e position of
chieftainship. This he did with one eye on the river, ready to bolt the
moment Bosambo's canoe came sweeping round the bend.

Now Sanders had particularly warned Mr. Blowter that under no
circumstances should he sleep ashore. He gave a variety of reasons, such
as the prevalence of Beri-Beri, the insidious spread of sleeping
sickness, the irritation of malaria-bearing mosquitoes, and of other
insects which it would be impolite to mention in the pages of a family
journal.

But Notiki had built a new hut as he said especially for his guest, and
Mr. Blowter, no doubt, honoured by the attention which was shown to him,
broke the restricting rule that Sanders had laid down, quitted the
comfortable cabin which had been his home on the river journey, and
slept in the novel surroundings of a native hut.

How long he slept cannot be told; he was awakened by a tight hand
grasping his throat, and a fierce voice whispering into his ear
something which he rightly understood to be an admonition, a warning and
a threat.

At any rate, he interpreted it as a request on the part of his captor
that he should remain silent, and to this Mr. Blowter in a blue funk
passively agreed. Three men caught him and bound him deftly with native
rope, a gag was put into his mouth, and he was dragged cautiously
through a hole which the intruders had cut in the walls of Notiki's
dwelling of honour. Outside the hut door was a Houssa sentry and it must
be confessed that he was not awake at the moment of Mr. Blowter's
departure.

His captors spirited him by back ways to the river, dumped him into a
canoe and paddled with frantic haste to the other shore.

They grounded their canoe, pulled him--inwardly quaking--to land, and
hurried him to the forest. On their way they met a huntsman who had been
out overnight after a leopard, and in the dark of the dawn the chief of
those who had captured Mr. Blowter addressed the startled man.

"Go you to the city of Ochori," he said, "and say 'Mimbimi, the high
chief who is lord of the forest of Bim-bi, sends word that he has taken
the fat white lord to his keeping, and he shall hold him for his
pleasure.'"

VI

It would appear from all the correspondence which was subsequently
published that Sanders had particularly warned Mr. Blowter against
visiting the interior, that Sir Robert, that amiable man, had also
expressed a warning, and that the august Government itself had sent a
long and expensiv