his superior, and a
smile to the girl.

"Have you got your hot-water bottle and your hair-curlers?" demanded
Hamilton offensively.

Bones favoured him with a dignified stare, made a signal to the
engineer, and the _Wiggle_ started forward, as was her wont, with a jerk
which put upon Bones the alternative of making a most undignified sprawl
or clutching a very hot smoke-stack. He chose the latter, recovered his
balance with an easy grace, punctiliously saluted the tiny flag of the
_Zaire_ as he whizzed past her, and under the very eyes of Hamilton,
with all the calmness in the world, took the wheel from the steersman's
hand and ran the _Wiggle_ ashore.

All this he did in the brief space of three minutes.

"And," said Hamilton, exasperated to a degree, "if you'd only broken
your infernal head, the accident would have been worth it."

It took half an hour for the _Wiggle_ to get afloat again. She had run
up the beach, and it was necessary to unload the stores, carry them back
to the quay and reload her again.

"_Now_ are you ready?" said Sanders.

"Ay, ay, sir," said Bones, abased but nautical.

* * * * *

Bucongo, the chief of the Lesser Isisi folk, had a dispute with his
brother-in-law touching a certain matter which affected his honour. It
affected his life eventually, since his relative was found one morning
dead of a spear-thrust. This Sanders discovered after the big trial
which followed certain events described hereafter.

The brother-in-law in his malice had sworn that Bucongo held communion
with devils. It is a fact that Bucongo had, at an early age, been
captured by Catholic missionaries, and had spent an uncomfortable youth
mastering certain mysterious rites and ceremonies. His brother-in-law
had been in the blessed service of another missionary who taught that
God lived in the river, and that to fully benefit by his ju-ju it was
necessary to be immersed in the flowing stream.

Between the water-God men and the cross-God men there was ever a feud,
each speaking disparagingly of the other, though converts to each creed
had this in common, that neither understood completely the faith into
which they were newly admitted. The advantage lay with the Catholic
converts because they were given a pewter medal with hearts and sunlike
radiations engraved thereon (this medal was admittedly a cure for
toothache and pains in the stomach), whilst the Protestants had little
beyond a