essage was not transmitted--than the strange friendship which
K'sungasa had for the forest folk.

The nephews might have governed the village, exacted tribute,
apportioned fishing rights, and administered justice for all time, but
for the fact that there came a period of famine, when crops were bad and
fish was scarce, and when, remarkably enough, the village of L'bini,
distant no more than a few hours' paddling, had by a curious coincident
raised record crops, and had, moreover, a glut of fish in their waters.

There was the inevitable palaver and the inevitable solution. O'ka and
B'suru led ten canoes to the offending village, slaughtered a few men
and burnt a few huts. For two hours the combatants pranced and yelled
and thrust at one another amidst a pandemonium of screaming women, and
then Lieutenant Tibbetts dropped from the clouds with a most substantial
platoon of Houssas, and there was a general sorting out.

Sanders held a court on one of the middle islands near the Residency,
and B'suru was sent to the Village of Irons for the term of his natural
life. O'ka, who had fled to the bush, escaped, however, and with him a
headman and a few followers.

Lieutenant Tibbetts, who had spent two profitable days in the village of
Jumburu, came back to the Residency a very thoughtful young man.

"What is the matter with Bones?" asked Captain Hamilton.

His sister smiled over her book, but offered no other comment.

"Do you know, Pat?" demanded Hamilton sternly.

Sanders looked at the girl with a twinkle in his grey eyes, and lit a
cheroot. The relationships between Patricia Hamilton and Bones were a
source of constant joy to him. Taciturn and a thought dour as he was,
Pat would never have suspected the bubbling laughter which arose behind
that lean brown face, unmovable and, in his moments of most intense
enjoyment, expressionless.

"Bones and I have a feud," said the girl.

Sanders smiled.

"Not as violent a feud as O'ka and I have, I hope?" he said.

She frowned a little and looked at him anxiously.

"But you don't worry about the threats of the people you have punished?"
she asked.

"I haven't punished O'ka," said Sanders, "and an expedition into the
bush would be too expensive an affair. He has apparently settled with
the B'wigini people. If they take up his feud, they might give trouble.
But what is your trouble with Bones?"

"You must ask him," she said.

Hamilton's opportunity came next day, when B