Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-12

just now, 1t rather looks as II we shall
have the next act of this play crowding
down US without much more interval"
The burned warriors had not. it appear
ed, retreated very far. Their spiritual adj
visers, the ju-ju men, had by King kal-
lees orders been waiting not very far
away down the several bush roads; and
when presently fugitves began to come
trotting in through the steamy forest
shades, these ecclesiastics rallied them,
and when enough were collected, they
commenced "a custom for the renewal
of the soldiers bravery.
Savage superstitions. savage terrors,
were all worked upon with high dex-
terity. King kallee had made fine art
Of these indictments; he had gained a
them on to chosen ministers, who prac-
ticed the cult of ju-ju with a single eye to
advancing the interests of their king.
The black soldiers were YEARLY tired
and many Of them carried wounds. They
listened at first with a sullen torpor. They
heard without interest that the white
mans bullets We're non-consecrate, and
therefore the wounds they made would
soon heal. They learned, with a little thrill
of wonder, that the green tins which
poured burning flame were not true ju-ju,
since the King of Kallee's ju-ju men de-
clared them unorthodox. And by de-
grees their dull nerves were worked up
till at the proper moment sacrifice was
made, and the screams and smells of the
victim maddened them. Even the Hausa
officers, who were Moslem, and therefore
contemptuous disbelievers in all pagan
ceremony, were stirred up almost equally
with their men, and when final ex-
hortation they were hidden to return once
more to the factory, and bring the red
head and the white girl as presents for the
king, they forgot their qualms and their
burns, and led on with a new, fierce cour-
age.
But whether the African be savage BUSH
man or cultivated Mosem gentleman, SUI
prostitution is part of the very marrow in
his backbone. These men had felt the bull
lets. they had felt the Internal burnings
of the benZoline, but they were wound up
now to a pitch above dreadng either. Or
ders were given to concentrate in the edge
of the bush, as near to the clearing as
they could get without being sighted from
the factory, and then when all was ready
the monkey skin drums would beat the
charge.
The first corners peered through the
outer fringe of the cover, and saw the
clearing desolate, and the factory build
ings to all appearance tenantless The
dead that they had left in their hurried
retreat still lay where they had dropped,
and glared up CLASSY stares at the out
rageous sun. But with eyes keen to pick
up any hint at ju-ju charm the gaze Of
all this vanguard fell on five little wooden
mannikins set opposite the points where
the several bush roads cut into the open.
There was nothing new about the manni-
things that their own uncles and their
grandfathers carved for a purpose which
they themselves knew better than did that
tricky white man with the read head who
had doubtless put them there. But then
each of these mannkins perched on
a pedestal made of one or more green gin
cases, and that in itself looked suspicious
or, in other words, smacked Of ju-ju
And, moreover, each garlanded with
those Internal green cylinders which they
had just been Informed officially were in
truth not orthodox ju-ju, but which they
knew from their own painful experience
could, upon occasion, vomit forth the most
horrible flames.
They crouched in the edge of the cover
once more thoroughly shaken, and it only
required the final portent to fray their
courage utterly.
In the factory tucked snugly out OF
sight in the mess room, Laura Slade, Car
ter and White Man s-Trouble lay stretched
out YEARLY upon the floor length of
match boarding had been stripped away
from the wall, and only paling of verti-
cal bamboos stood between them and the
external world.
1t was the code message of the money
skin drums, read by WhiteMans-
Trouble, that first gave them the news
that the Okky men had re-wound up their
courage and were returning once more to
the attack; and SO they promptly retired
out of sight. Guns and defenders would
have been a reassurng touch to the
enemy, who had seen such things before
But for them to find no guns and no hu-
man beings in view. would accentuate the
effect Of the craven images which gazed
Woodenly upon them from the green gin
box pedestals.
For long enough they lay there in the
sickly heat, staring out over the litter of
the mornings battlefield, which danced up
and down in the shimmering sunlight. The
factory lizards came out in full numbers
for their daily baths, and most of the
flies of Africa seemed to be congregated in
the clearing
Laura caught the first note of invasion.
DO you see she asked, those two swal
low tailed butterflies flittering about by
that big silk cottonwood that lost his top
in the tornado? They were feeding con-
tentedly enough on that stuff like meadow
sweet but some one or something disturbed
them and they flew up. If you notice, they
dare not go back, that rather hints that
the some one is still hidden in the meadow
sweet"
(Which said clump," observed Carter sis
just two yards off the craven image which
commands bush road number three. Oh,
assistant Conjurer, canSt thou swear"
"Oh, Carter said the Krooboy with SIM
pie dignity, II no bush-boy. l speak Eng
lish. I learn him on steamah. l work up
to position of standby at-crane boy before
l lib for come ashore to work at factory.
All, Carter, 1 savvy swearpalaver plenty
much too-good You fit for hear me?"
Not for one instant. l want you to make
all your remarks in kroo, preferably
Okky, If you aren't too ratified to remember
any of that fashionable tongue. Here, put
your sweet lips to the tube and just say
in the thickest language you can think Of
Get away back to Okky city, you bushmen.
If you hesitate your noses shall drop off
and your great fat lips shall follow and red
ants shall spring up out OF the earth to
eat them whilst you wait Savvy the
idea?"
"Savvy plenty said WhiteMan' s-Trou-
BILE, and ratified venom into the tube with
a savage gusto.
The result was sufficiently surprising
Spear-heads and gun-barrels bristled sud
denly upward from the ciump of meadow
sweet, as ambushed Okky-men scrambled
to their feet. For a full two minutes they
stood there listening to the abuse which
they heard pouring from the lips of the
wooden mannikin close beside them, with
eyes goggling and mouths gaping and Anees
chattering, the worst-scared blacks in all
the oil rivers.
For the moment they were mesmeriZed by
fright but then the two mannikins which
were nearest on either side began cackling
with uncanny laughter, and a ju-ju man
who was with them recognized an art
higher than his own and allowed the super
stition that was native to him to rub away
the thin veneer of his education. Let us
begone from here, he moaned "even if 1t
be to meet the curved execution axe of
King Kallee in Okky City. Better the
sham edge of Nat evan lin