Part 38 (1/2)

He stood on the deck coatless, signalling with his raised fingers to thein the wooden deck-house He pulled it out and examined its hammered steel point carefully, then he threw it overboard

”Bang!”

A puff of se-a bullet splintered the back of his deck-chair

He reached down and took up a rifle, noticed the drift of the s!”

There was no sign to shohere the bullet struck, and the only sound that came back was the echo and the shrill swish of it as it lashed its way through the green bushes

There was no

”Puck-apuck-puck-apuck-puck,” went the stern wheel slowly, and the bows of the Zaire clove the cale was in view six war canoes, paddling abreast, caines to ”Stop,” and as the noise of the of drulasses he saw fantastically-painted bodies, also a head stuck upon a spear

There had been a trader nailvie in this part of the world, a ht wild rubber

”Five hundred yards,” said Sanders, and Sergeant Abiboo, fiddling with the grip of the port Maxi the hts At the same time the Houssa corporal, who stood by the tripod of the starboard gun, sat down on the little saddle seat of it with his thumb on the control

There came a spurt of silvie, my man,” soliloquised Sanders, ”if you are alive-which I am sure you are not-you will explain to me the presence of these Schneiders”

Nearer ca rhyth the movement

”Four hundred yards,” said Sanders, and the hts

”The two middle canoes,” said Sanders ”Fire!”

A second pause

”Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” laughed the guns sardonically

Sanders watched the havoc through his glasses

”The other canoes,” he said briefly

”Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”

This gunner was a carefulto see the effects of his shots

Sanders saw men fall, saw one canoe sway and overturn, and the black heads ofthe steamer ahead full speed

Somebody fired a shot from one of the uninjured canoes The wind of the bullet fanned his face, he heard the smack of it as it struck the ork behind