e telegram from Downing Street suggesting that a trip
to the Ochori country was inadvisable in the present state of public
feeling.

The hasty disposition on the part of certain Journals to blame Mr.
Commissioner Sanders and his immediate superior for the kidnapping of so
important a person as a Cabinet Minister was obviously founded upon an
ignorance of the circumstances.

Yet Sanders felt himself at fault, as a conscientious man always will,
if he has had the power to prevent a certain happening.

Those loyal little servants of Government, carrier pigeons--went
fluttering east, south and north, a missionary steamer was hastily
requisitioned, and Sanders embarked for the scene of the disappearance.

Before he left he telegraphed to every likely coast town for Bosambo.

"If that peregrinating devil had not left his country this would not
have happened," said Sanders irritably; "he must come back and help me
find the lost one."

Before any answer could come to his telegrams he had embarked, and it is
perhaps as well that he did not wait, since none of the replies were
particularly satisfactory. Bosambo was evidently un-get-at-able, and the
most alarming rumour of all was that which came from Sierra Leone and
was to the effect that Bosambo had embarked for England with the
expressed intention of seeking an interview with a very high personage
indeed.

Now it is the fact that had Sanders died in the execution of his duty,
died either from fever or as the result of scientific torturing at the
hands of Akasava braves, less than a couple of lines in the London Press
would have paid tribute to the work he had done or the terrible manner
of his passing.

But a Cabinet Minister, captured by a cannibal tribe, offers in addition
to alliterative possibilities in the headline department, a certain
novelty particularly appealing to the English reader who loves above all
things to have a shock or two with his breakfast bacon. England was
shocked to its depths by the unusual accident which had occurred to the
Right Honourable gentleman, partly because it is unusual for Cabinet
Ministers to find themselves in a cannibal's hands, and partly because
Mr. Blowter himself occupied a very large place in the eye of the public
at home. For the first time in its history the eyes of the world were
concentrated on Sanders' territory, and the Press of the world devoted
important columns to dealing not only with the personality of the man