Part 22 (1/2)
”I assure you--” began the negro
”I don't want your assurance,” said Sanders, ”you are not going to work an Indian Fa--”
Sanders s to Akasava,” he said gri man I see and beat him till he is sore”
The next day the missionary went, to the intense relief, be it said, of the many white e as it ro preacher ears a black coat and silk socks is regarded with a certain amount of suspicion
True to his promise, Sanders made his visit, but found none to thrash, for he caularly well-fed co out of the secret hiding-places the foodstuffs which, at the suggestion of a too zealous seeker after fame, it had concealed
”Here,” said Sanders, wickedly, ”endeth the first lesson”
But he was far from happy It is a remarkable fact that once you interfere with the ss happen It cannot be truthfully said that the events that followed on the retirement from active life of the Reverend Kenneth McDolan were iineer a famine in Akasava But he had sown a seed, the seed of an idea that so-he had set up a beautiful idol of Pauperism, a new and wonderful fetish In the short time of his stay he had instilled into the heathen ue, and elusive idea of the Brotherhood of Man
This Sanders discovered, when, returning fro with the strea his course with half-hearted paddle strokes
Sanders, on the bridge of his tiny stea that controlled the stea, the et out of his way, and since both were going with the current, it was only by putting the wheel over and scraping a sandbank that the stea that man on board!” fumed Sanders, and when the canoe had been unceremoniously hauled to the Zaire's side by a boat-hook, and the occupant rudely pulled on board, Sanders let hio
”By your infernal laziness,” he said, ”I see that you are of the Akasava people; yet that is no reason why you should take the middle of the channel to yourself”
”Lord, it is written in the books of your Gods,” said the man, ”that the river is for us all, black and white, each being equal in the eyes of the white Gods”
Sanders checked his lips impatiently
”When you and I are dead,” he said, ”we shall be equal, but since I aive you ten strokes with a whip to correct the evil teaching that is within you”
He made a convert
But the mischief was done
Sanders knew the native , and he spent a certain period every day for the nextthe Reverend Kenneth McDolan So far, however, no irreparable mischief had been done, but Sanders was not the kind ofInto the fartherdom his secret-service men were dispatched, and Sanders sat down to await developood; the spies sent back stories of peace, of normal happiness; then the reports became less satisfactory The Akasava country is unfortunately placed, for it is the very centre territory, the ideal position for the disseanda, as Sanders had discovered before
The stories the spies sent or brought were of secret s, of envoys froes by dead of night, of curious rites perforof the N'Gombi folk, oat and secured good oave a favourable prophecy
The chief slipped down the river one night with fourteen paddlers, a drummer, his chief headsman, and two of his wives, and reached the Akasava city at sunset the next evening Here the chief of the Akasava met him, and led him to his hut
”Brother,” said the Akasava chief, not without a touch of pompousness, ”I have covered ravely