osambo sniffed--a sure sign of mental perturbation. All that N'gori
said was true. Yet if he left the spears there would be trouble for him.
Then a bright thought flicked:

"If bad men come you shall send for me and I will bring my fine young
soldiers. The palaver is finished."

With this course N'gori must feign agreement. He watched the departing
army--paddlers sitting on swathes of filched spears. Once Bosambo was
out of sight, N'gori collected all the convertible property of his city
and sent it in ten canoes to the edge of the N'gombi country, for
N'gombi folk are wonderful makers of spears and have a saleable stock
hidden against emergency.

For the space of a month there was enacted a comedy of which Hamilton
was ignorant. Three days after Bosambo had returned in triumph to his
city, there came a frantic call for succour--a rolling, terrified
rat-a-plan of sound which the _lokali_ man of the Ochori village read.

"Lord," said he, waking Bosambo in the dead of night, "there has come
down a signal from the Akasava, who are pressed by their enemies and
have no spears."

Bosambo was in the dark street instanter, his booming war-drum calling
urgently. Twenty canoes filled with fighting men, paddling desperately
with the stream, raced to the aid of the defenceless Akasava.

At dawn, on the beach of the city, N'gori met his ally. "I thank all my
little gods you have come, my lord," said he, humbly; "for in the night
one of my young men saw an Isisi army coming against us."

"Where is the army?" demanded a weary Bosambo.

"Lord, it has not come," said N'gori, glibly; "for hearing of your
lordship and your swift canoes, I think it had run away."

Bosambo's force paddled back to the Ochori city the next day. Two nights
after, the call was repeated--this time with greater detail. An N'gombi
force of countless spears had seized the village of Doozani and was
threatening the capital.

Again Bosambo carried his spears to a killing, and again was met by an
apologetic N'gori.

"Lord, it was a lie which a sick maiden spread," he explained, "and my
stomach is filled with sorrow that I should have brought the mighty
Bosambo from his wife's bed on such a night." For the dark hours had
been filled with rain and tempest, and Bosambo had nearly lost one canoe
by wreck.

"Oh, fool!" said he, justly exasperated, "have I nothing to do--I, who
have all Sandi's high and splendid business in hand--but I must come
through the r