uld in all
likelihood have been the greatest conflagration on record. From that
moment, I'm happy to say, they worshiped me as their supreme deity,
and I'm bound to say that I behaved as such; I was certainly the most
superior class of god they had ever had, and they gave me a testimonial
to this effect in case I might ever be looking out for a new situation."

"That was how you managed to get such a collection of birds, including
my meteor-bird," said Ella. "But Phyllis of Philistia is shocked at the
bare recital of such a tale of idolatry. Are you not, Phyllis?"

"I think I am a little shocked," said Phyllis. She did not say that her
first thought just then was that the feather fan was not, after all, the
price of blood: it was something much worse. "It was an encouragement of
idolatry, was it not, Mr. Courtland?"

"Scarcely," said he. "On the contrary, it was an honest attempt to lead
them from their idols to something higher and better."

"You are something higher and better," suggested Ella.

"Quite so; I am a little lower than the angels, but a good deal higher
than the awful image which they worshiped before I turned up," said he.
"The whole tribe admitted in the most honorable manner that I was by far
the best god they had ever had; they had not an unlucky day so long as
they worshiped me, and I retained my Winchester and a full supply of
cartridges."

"The testimony was flattering," said Ella. "But still Phyllis is
shocked."

"I am," said Phyllis. "I believe in God. Mr. Courtland believes in a
Principle."

"Anyhow, I led some thousands of savages from idolatry and cannibalism
to something higher, and that's a better record than most gods of my
acquaintance can show. Everything must be done gradually to be done
permanently. Nothing could be more absurd than the _modus operandi_ of
your missionary. Most of them have got rid of their Christianity to make
way for their theology. They endeavor to inculcate upon the natives the
most subtle points of their theological system, immediately after
they have preached against the wickedness of economy in the matter of
clothing."

"A large missionary work might be done among husbands at home," said
Ella. "But what about the dynamite, that is the charge which still hands
over you--a charge of dynamite?"

"That was my worst hour," said Courtland. "I had gone up the Fly River
in my steam launch to a point never previously reached by a European.
I was fortunate enou