Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-19

Ali ben Hossein, and did 1t.
Hear now then the pronouncement OF
the Kaleef Abdul Hamed of TStamboul
The uncean things that haunt the wounds
of the faithful are no longer sent by Allah
as a test of faith. They are sent now by
Sheitan as torment to true believers, anc
as an antidote, the Prophet, through the
Kaleef, has sent a liquid of his own de
vising, of which by happy chance l have
a portion in the factory
"Is it green in color?"
Green as the skirts of the hours OF
Paradise said Carter. and thanked heaven
for a small parcel of anline dyes (greer
among them) which had been sent by an
enterprising Bradford dyeware merchant tc
the order of dyer in farOff kano.
Then" said Ali ben Hossein simply, "it
you, O Effend can relieve me from the tor
ments of Sheitan, from which l am suffer
ing, l and my sons will remember youi
name in the fullest gratitude. Have you
the holy liquid here?'
mot in my pocket, 0 Ali ben Hossein
for l am not a diinn But there is medi-
cine chest UP at the factory, and within il
is bottle of crystal, blue in color, In
which tabods which bear the giaoul
name or perchloride of mercury. They and
the aniline green may take d bit OF finding
but presently when I've got a solution
made, and tinted to a true believers taste
l will return here and work upon you tina,
cure of which l am sure that the Kaleef
Abdul would approve if he'd thigh as bad
as yours, and had ever heard of anti
septic dressing. So see to it that you don't
slip through the gates of Paradise whilst
am gone. Dyou understand? The hours
won't look twice at a Hausa with leg as
Worm-eaten as yours"
Now, Carter gathered from casual in
spectiOn by two damp matches that Ben
Hossen's thigh was pretty bad. but he had
not made allowance foy the toughness OF
water-drinking, spare-eatng Moslem
When he came back with parrafin lamp
followed by White Mans Trouble, who car
ried a bowl of warm water and other
things, ard commenced his amateur sur
gerry, he was amazed, and he was sictened
Like most traders in the West Coast fac
tories, he had acquired through almost
daily practice a certain dizziness in cleans
ing and repairing wounds; but here in the
thigh of this great muscular Hausa was a
grid of gaSheS whose INTENDED horrors went
far beyond all his previous experience.
The fact that the man had not bled to
death, or died of shock at the first impact
and the further fact that he had wthstood
the attacks of all the abominable live things
that preyed thereafter upon his open flesh
were wonderful testimonial to his consti-
tutional tOuShnesS; and the detail that In
spite of his fortitude he went clammy and
limp when Carter commenced dressing the
wounds, was only what could be expected.
But it seemed that five days had elapsed
since the man had been brought in and
left, and during that time the other. mer-
chants outside the fort with the ordinary
callousness of Africans for another
had neither brought him food nor reported
his calamity. On the other hand, they had
stolen his goods and gone their ways, other
wise non-interferent. And as conse-
quence the man was three parts starved
when Carter found him and had his vitality
perlously lowered
Carter had, perhaps, as has been stated
mueh of the West Coast traders callouSness
for the native, but he certainly had all of
the surgeons interest in patient After
he had dressed the wounds he tried his
best to bring his patient back to conscious
ness and then for the first time only did
he realize how near to the borderland the
man had crept. He sent White Man -Trou-
BILE flying this way and that on his errands,
and with all the limited knowledge in his
power fought death for the Hausa s life till
the fatal hour of dawn well past.
And SO he was found by Miss ONeill al &
a M, white, shaken and hlack-eyed, attired
in stained and sodden clothes, squatting in
a miserable hutch that reeked of iodoform
and welcoming with joy Ali ben Hossein S
ungraciouS return to a world he had so
nearly left
Miss O'Neill regarded him for awhile with
a pnched lip. and then Il think you are
perfectly disgraceful,' said she. AT least
you might have let me know what you
were doing, SO that l could have come to
help part of the time
tired brown eyes and then pulled himself
together. Il beg your pardon for not doing
you wished. But l didn't know that you
We're interested in niggers, if there was no
chance of making Il dividend out of them.