eputed especially devilish. In a week
he had become famous--so swift does news carry in the territories.

Men had seen him passing through forest paths, or speeding with
incredible swiftness along the silent river. Some said that he had no
boat and walked the waters, others that he flew like a bat with millions
of bats behind him. One had met him face to face and had sunk to the
ground before eyes "that were very hot and red and thrusting out little
lightnings."

He had been seen in many places in the Ochori, in the N'gombi city, in
the villages of the Akasava, but mainly his hunting ground was the
narrow strip of territory which is called Lombobo.

B'limi Saka, the chief of the land, himself a believer in devils, was
especially perturbed lest the Silent Walker should be a spy of
Government, for he had been guilty of practices which were particularly
obnoxious to the white men who were so swift to punish.

"Yet," said he to his daughter and (to the disgust of his people, who
despised women) his chief councillor, "none know my heart save you,
Lamalana."

Lamalana, with her man shoulders and her flat face, peered at her
grizzled father sideways.

"Devils hear hearts," she said huskily, "and when they talk of killings
and sacrifices are not all devils pleased? Now I tell you this, my
father, that I wait for sacrifices which you swore by death you would
show me."

B'limi Saka looked round fearfully. Though the ferocity of this chief
was afterwards revealed, though secret places in the forest held his
horrible secret killing-houses, yet he was a timid man with a certain
affection of his eyes which made him dependent upon the childless widow
who had been his strength for two years.

The Lombobo were the cruellest of Sanders' people; their chiefs the most
treacherous. Neither akin to the N'gombi, the Isisi, the Akasava nor the
Ochori, they took on the worst attributes of each race.

Seldom in open warfare did they challenge the Administration, but there
was a long tale of slain and mutilated enemies who floated face
downwards in the stream; of disappearance of faithful servants of
Government, and of acts of cannibalism which went unidentified and
unpunished.

For though all the tribes, save the Ochori, had been cannibals, yet by
fire and rope, tempered with wisdom, had the Administration brought
about a newer era to the upper river.

But reformation came not to the Lombobo. A word from Sanders, a
carelessly expr