence over the Home Government which was without parallel in the

history of the Coast.

Bosambo had relatives along the Coast, and these discovered themselves

in ratio with his greatness. He had a brother named Siskolo, a tall,

bony, and important man.

Siskolo was first in importance by reason of the fact that he had served

on one of his Majesty's ships as a Krooman, that he had a smattering of

English, and that he had, by strict attention to business during the

period of his contact with white men, stolen sufficient to set him up in

Liberia as a native storekeeper.

He was called Mr. Siskolo, and had ambitions at some future period to

become a member of the Legislative Council.

It cannot be said with truth that the possession of a brother such as

Bosambo was gave him any cause for pride or exaltation during the time

when Bosambo's name in Liberia was synonymous with mud. It is even on

record that after having denied the relationship he referred to

Bosambo--when the relationship was a certainty beyond dispute--as a "low

nigger."

When the Liberian Government, in its munificence, offered an adequate

reward for the arrest of this law-breaker, Mr. Siskolo, in the most

public-spirited way, through the columns of the Press, offered to add a

personal reward of his own.

Then the public attitude of Liberia changed towards Bosambo, and with

this change Siskolo's views upon his brother also underwent a change.

Then came a time when Bosambo was honoured in his own land, and men

spoke of him proudly, and, as I have indicated, even the public Press

wrote of him in terms of pride.

Now Mr. Siskolo, as is recounted, gathered around him all people who

were nearly or distantly related to him, and they ranged from the pure

aboriginal grandfather to the frock-coated son-in-law, who ran a boot

factory in Liberia.

"My friends and my comrades," said Mr. Siskolo oracularly, "you all know

that my dear brother Bosambo has now a large territory, and is honoured

beyond any other coloured man upon this coast. Now I have loved Bosambo

for many years, and often in the night I have wrestled in prayer for his

safety. Also, I have spoken well about him to all the white men I have

met, and I have on many occasions sent him large sums of money by

messenger. If this money has not been received," continued Mr. Siskolo

stoutly, "it is because the messengers were thieves, or robbers may have

set upon them by the wayside. But all my clerks and the people who love

me know that I sent this money, also I have sent him letters praising

him, and giving him great riches."

He paused, did Mr. Siskolo, and thrust a bony hand into the pockets of

the dress trousers he had acquired from the valet of the French Consul.

"I have called you together," he said slowly, "because I am going to

make a journey into the country, and I am going to speak face to face

with my beloved brother. For I hear that he has many treasures in his

land, and it is not good that he should be so rich, and we, all of us

who are related to him in blood, and have loved him and prayed for him

for so many years, should be poor."

None of the relations who squatted or sat about the room denied this.

Indeed, there was a murmur of applause, not unmixed, however, with

suspicion, which was voiced by one Lakiro, popularly supposed to be

learned in the law.

"All this is fine talk, Siskolo," he said; "yet how shall we know in

what proportion our dear relation Bosambo will desire to distribute his

wealth amongst those of us who love him?"

This time the applause was unmistakable.

Mr. Siskolo said haughtily: "After I have received treasure from my dear

brother Bosambo--my own brother, related to me in blood, as you will all

understand, and no cousin, as you are--after this brother of mine, whom

I have loved so dearly and for so long, has given me of his treasure, I

will take my half, and the other half I will distribute evenly among

you."

Lakiro assumed his most judicial air.

"It seems to me," he said, "that as we are all blood relations, and have

brought money for this journey which you make, Siskolo, and you

yourself, so far as I know, are not finding so much as a dollar, our

dear friend and relative Bosambo would be better pleased if his great

gifts were distributed equally, though perhaps"--and he eyed the

back-country brethren who had assembled, and who were listening

uncomprehendingly to a conversation which was half in English and half

in Monrovian--"it would be better to give less to those who have no need

of money, or less need than we who have acquired by our high education,

expensive and luxurious tastes, such as champagne, wine and other noble

foods."

For two days and the greater part of two nights the relations of Bosambo

argued over the distribution of the booty which they so confidently

anticipated. At the end of a fortnight Siskolo departed from Liberia on

a coasting steamer, and in the course of time he arrived at Sanders's

headquarters.

Now it may be said that the civilised native--the native of the frock

coat and the top hat--was Mr. Commissioner Sanders's pet abomination.

He also loathed all native men who spoke English--however badly they

spake it--with the sole exception of Bosambo himself, whose stock was

exhausted within fifty words. Yet he listened patiently as Siskolo

unfolded his plan, and with the development of the scheme something like

a holy joy took its place in Sanders's soul.

He even smiled graciously upon this black man.

"Go you, Siskolo," he said gently. "I will send a canoe to carry you to

your brother. It is true, as you say, that he is a great chief, though

how rich he may be I have no means of knowing. I have not your

wonderful eyes."

Siskolo passed over the insult without a word.

"Lord Sandi," he said, dropping into the vernacular, for he received

little encouragement to proceed in the language which was Sanders's own.

"Lord Sandi, I am glad in my heart that I go to see my brother Bosambo,

that I may take him by the hand. As to his treasure, I do not doubt

that he has more than most men, for Bosambo is a very cunning man, as I

know. I am taking him rich presents, amongst them a clock, which goes

by machinery, from my own store, which could not be bought at any Coast

port under three dollars, and also lengths and pieces of cloth."

Mr. Siskolo was up early in a morning of July. Mr. Siskolo in a tall

hat--his frock coat carefully folded and deposited in the little

deckhouse on the canoe, and even his trousers protected against the

elements by a piece of cardboard box--set out on the long journey which

separated him from his beloved brother.

In a country where time does not count, and where imagination plays a

very small part, travelling is a pleasant though lengthy business. It

was a month and three days before Siskolo came to the border of his

brother's territory. He was two miles from Ochori city when he arrayed

himself in the hat, the frock coat, and the trousers of civilisation

that he might make an entry in a manner befitting one who was of kin to

a great and wealthy prince.

Bosambo received the news of his brother's arrival with something akin

to perturbation.

"If this man is indeed my brother," he said, "I am a happy man, for he

owes me four dollars he borrowed _cala-cala_ and has never repaid."

Yet he was uneasy. Relations have a trick of producing curious disorder

in their hosts. This is not peculiar to any race or colour, and it was

with a feeling of apprehension that Bosambo in his state dress went

solemnly in procession to meet his brother.

In his eagerness Siskolo stepped out of the canoe before it was

grounded, and waded ashore to greet his brother.

"You are indeed my brother--my own brother Bosambo," he said, and

embraced him tenderly. "This is a glorious day to me."

"To me," said Bosambo, "the sun shines twice as bright and the little

birds sing very loudly, and I feel so glad, that I could dance. Now

tell me, Siskolo," he went on, striking a more practical note, "why did

you come all this way to see me? For I am a poor man, and have nothing

to give you."

"Bosambo," said Siskolo reproachfully, "I bring you presents of great

value. I do not desire so much as a dollar. All I wish is to see your

beautiful face and to hear your wise words which men speak about from

one end of the country to the other."

Siskolo took Bosambo's hands again.

There was a brief halt whilst Siskolo removed the soaked

trousers--"for," he explained, "these cost me three dollars."

Thus they went into the city of the Ochori--arm in arm, in the white

man's fashion--and all the city gazed spellbound at the spectacle of a

tall, slim man in a frock coat and top hat with a wisp of white shirt

fluttering about his legs walking in an attitude of such affectionate

regard with Bosambo their chief.

Bosambo placed at the disposal of his brother his finest hut. For his

amusement he brought along girls of six different tribes to dance before

this interested member of the Ethiopian Church. Nothing that he could

devise, nothing that the unrewarded labours of his people could perform,

was left undone to make the stay of his brother a happy and a memorable

time.

Yet Siskolo was not happy. Despite the enjoyment he had in all the

happy days which Bosambo provided of evidence of his power, of his

popularity, there still remained a very important proof which Siskolo

required of Bosambo's wealth.

He broached the subject one night at a feast given in his honour by the

chief, and furnished, it may be remarked in parenthesis, by those who

sat about and watched the disposal of their most precious goods with

some resentment.

"Bosambo, my brother," said Siskolo, "though I love you, I envy you.

You are a rich man, and I am a very poor man and I know that you have

many beautiful treasures hidden away from view."

"Do not envy me, Siskolo," said Bosambo sadly, "for though I am a chief

and beloved by Sandi, I have no wealth. Yet you, my brother, and my

friend, have more dollars than the grains of the sand. Now you know I

love you," Bosambo went on breathlessly, for the protest was breaking

from the other's lips, "and I do these things without desire of reward.

I should feel great pain in my heart if I thought you should offer me

little pieces of silver. Yet, if you do so desire, knowing how humble I

am before your face, I would take what you gave me not because I wish

for riches at your hands, but because I am a poor man."

Siskolo's face was lengthening.

"Bosambo," he said, and there was less geniality in his tone, "I am also

a poor man, having a large family and many relations who are also your

relations, and I think it would be a good thing if you would offer me

some fine present that I might take back to the Coast, and, calling all

the people together, say 'Behold, this was given to me in a far country

by Bosambo, my brother, who is a great chief and very rich.'"

Bosambo's face showed no signs of enthusiasm.

"That is true," he said softly, "it would be a beautiful thing to do,

and I am sick in my heart that I cannot do this because I am so poor."

This was a type of the conversation which occupied the attention of the

two brothers whenever the round of entertainments allowed talking space.

Bosambo was a weary man at the end of ten days, and cast forth hints

which any but Bosambo's brother would have taken.

It was:

"Brother," he said, "I had a dream last night that your family were sick

and that your business was ruined. Now I think that if you go swiftly

to your home----"

Or:

"Brother, I am filled with sorrow, for the season approaches in our land

when all strangers suffer from boils."

But Siskolo countered with neatness and resolution, for was he not

Bosambo's brother?

The chief was filled with gloom and foreboding. As the weeks passed and

his brother showed no signs of departing, Bosambo took his swiftest

canoe and ten paddlers and made his way to the I'kan where Sanders was

collecting taxes.

"Master," said Bosambo, squatting on the deck before the weary

Commissioner, "I have a tale to tell you."

"Let it be such a tale," said Sanders, "as may be told between the

settling of a mosquito and the sting of her."

"Lord, this is a short tale," said Bosambo sadly, "but it is a very bad

tale--for me."

And he told the story of the unwelcome brother.

"Lord," he went on, "I have done all that a man can do, for I have given

him food that was not quite good; and one night my young men played a

game, pretending, in their love of me, that they were certain fierce men

of the Isisi, though your lordship knows that they are not fierce,

but----"

"Get on! Get on!" snarled Sanders, for the day had been hot, and the

tax-payers more than a little trying.

"Now I come to you, my master and lord," said Bosambo, "knowing that you

are very wise and cunning, and also that you have the powers of gods.

Send my brother away from me, for I love him so much that I fear I will

do him an injury."

Sanders was a man who counted nothing too small for his

consideration--always excepting the quarrels of women. For he had seen

the beginnings of wars in pin-point differences, and had watched an

expedition of eight thousand men march into the bush to settle a palaver

concerning a cooking-pot.

He thought deeply for a while, then:

"Two moons ago," he said, "there came to me a hunting man of the

Akasava, who told me that in the forest of the Ochori, on the very

border of the Isisi, was a place where five trees grew in the form of a

crescent----"

"Praise be to God and to His prophet Mohammed," said the pious Bosambo,

and crossed himself with some inconsequence.

"In the form of a crescent," Sanders went on, "and beneath the centre

tree, so said this young man of the Akasava, is a great store of dead

ivory" (_i.e._, old ivory which has been buried or stored).

He stopped and Bosambo looked at him.

"Such stories are often told," he said.

"Let it be told again," said Sanders significantly.

Intelligence dawned on Bosambo's eyes.

Two days later he was again in his own city, and at night he called his

brother to a secret palaver.

"Brother," he said, "for many days have I thought about you and how I

might serve you best. As you know, I am a poor man."

"'A king is a poor man and a beggar is poorer,'" quoted Siskolo,

insolently incredulous.

Bosambo drew a long breath.

"Now I will tell you something," he said, lowering his voice. "Against

my old age and the treachery of a disloyal people I have stored great

stores of ivory. I have taken this ivory from my people. I have won it

in bloody battles. I have hunted many elephants. Siskolo, my brother,"

he went on, speaking under stress of emotion, "all this I give you

because I love you and my beautiful relations. Go now in peace, but do

not return, for when my people learn that you are seeking the treasures

of the nation they will not forgive you and, though I am their chief, I

cannot hold them."

All through the night they sat, Bosambo mournful but informative,

Siskolo a-quiver with excitement.

At dawn the brother left by water for the border-line of the Isisi,

where five trees grew in the form of a crescent.

* * * * *

"Lord," said Bosambo, a bitter and an injured man, "I have been a

Christian, a worshipper of devils, a fetish man, and now I am of the

true faith--though as to whether it is true I have reason to doubt." He

stood before Sanders at headquarters.

Away down by the little quay on the river his sweating paddlers were

lying exhausted, for Bosambo had come by the river day and night.

Sanders did not speak. There was a twinkle in his eye, and a smile

hovered at the corners of his mouth.

"And it seems to me," said Bosambo tragically, "that none of the gods

loves me."

"That is your palaver," said Sanders, "and remember your brother loves

you more than ever."

"Master," said Bosambo, throwing out his arms in despair, "did I know

that beneath the middle tree of five was buried ten tusks of ivory?

Lord, am I mad that I should give this dog such blessed treasure? I

thought----"

"I also thought it was an old man's story," said Sanders gently.

"Lord, may I look?"

Sanders nodded, and Bosambo walked to the end of the verandah and looked

across the sea.

There was a smudge of smoke on the horizon. It was the smoke of the

departing mail-boat which carried Siskolo and his wonderful ivory back

to Monrovia.

Bosambo raised a solemn fist and cursed the disappearing vessel.

"O brother!" he wailed. "O devil! O snake! Nigger! Nigger! Dam'

nigger!"

Bosambo wept.

*CHAPTER VIII*

*THE CHAIR OF THE N'GOMBI*

The N'gombi people prized a certain chair beyond all other treasures.

For it was made of ivory and native silver, in which the N'gombi are

clever workers.

Upon this chair sat kings, great warriors, and chiefs of people; also

favoured guests of the land.

Bosambo of the Ochori went to a friendly palaver with the king of the

N'gombi, and sat upon the chair and admired it.

After he had gone away, four men came to the village by night and

carried off the treasure, and though the King of N'gombi and his

councillors searched the land from one end to the other the chair was

never found.

It might never have been found but for a Mr. Wooling, a trader and man

of parts.

He was known from one end of the coast to the other as a wonderful

seller of things, and was by all accounts rich.

One day he decided to conquer new worlds and came into Sanders's

territory with complete faith in his mission, a cargo of junk, and an

intense curiosity.

Hitherto, his trading had been confined to the most civilized stretches

of the country--to places where the educated aboriginal studied the

rates of exchange and sold their crops forward.

He had long desired to tread a country where heathenism reigned and

where white men were regarded as gods and were allowed to swindle on

magnificent scale.

Wooling had many shocks, not the least of which was the discovery that

gin, even when it was German gin in square bottles, gaudily labelled and

enclosed in straw packets, was not regarded as a marketable commodity by

Sanders.

"You can take anything you like," said Sanders, waving his fly-whisk

lazily, "but the bar is up against alcohol and firearms, both of which,

in the hands of an enthusiastic and experimental people, are peculiarly

deadly."

"But, Mr. Sanders!" protested the woolgatherer, with the confident

little smile which represented seventy-five per cent. of his

stock-in-trade. "I am not one of these new chums straight out from

home! Damn it! I know the people, I speak all their lingo, from Coast

talk to Swaheli."

"You don't speak gin to them, anyway," said Sanders; "and the palaver

may be regarded as finished."

And all the persuasive eloquence of Mr. Wooling did not shift the

adamantine Commissioner; and the trader left with a polite reference to

the weather, and an unspoken condemnation of an officious swine of a

British jack-in-office which Sanders would have given money to have

heard.

Wooling went up-country and traded to the best of his ability without

the alluring stock, which had been the long suit in his campaign, and if

the truth be told--and there is no pressing reason why it should not--he

did very well till he tied up one morning at Ochori city and interviewed

a chief whose name was Bosambo.

Wooling landed at midday, and in an hour he had arrayed his beautiful

stores on the beach.

They included Manchester cotton goods from Belgium, genuine Indian junk

from Birmingham, salt which contained a sensible proportion of good

river sand, and similar attractive bargains.

His visit to the chief was something of an event. He found Bosambo

sitting before his tent in a robe of leopard skins.

"Chief," he said in the flowery manner of his kind, "I have come many

weary days through the forest and against the current of the river, that

I may see the greatness of all kings, and I bring you a present from the

King of England, who is my personal friend and is distantly related to

me."

And with some ceremony he handed to his host a small ikon representing a

yellow St. Sebastian perforated with purple arrows--such as may be

purchased from any manufacturer on the Baltic for three cents wholesale.

Bosambo received the gift gravely.

"Lord," he said, "I will put this with other presents which the King has

sent me, some of which are of great value, such as a fine bedstead of

gold, a clock of silver, and a crown so full of diamonds that no man has

ever counted them."

He said this easily; and the staggered Mr. Wooling caught his breath.

"As to this beautiful present," said Bosambo, handling the ikon

carelessly, and apparently repenting of his decision to add it to his

collection, "behold, to show how much I love you--as I love all white

lords--I give it to you, but since it is a bad palaver that a present

should be returned, you shall give me ten silver dollars: in this way

none of us shall meet with misfortune."

"Chief," said Mr. Wooling, recovering himself with a great effort, "that

is a very beautiful present, and the King will be angry when he hears

that you have returned it, for there is a saying, 'Give nothing which

has been given,' and that is the picture of a very holy man."

Bosambo looked at the ikon.

"It is a very holy man," he agreed, "for I see that it is a picture of

the blessed Judas--therefore you shall have this by my head and by my

soul."

In the end Mr. Wooling compromised reluctantly on a five-dollar basis,

throwing in the ikon as a sort of ecclesiastical makeweight.

More than this, Bosambo bought exactly ten dollars' worth of

merchandise, including a length of chiffon, and paid for them with

money. Mr. Wooling went away comforted.

It was many days before he discovered amongst his cash ten separate and

distinct dollar pieces that were unmistakably bad and of the type which

unscrupulous Coast houses sell at a dollar a dozen to the traders who

deal with the unsophisticated heathen.

Wooling got back to the Coast with a profit which was fairly elusive

unless it was possible to include experience on the credit side of the

ledger. Six months later, he made another trip into the interior,

carrying a special line of talking-machines, which were chiefly

remarkable for the fact that the sample machine which he exhibited was a

more effective instrument than the one he sold. Here again he found

himself in Ochori city. He had, in his big trading canoe, one phonograph

and twenty-four things that looked like phonographs, and were in point

of fact phonographs with this difference, that they had no workable

interiors, and phonographs without mechanism are a drug upon the African

market.

Nevertheless, Bosambo purchased one at the ridiculously low price

offered, and the chief viewed with a pained and reproachful mien the

exhaustive tests which Mr. Wooling applied to the purchase money.

"Lord," said Bosambo, gently, "this money is good money, for it was sent

to me by my half-brother Sandi."

"Blow your half-brother Sandi," said Wooling, in energetic English, and

to his amazement the chief replied in the same language:

"You make um swear--you lib for hell one time--you say damn words you

not fit for make angel."

Wooling, arriving at the next city--which was N'gombi--was certainly no

angel, for he had discovered that in some mysterious fashion he had sold

Bosambo the genuine phonograph, and had none wherewith to beguile his

new client.

He made a forced journey back to Ochori city and discovered Bosambo

entertaining a large audience with a throaty presentment of the "Holy

City."

As the enraged trader stamped his way through the long, straggling

street, there floated to him on the evening breeze the voice of the

far-away tenor:

Jer-u-salem! Jer-u-salem!

Sing for the night is o'er!

"Chief!" said Mr. Wooling hotly, "this is a bad palaver, for you have

taken my best devil box, which I did not sell you."

Last night I lay a sleeping,

There came a dream so fair.

sang the phonograph soulfully.

"Lord," said Bosambo, "this devil box I bought--paying you with dollars

which your lordship ate fearing they were evil dollars."

"By your head, you thief!" swore Wooling. "I sold you this." And he

produced from under his arm the excellent substitute.

"Lord," said Bosambo, humbly enough, "I am sorry."

He switched off the phonograph. He dismounted the tin horn with

reluctant fingers; with his own hands he wrapped it in a piece of the

native matting and handed it to the trader, and Wooling, who had

expected trouble, "dashed" his courteous host a whole dollar.

"Thus I reward those who are honest," he said magnificently.

"Master," said Bosambo, "that we may remember one another kindly, you

shall keep one half of this and I the other."

And with no effort he broke the coin in half, for it was made of metal

considerably inferior to silver.

Wooling was a man not easily abashed, yet it is on record that in his

agitation he handed over a genuine dollar and was half way back to

Akasava city before he realised his folly. Then he laughed to himself,

for the phonograph was worth all the trouble, and the money.

That night he assembled the Akasava to hear the "Holy City"--only to

discover that he had again brought away from Ochori city the

unsatisfactory instrument he had taken.

In the city of the Ochori all the night a wheezy voice acclaimed

Jerusalem to the admiration and awe of the Ochori people.

"It is partly your own fault," said Sanders, when the trader complained.

"Bosambo was educated in a civilised community, and naturally has a way

with his fingers which less gifted people do not possess."

"Mr. Sanders," said the woolgatherer earnestly, "I've traded this coast,

man and boy, for sixteen years, and there never was and there never will

be," he spoke with painful emphasis, "an eternally condemned native

nigger in this inevitably-doomed-by-Providence world who can get the

better of Bill Wooling."

All this he said, employing in his pardonable exasperation, certain

lurid similes which need not be reproduced.

"I don't like your language," said Sanders, "but I admire your

determination."

Such was the determination of Mr. Wooling, in fact, that a month later

he returned with a third cargo, this time a particularly fascinating

one, for it consisted in the main of golden chains of surprising

thickness which were studded at intervals with very rare and precious

pieces of coloured glass.

"And this time," he said to the unmoved Commissioner, who for want of

something better to do, had come down to the landing-stage to see the

trader depart, "this time this Bosambo is going to get it abaft the

collar."

"Keep away from the N'gombi people," said Sanders, "they are

fidgety--that territory is barred to you."

Mr. Wooling made a resentful noise, for he had laid down an itinerary

through the N'gombi country, which is very rich in gum and rubber.

He made a pleasant way through the territories, for he was a glib man

and had a ready explanation for those who complained bitterly about the

failing properties of their previous purchases.

He went straight to the Ochori district. There lay the challenge to his

astuteness and especial gifts. He so far forgot the decencies of his

calling as to come straight to the point.

"Bosambo," he said, "I have brought you very rare and wonderful things.

Now I swear to you by," he produced a bunch of variegated deities and

holy things with characteristic glibness, "that these chains," he spread

one of particular beauty for the other's admiration, "are more to me

than my very life. Yet for one tusk of ivory this chain shall be

yours."

"Lord," said Bosambo, handling the jewel reverently, "what virtue has

this chain?"

"It is a great killer of enemies," said Wooling enthusiastically; "it

protects from danger and gives courage to the wearer; it is worth two

teeth, but because I love you and because Sandi loves you I will give

you this for one."

Bosambo pondered.

"I cannot give you teeth," he said, "yet I will give you a stool of

ivory which is very wonderful."

And he produced the marvel from a secret place in his hut.

It was indeed a lovely thing and worth many chains.

"This," said Bosambo, with much friendliness, "you will sell to the

N'gombi, who are lovers of such things, and they will pay you well."

Wooling came to the N'gombi territory with the happy sense of having

purchased fifty pounds for fourpence, and entered it, for he regarded

official warnings as the expression of a poor form of humour.

He found the N'gombi (as he expected) in a mild and benevolent mood.

They purchased by public subscription one of his beautiful chains to

adorn the neck of their chief, and they feted him, and brought dancing

women from the villages about, to do him honour.

They expressed their love and admiration for Sandi volubly, until,

discovering that their enthusiasm awoke no responsive thrill in the

heart or the voice of their hearer, they tactfully volunteered the

opinion that Sandi was a cruel and oppressive master.

Whereupon Wooling cursed them fluently, calling them eaters of fish and

friends of dogs; for it is against the severe and inborn creed of the

Coast to allow a nigger to speak disrespectfully of a white man--even

though he is a Government officer.

"Now listen all people," said Wooling; "I have a great and beautiful

object to sell you----"

* * * * *

Over the tree-tops there rolled a thick yellow cloud which twisted and

twirled into fantastic shapes.

Sanders walked to the bow of the _Zaire_ to examine the steel hawser.

His light-hearted crew had a trick of "tying-up" to the first dead and

rotten stump which presented itself to their eyes.

For once they had found a firm anchorage. The hawser was clamped about

the trunk of a strong young copal which grew near the water's edge. An

inspection of the stern hawser was as satisfactory.

"Let her rip," said Sanders, and the elements answered _instanter_.

A jagged blue streak of flame leapt from the yellow skies, a deafening

crack-crash of thunder broke overhead, and suddenly a great wind smote

the little steamer at her shelter, and set the tops of the trees bowing

with grave unanimity.

Sanders reached his cabin, slid back the door, and pulled it back to its

place after him.

In the stuffy calm of his cabin he surveyed the storm through his

window, for his cabin was on the top deck and he could command as

extensive a view of the scene as it was possible to see from the little

bay.

He saw the placid waters of the big river lashed to waves; saw tree

after tree sway and snap as M'shimba M'shamba stalked terribly through

the forest; heard the high piercing howl of the tempest punctuated by

the ripping crack of the thunder, and was glad in the manner of the

Philistine that he was not where other men were.

Night came with alarming swiftness.

Half an hour before, at the first sign of the cyclone, he had steered

for the first likely mooring. In the last rays of a blood-red sun he

had brought his boat to land.

Now it was pitch dark--almost as he stood watching the mad passion of

the storm it faded first into grey, then into inky blue--then night

obliterated the view.

He groped for the switch and turned it, and the cabin was filled with

soft light. There was a small telephone connecting the cabin with the

Houssa guard, and he pressed the button and called the attention of

Sergeant Abiboo to his need.

"Get men to watch the hawsers," he instructed, and a guttural response

answered him.

Sanders was on the upper reaches of the Tesai, in terra incognita. The

tribes around were frankly hostile, but they would not venture about on

a night like this.

Outside, the thunder cracked and rolled and the lightning flashed

incessantly.

Sanders found a cheroot in a drawer and lighted it, and soon the cabin

was blue with smoke, for it had been necessary to close the ventilator.

Dinner was impossible under the conditions. The galley fire would be

out. The rain which was now beating fiercely on the cabin windows would

have long since extinguished the range.

Sanders walked to the window and peered out. He switched off the light,

the better to observe the condition outside. The wind still howled, the

lightning flickered over the tree-tops, and above the sound of wind and

rushing water came the sulky grumble of thunder.

But the clouds had broken, and fitful beams of moonlight showed on the

white-crested waves. Suddenly Sanders stepped to the door and slid it

open.

He sprang out upon the deck.

The waning forces of the hurricane caught him and flung him back against

the cabin, but he grasped a convenient rail and pulled himself to the

side of the boat.

Out in mid-stream he had seen a canoe and had caught a glimpse of a

white face.

"Noka! Abiboo!" he roared. But the wind drowned his voice. His hand

went to his hip--a revolver cracked, men came along the deck, hand over

hand, grasping the rails.

In dumb show he indicated the boat.

A line was flung, and out of the swift control current of the stream

they drew all that was left of Mr. Wooling.

He gained enough breath to whisper a word--it was a word that set the

_Zaire_ humming with life. There was steam in the boiler--Sanders would

not draw fires in a storm which might snap the moorings and leave the

boat at the mercy of the elements.

"... they chased me down river ... I shot a few ... but they came on ...

then the storm struck us ... they're not far away."

Wrapped in a big overcoat and shivering in spite of the closeness of the

night, he sat by Sanders, as he steered away into the seething waters of

the river.

"What's the trouble?"

The wind blew his words to shreds, but the huddled figure crouching at

his side heard him and answered.

"What's that?" asked Sanders, bending his head.

Wooling shouted again.

Sanders shook his head.