The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-06


self"
That internal King must have sent off
Ills messengers the very moment after
you had that tilrn-up with him about
Latlra--whch. by the way, is a thing that
/ personally shall never forget, so you
can draw on me over that down to the
last breeches button. You see Okky City
is closer in ut the back here, but It's
quite five hours march further from
Malta Nulla. SO the trcacherous old brute
stayed where he was, tipping with
Smith, in the pious hope of keeping you
all quiet till his men could come down
and blot you all out. How you got throsh
is marvel to me. They must have
reckoned on getting you as you walked
here along the beach or they'd never
have let you slip away. You and
your boy have certainly escaped by
the skin of your teeth. It's a more
certainty that they've got old Smith,
II don't think so. But 1 shall go back
and see"
rubbish! We may be able to hold out
here, and perhaps will not be attacked
at all when they find out we're ready
for them. But it's perfectly impossible
for you to get back along the beach TO
MallaNulla.. Come up into the house,
and we'll find you bite OF something to
s''s
and soda. We've bit of the last steam
ers ice still. left, and you shall have It,"
Thanks. I'll come up and see MISS
Sade. but / shall start back for Malta
Nulla In half an hour from now AID
If. as you prophesy, l don't land-well at
any rate. / shall have done my best to
get there"
TITS very nice OF you and all that, but
do you think 90 Smith is worth it?'
Carter laughed. "Mr. Smiths a rousf;
handful. but he's a good sort, ana / IKE
him. Besides he happens to be a gertla-
man
''or was one once. A lot of us on the
Coast We're gentlemen originally. l come
of good people myself, and was at Eaton
and Jesus, although I don. suppose you'd
have guessed 1t if | hadn't told you But
you see Mature built me with q cutaway
chin. and l couldn't hold down JOB
at home. However, como in, and We'll
scratch YOU UP some chop. Here, Laura,
I've brought n caller"
81 feel this dreadful trouble Is all my
fault" said the girl as they came into
the lamplt room ~ you had been
killed. Mr.. Carter, ] should have looked
upon myself as murderess"
"Aly dear Miss Shade, you really mustn't
worry about matter you've no concern
in whatever. Tho whole things n re-
grctable ncident-T believe that's the
proper term--that Mr.. Smith told me has
been brewing for years. It's all due to
the drop in the price of palm oil on the
liverpool market, which means that we
white traders pay less for 1t on the Coast
here. ana the black traders get less. and
so there's less for the King OF Okky to
sXleeze out of them as they march
through his territory from the hinterand.
i; rtn
great mistake that's been made is that
didn't split the old brute's iniquitous
skull when had the chance l say, do
you mind my commenting on those flow
ers you've got on the table? | haven't
seen a cut flower since I left England"
He turned to his host You do tho
thing rather palatially here. Mr.. Slade.
Board walls and real glass in the win
dowsl We've bamboo walls at MALTA
Nulla that let in the dust and the mos
Quitoes. and the hrooboys stares just
as they occur. 1t felt rather like living
in a bird-cage till one got used to it."
'rhe walls are Lauras doing. You
know she was at school in a convent i'll
Las Palmas. and came home with all
sorts of extravagant notions Why, she
actually insisted on tabecloth for
meals, and napkins. I'll trouble you, nap
kins! And yet they still call us palm
oil ruhians in Liverpool, ana firmly be-
lieve that we live on orange-colored palm
oil chop which We pick out of Gala
basies with our fingers. / sent X. O'Niell
a photograph of this room by the last
mail. with the table laid for chop, and
flowers as you see in a china bowl. in tho
hope he'd be impressed by it, and raise
my screw
Hes quite likely to do it, too" said
Carter. "if / understand Mr. X. right.
He's always insisting in his letters to
Mulla-Nulla that if we make ourselves
comfortable, and adapt ourselves to the
climate. we shall be able to do more
and better work. BY the way, do you
know Mr.. X. O'Neil at all? At Malta
Nula we only know him on paper.
.Im in the same box" Sade confessed.
Godfrey, his predecessor, OF course, l
knew well enough. But this new chap
I only know from his letters, and they''e
deal too rousing for my easy-going
tastes. All here's the boy with a tray
of chop for you Observe the parsley;
that's Laura's latest triumph in Coast