Part 31 (2/2)

”There was a newspaper s,” said Sanders slowly, for he was speaking in English, a language that was seldom called for ”I believe I do That is to say, I treat thes, not to be petted one ed to lie on the drawing-roo-rooe made no answer He was a silent man, who had had some experience on the coast, and had lived for years in the solitude of a Central African province, studying the habits of the reat conversationalist, and the three days the professor spent at headquarters were deadly dull ones for the Corow talkative

”I want to study the witch-doctor,” he said ”I think there is no appointreater sense of power than my appointht the scientist was joking, but the other returned to the subject again and again, gravely, earnestly, and persistently, and for his entertainment Sanders recited all the stories he had ever heard of witch-doctors and their tribe

”But you don't expect to learn anything from these people?” said Sanders, half in joke

”On the contrary,” said the professor, seriously; ”I anticipate h my intercourse with them”

”Then you're a silly old ass,” said Sanders; but he said it to himself

The pale professor left him at the end of the fourth day, and beyond an official notification that he had established himself on the border, no further news ca came the news that the pale-faced old one out on a solitary excursion, taking with hi more was heard of him until his birch-bark canoe was discovered, bottoe was found, and in the course of tis and forwarded theland

There were two re that Sanders found no evidence either in papers or diaries, of the results of any scientific research work performed by the professor other than a small note-book The second was, that in his little book the scientist had carefully recorded the stories Sanders had told hinised at least one story which he had himself invented on the spur of the moment for the professor's entertainment)

Six an the series of events which an on the Little River

There was a woh he was very good to her, building her a hut and placing an older wife to wait upon her He gave her hing pounds, that made her the most envied woman on the Isisi River But her hatred for her husband was unquenched; and one htened, and began in a quavering voice to sing the Song of the Dead,little handfuls of dust on her head, and the villagers went in, to find the rin on his dead face and the pains of hell in his eyes

In the course of two days they burned the husband in the Middle River; and as the canoe bearing the body swept out of sight round a bend of the river, the wori froe with a light step, for the man she hated best was dead and there was an end to it

Four days later carim little man, with a thin, brown face and hair inclined to redness

”M'Fasa,” he said, standing at the door of her hut and looking down at her, as with a dogged sirain, ”they tell me your man has died”

”Lord, that is true,” she said ”He died of a sudden sickness”

”Too sudden for ,” said Sanders, and disappeared into the dark interior of the hut By and by Sanders caht and looked down on her In his hand was a tiny glass phial, such as Europeans know very well, but which was a ree

”I have a fetish,” he said, ”and my fetish has told me that you poisoned your husband, M'Fasa”

”Your fetish lies,” she said, not looking up

”I will not argue that matter,” said Sanders wisely, for he had no proofs beyond his suspicions; and straightway he sue

There was a little wait, the wo now and then to wipe the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and Sanders, his helmet on the back of his head, a half-smoked cheroot in his mouth, hands thrust deep into his duck-pockets and an annoyed frown on his face, looking at her

By and by ca been delayed by the search for a soldier's scarlet coat, such as he wore on great occasions