Part 28 (2/2)
”Lord, it may have been either”
More than that Sanders could not learn, and the subsequent exa, for, when confronted with M'Lino, the man said that he did not know her
Sanders went back to his base in a puzzled frame of mind, and Bofabi of Isisi was sent to the convict establishment at the river's mouth There matters stood for three irl was that she had a new lover whose name was Tebeki, and as chief of the Akasava
There were three hbour's wife, took three hundred spears down into the Isisi country, burnt the village that sheltered her, crucified her husband, and carried her back with hiave a feast and a beer dance There were great and shaies that lasted five days, and the strip of forest that fringes the river between the Isisi and the lower river became a little inferno
At the end of the five days Tebeki sat down to consider his position He was in the act of inventing justification for his crime, when Sanders came on the scene More ominous were the ten Houssas and the Maxim which accompanied the brown-faced little man
Sanders walked to Tebeki's hut and called him out, and Tebeki, blear-eyed and shaky, stepped forth into the hot sunshi+ne, blinking
”Tebeki,” said Sanders, ”what of O'Sako and his village?”
”Master,” said Tebeki, slowly, ”he put shame upon ned to the Houssas
Then he looked round for a suitable tree There was one behind the hut-a great copal-gu you,” said Sanders, looking at his watch
Tebeki said nothing; only his bare feet fidgeted in the dust
There caroup with curiosity; then she came forward, and laid her hand on Tebeki's bare shoulder
”What will you do with my man?” she asked ”I am M'Lino, the wife of O'Sako”
Sanders was not horrified, he showed his teeth in a rin and looked at her
”You will find another man, M'Lino,” he said, ”as readily as you found this one” Then he turned away to give directions for the hanging But the woman followed him, and boldly laid her hand on his ared by O'Sako's death, was it not I, his wife? Yet I say let Tebeki go free, for I love hio to the devil,” said Sanders politely; ”I aed Tebeki, expeditiously and with science, and the h in this sort of business Then he and the Houssa corpsof the woman sounded fainter and fainter as the forest enveloped hi the sweeping bend of the river, and in thehis orderly came to tell him that the wife of O'Sako desired to see him
Sanders cursed the wife of O'Sako, but saw her
She opened her mission without preliht to O'Sako, my husband, and Tebeki, my lover, the people have cast ainst me, and if I stay in this country I shall die”
”Well?” said Sanders
”So I will go with you, until you reach the Sangar River, which leads to the Congo I have brothers there”
”All this may be true,” said Sanders dispassionately; ”on the other hand, I know that your heart is filled with hate because I have taken two ed a third Nevertheless, you shall coar River, but you shall not touch the 'chop' of my men, nor shall you speak with them”
She nodded and left him, and Sanders issued orders for her treatht Abiboo, who, in addition to being Sanders' servant, was a sergeant of the Houssas, came to Sanders' tent, and the Commissioner jumped out of bed and mechanically reached for his Express