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d "put bigger ju-ju" on him, and under its influence had despoiled him of valuable property. Now was his moment of counter triumph. The witch-doctor stated that he brought this other white man to the village by the power of his spells; and the villagers believed him. There was the white man lying on the ground before them to prove it. Remained next to see what the witch-doctor would do with his captive. The man himself was evidently at a loss, and talked, and danced, and screamed, and foamed, merely to gain time. He spoke nothing but Fiote, and of that tongue Kettle knew barely a single word. But presently the canoe-man with the yaws was dragged up, and, in his own phrase, was bidden to act as "linguister." "He say," translated the man with the yaws, "if dem big ju-ju lib back for here, he let you go." "And if not?" [Illustration: HE CAME AND STOOD WITH ONE FOOT ON KETTLE'S BREAST IN THE ATTITUDE OF A CONQUEROR.] The interpreter put a question, and the witch-doctor screamed out a long reply, and then stooped and felt the captive over with his fingers, as men feel cattle at a fair. "Well?" said Kettle impatiently; "if he doesn't get back the wooden god, let's hear what the game is next?" "Me no sabbey. He say you too small and thin for chop." Captain Kettle's pale cheeks flushed. Curiously enough it never occurred to him to be grateful for this escape from a cannibal dinner-table. But his smallness was a constant sore to him, and he bitterly resented any allusion to it. "Tell that stinking scarecrow I'll wring his neck for him before I'm quit of this village." "Me no fit," said the linguister candidly. "He kill me now if I say that, same's he kill you soon." "Oh, he's going to kill me, is he?" The interpreter nodded emphatically. "Or get dem big ju-ju," he added. "Ask him how Cappie Nilssen can be cured." The man with the yaws put the question timidly enough, and the witch-doctor burst into a great guffaw of laughter. Then after a preliminary dance, he took off a little packet of leopard skin, which hung amongst his other charms, and stuffed it deep inside Kettle's shirt. The interpreter explained: "Him say he put ju-ju on Cappie Nilssen, and can take it off all-e-same easy. Him say you give Cappie Nilssen dis new ju-ju for chop, an' he live for well one-time." "He doesn't make much trouble about giving it me, anyway," Kettle commented. "Looks as if he felt pretty sure he'd get tha
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