Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-06

expedition as much as anything, and the
detail that the brazen Kwaka should be
scared out of his seven senses by the man
whose red head the king had already or
dered for a palace ornament was a small
thing which stood beyond his calculation.
force of 800 picked men lay in bivouac
a bare five miles inland from the factory ;
the ju-ju signs on the bush roads protected
these from all espionage; and when night
fell. ju-ju man who was the kings spe-
cial envoy performed a ceremony which he
said. and which they understood granted
the soldiers a special dspensation against
those ghosts which all West African ma
tives know haunt the darkness. So they
advanced to the attack through the gloom
Of the steaming forest shades, those OF
them who were pagans with high spirit and
fine hopes Of loot, and those Of them who
were Moslemin filled with a vague fear
which they cleaned from Kwakas hints.
Now, Carter did not fall into the usual
Englshman's trick of despising his enemy.
Indeed, he had that figure of 10000 fighting
men firmly lodged in his head, and. short Of
! the opportune arrival Of a British gunboat,
expected sooner later a furious fight.
But he reckor"d that Kwaka would have to
go back to O,-.y City with his report, and
afterward return thence with an at
lacking force; and he counted also on the
Africans fear of ghosts and looked with
confidence to no disturbance during the
hours of darkness.
So although he worked the sweating fac
tory hands at high pressure In piling up
puncheons and cases and bales of cloth and
sacks Of salt into a substantial breastwork
he went to bed himself that night and felt,
as he tucked in the edge of the mosquito
bar, that few white men on the Coast had
ever earned better spell of sleep.
1t was at am. when the Okky yell and
the crash Of a voiley of pot-leg woke him,
and he leaped up and through the gauze in
one jump. He ran out onto the veranda,
and met there Laura Slade. She was dress
ed. and had in her hand the cheap Skipton
revolver which he had given her. and to-
ward the purchase Of which his father had
once contributed a hard-to-spare ten shil-
lingS out Of the whole half guinea that 1t
cost. Moonlight poured down upon them
pure and silvery from a clear night over
head, but all the land below up to the level
of the veranda was filled with a mist that
was white and thick as cotton wool. In
this fog invisible black men screamed and
yelled and cursed, and occasionally there
came to them the red glare and the roar
and the raw black-powder-smoke smell of
the f1intlocks.
The beggars will rush those barricades,"
said Carter, 'if don't look out. You stay
here Laura. and put that pistol down. It's
a beastly dangerous toy.
Il may want 1t for myself"
Don't be melodramatic. Now run into
the mess room. there's good girl, and get
down those two Winchesters and load up
the magazines. I'm going down to help the
boys"
| hard puff of the land breeze that made the
mist swirl and twist up into ghostly life and
left canals and pools of clearness. He dart
ed inside. snatched up one of the rifles and
crammed it full of cartridges. IT wish I'd
a scatter-gun." he said. II used to be a
mailer at rabbits and the occasional grouse
| at home However. it won't do to miss
here. although the tool Is new" He threw
up the weapon to his shoulder and shot as
a game shot shoots. with head erect and
both eyes staring wide at a leather charm
case on the broad black chest which he
picked as his object. He did not know how
| to squint along the barrel. Then he pressed
home the trigger. and had the thrill Of
knowing that he had shot his first man.
He warmed to the work after that,
and fired on and on with deadly speed and
| accuracy, till the heated barrels of the re-
peaters burned Laura SHADES hands as she
charged the magazines beneath them. From
somewhere in the lower part of the factory
came White Man'sTrouble. and when In
answer to the fusillade showers of pot-leg
began to rustic over the veranda and scream
| through the roof that valiant person pres
emily dragged out bedding to form breast
work. But although Carter kicked him till
| his foot ached the Krooboy would not show
his head over it sufficiently to use agun for