mysterious something that they referred to as A'lamo--which
means Grace.

But when taunted by their medal-flaunting rivals and challenged to
produce this "Grace," they were crestfallen and ashamed, being obliged
to admit that A'lamo was an invisible magic which (they stoutly
affirmed) was nevertheless an excellent magic, since it preserved one
from drowning and cured warts and boils.

Bucongo, the most vigorous partisan of the cross-God men, and an
innovator of ritual, found amusement in watching the Baptist
missionaries standing knee-deep in the river washing the souls of the
converts.

He had even been insolent to young Ferguson, the earnest leader of the
American Baptist Mission, and to his intense amazement had been suddenly
floored with a left-hander delivered by the sometime Harvard middle
weight.

He carried his grievance and a lump on his jaw to Mr. Commissioner
Sanders, who had arrived at the junction of the Isisi and the N'gomi
rivers and was holding his palaver, and Sanders had been unsympathetic.

"Go worship your God in peace," said Sanders, "and let all other men
worship theirs; and say no evil word to white men for these are very
quick to anger. Also it is unbecoming that a black man should speak
scornfully to his masters."

"Lord," said Bucongo, "in heaven all men are as one, black or white."

"In heaven," said Sanders, "we will settle that palaver, but here on the
river we hold our places by our merits. To-morrow I come to your village
to inquire into certain practices of which the God-men know
nothing--this palaver is finished."

Now Bucongo was something more than a convert. He was a man of singular
intelligence and of surprising originality. He had been a lay missioner
of the Church, and had made many converts to a curious religion, the
ritual of which was only half revealed to the good Jesuit fathers when
at a great palaver which Bucongo summoned to exhibit his converts, the
Church service was interspersed with the sacrifice of a goat and a weird
procession and dance which left the representative of The Order
speechless. Bucongo was called before a conference of the Mission and
reprimanded.

He offered excuses, but there was sufficient evidence to prove that this
enthusiastic Christian had gone systematically to work, to found what
amounted to a religion of his own.

The position was a little delicate, and any other Order than the Jesuits
might have hesitated to tackle a reform which m