Part 26 (1/2)

Elebi eyed hihtfully

”Devils sonificance, ”the wise goat does not bleat when the priest approaches the herd”

In the reat discovery was made A crumpled piece of flannel was found on the outskirts of the camp It lay in the very centre of a path, and Elebi shouted in his joy

Again the caravan started on the path A ht his eye, half a mile beyond, another

Yet none of these here he had placed the, which puzzled the lay brother sorely Soether, but a search party would coo on

Near sunset Elebi halted suddenly and pondered Before hiht to have been in front

”We are going in the wrong direction,” he said, and the men dropped their loads and stared at him

”Beyond any doubt,” said Elebi after a pause, ”this is the work of devils-let us pray”

He prayed aloud earnestly for twenty minutes, and darkness had fallen before he had finished

They cauide was, and in thethey returned the way they had come There was plenty of provision, but water was hard to coone before the red rags had vanished completely, and they wandered helplessly in a circle

”This is evidently a matter not for prayer, but for sacrifice,” concluded Elebi, so they slew one of the guides

Three nights later, O'Sako, the friend of Elebi, crawled stealthily to the place where Elebi was sleeping, and settled the dispute which had arisen during the day as to as in command of the expedition

”Master,” said Bosambo of Monrovia, ”all that you ordered me to do, that I did”

Sanders sat before the chief's hut in his camp chair and nodded

”When your word ca an ene your word-I took fifty ofmen and followed on his tracks At first the as easy, because he had tied strips of cloth to the trees to guide him on the backward journey, but afterwards it was hard, for the N'Kema that live in the wood--”

”Monkeys?” Sanders raised his eyebrows

”Monkeys, master,” Bosambo nodded his head, ”the little black ht colours-they had come down from their trees and torn away the cloths and taken them to their houses after the fashi+on of the monkey people Thus Elebi lost hi the way of the forest”

”What else did you find?” asked Sanders

”Nothing, ht in the eye

”That is probably a lie!” said Sanders

Bosaht of the ivory buried beneath the floor of his hut and did not contradict him