The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-04

another, while the captain watched the
white mists roll away at dawn, and the
sun rise and shine all day with pitt
less heat out of cloudless sky. The
same panorama of solemn forest ana
glistening river stretched itself before
his weary eyes, until his heart was as
sick as his feVered body and he feared
his brain would give way. Meanwhile,
Sergeant Al6oo, who could neither read
nor write, patrolled the country, and
ruled as supreme monarch many thou
sands of natives; but the message
never returned, Then one day bush
man came in by night with a letter
from the nearest government station to
say that wounded Haussa with a
handful of cast-iron pot-leg shot into
his body had one day dragged himself
to the compound, and, after holding out
a letter turned over and died; faithful
unto death, for this is the nature Of the
Momammedan soldier, The message
had been forwarded to headquarters,
and the reply now reached the captain.
Calling trooper to move his pillows
and raise him, he broke the seal and
read that no relief could be sent for
some time, as there was no officer
available. but that he had full authori-
ty to abandon the post for the time be-
ing, if his health necessitated such a
course.
Now the captain was simple man,
not given to any heroics, but he had
lived so long away from white, men
that he had no thought left but the
well-being of his district; so he said,
for these jewellers in lonely wilds soon
learn to think aloud: ut is a tempta-
ton. If / stay here I shall go out be-
fore the rains, and il I go, there will be
war, gorgeous war, between two or
three of the chiefs, and the government
will send up an expedition and the dis
trict will be broken up for ever. No-I
must stay and keep them in order--and
face the fever and the modification.
The event is with Allah, as Akoo says.
He dispatched another messenger,
begging that an officer from a peaceful
district should be sent, as the post
could not be left Then the weary
waiting commenced again, and the
dreary Sitting days had to be faced
somehow. with heat and fever, con-
slant suffering fom the wound and the
dreadful loneliness. Still the captain
held on, giving the sergeant fresh or
ders every morning, and listening to
his reports of the days work in the
evening, while he daily grew thinner
and more haggard; miserable hand
full of bones and feeble pickering life,
doing his small share in upholding the
supremacy of our great empire.
But no reply arrived from headquar
ters. and at length Sergeant Akoo
paused one morning before he called
out his men and said: mo book Qet
teri come, sab; bushman chop Haussa
and teal him letter, but captain send
more book and all Haussa fit to go.
No said the captain. II can't have
my men cut off one by one, neither can
purchase relief with the death of my
troopers. Did not King David say
something of the kind about the water
from the well of Bethlehem, which is
beside the gate-the price of brave
mems blood?'
Then he worried and tried expert
ments to see if his brain was losing its
power, while the black sergeant and his
troopers represented her Majesty's gov
eminent, and maintained the Queens
peace on the frontier.
By-and-by the rains came, and the
captains couch had to be moved in
side; for the whole air was filled with
the falling water, the rivers overlooked
and every swamp was turned into
lake, while the house was filled with a
steam that reeked of fever and dysen-
terry. So the commissioner lay through
the weary weeks listening to the muir
muir of the flooded river, growing
weaker and weaker, yet fighting
grim fight against despair and insan-
ity.
At last the long expected relief ar
rived, and the incoming officer found a
CHASTITY, fever-worn skeleton that
gazed at him with glttering eyes and
whispered in hoarse voice: THANK
God! I've kept the station" then col
lapsed, and lay speeches. and silent,
wreck of what had once been a man.
Next morning. under command of
Sergeant Akoo. eight bearers left the
station carrying Captain Wayne in a
hammock, and for fourteen days they
stumbled along, through great forests
of cottonwood and mahogany trees,
wading among dismal swamps, pad
ding across broad lagoons and down
solitary river reaches. Now they jour
neyed all day by canoe through strange
tunnel-like waterways, among the
mangrove trees, then by dry land
through forest glades where the
ground lay carpeted by the fragrant
African lily.
But the gaunt figure in the hammock
saw none of these things, and the gilt
tering eyes only opened when Sergeant
Akoo raised the sufferers head, and
poured few spoonfuls of food or drops
of brandy down his throat
Sixteen DAYS after the captain left his
station, three men sat in the long bare
room of traders house, built on high
piles, looking out over the sea at AKIN.
The windows We're wide Open and
through them you could see beneath
the arches of the palm branches, the
boundless stretch of the Atlantic, and
long yellow beach where the great blue
rollers broke in sheets Of snowy foam;
while the roar of the surf, and the
smell of flowers, burning wood, rotting
leaves and mud, which is the breath of
the Dark Continent. came in with eve
ry passing puff of hot air.
Lying on canvas couch under the