Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-18
THE MESSAGE
BY LOUIS TRACY.
Copyright By Haw,rdy J. osodel
CHAPTER xIv-Continued.

CHAPTER XIV-Continued.
She learned. incidentally, that Mrs
Laing had gone to Lokoja In a river
steamer. Her hostess believed that Rosa
mund had found out the latest version OF
Warden's adventures. and cherished
faint hope that even yet she might fore
stall Evelyn No small consideration
would take her so far into the interior,
especially as the journey was both risky
and useless.
But that need not trouble you at all.
my dear" said her outspoken friend IF
Capt. Warden lives. you can rest assured
that my husband will hear of him long
before Mrs. Laing hears. I am afraid
that II news comes at all 1t will reach
us in the form of a native rumor that d
white man died of fever away up there
beyond the hills. 1t is always fever
never a spear thrust or a quantity of
powdered glass mixed with a mans food
The natives are loyal enough to each
other in that respect. Even when they
know the truth it is almost Impossible
to get them to tell it,
So now 1t was death and not life that
was talked of. and Evelyn lived on in dry
eyed misery until Fairholme limited one
day that she ought to return home. as the
climate was beginning to affect her
health.
There were not lacking indications that
the meTy-souled little peer had quickly
reconciled himself to the loss of Mrs.
Laing. He was the most popular man In
Lagos, and he hardly ever visited Evelyn
when he did not assure her that he was
''havin' a giddy time with the dear girls
Yet she knew that he was only waiting
until the last hope of Warden's escape
from the desert must be abandoned.
When that hour came. and she was pre-
49, L I'D n
holme would ask her to marry him.
The belief became an obsession TO
get away from 1t. to cut herself wholly
adrift from painful associations, she Of
fered her help to an American Baptist
missionary and his wife who were going
I'D the Benue. They tried to dissuade
her. pointing out the hardships and posi-
tive dangers of the undertaking. and the
humdrum nature of the nursing, teaching
and doctoring that constituted the lot of
Finally, they consented. but stipulated
that she should give her new career
sx-month trial.
Fairholme protested and stormed and
was only prevented from proposing on
the spot by Evelyn's placid statement
that, no matter what the future might de-
eide, she should not be happy unless she
had visited the little-known land to which
her lover had given the best years of his
life.
sealed his lips He FASTENED to the club,
asked a man to dine with him, drank the
larger part of bottle Of champagne, and
mournfully informed his friends that he
had never enjoyed moments real run
since he ceased to be hard up.
able people who entertained her at Lagos,
and made the long voyage up the great
river that perplexed mankind during so
many centuries. Even yet It's whole
course has not been surveyed, and 1t has
important tributaries that are unknown
beyond their confluence with the main
stream. But the river steamer followed
the established trade route through Old
Calabar and Asabao and Idah to Lokoja: :
thence a steam launch took the small
party Of Europeans UP the Benue to 1bi.
and they completed the journey In
rooted boat of shallow draft manned by
krooboys.
The girl seemed now to have left be-
hind the cares and troubles OF the outer
world. Busying herself with the daily
life of the mission compound-once
stockaded trading station and noted cen
ter for the distribution of gin, but now
peaceful hive Of simple tuition and In
dustry-she soon experienced calm sense
of duty accomplished that had certainly
been denied her in the Baumgartner
household. At Lagos she had received
one letter from Beryl who complained
bitterly Of her "desertion." A police pa
troll boat brought her letter from home.
in which her stepmother expressed the
strongest disapproval of her new depar-
ture as announced by a hurried note sent
from Lagos. And that was all. Inc
links that bound her with England We're
completely snapped. She might almost
whom she thought occasionally. when
some chance aspect Of a negro's face
startled her by its close resemblance to
the black mask on the calabash.
Mindful Of the Lagos officials warning.
she never showed the carved head to any
one, Not even Mr.. and Mrs. Hume, the
mission couple. knew that it was In her
possession.
She had been nearly two months in
Kadana. as the group of houses and huts
Benue was called. when an apparently
trivial incident upset the placid routine
of the mission. One evening. just before
sunset. a ju-ju man, fearsomely be-
daubed, and decked with an amazing
headdress and skirt of scarlet feathers,
came into the native section Of the COM
pound. He cut off the head of an un-
happy fowl that he carried with him,
sprinkled it's warm blood in circle on
the ground chanted some hoarse 1ncanta-
ton and vanished into the nu sro,, die
lance. They happened to be standing on
the veranda of an old factory used as
schoolhouse and dwelling, and Mr.. Hume
was greatly annoyed by the witch-doc-
tors visit.
This will unsettle every native for
week or two" he said, cycling the man
antics with evident disfavor. Those fell
lows are a far more enduring curse to
Africa than the gin traffic. Governments
can legislate gin out OF existence, but
they cannot touch ju-ju."
I'VE are doing something in that direc-
ton here said Evelyn, glancing over
her shoulder at the rows of woolly headed
little black figures in the classroom.
Yes. We are educating the children,
but their parents will undo tonight all
that we have accomplished since our re-
turn. Look at Bambuk. He has mixed
with Europeans during the past ten years,
yet he is white with terror"
It was an odd phrase to use with re-
gard to q negro, but it was quite ac-
curate. Bambuk. interpreter. head ser
want and factotum-in-chief to the mis-
sion, who was peering through the door
showed every sfen of alarm when he saw
the fowl-killing ceremony. His ebony
face, usually shining and jovial looking,
became livid and drawn. His eyes glls-
tened like those of a frightened animal.
Turning for second to make sure that
the children were not listening, ne drew
near and whispered:
"Oku man make war Ju-Ju. Him say
all black people lib for bush, or dem
King of Oku nail cherry one 10 tree " en-
he burn mission"
Bambuk could speak far better English
than that. The fact that he had reverted
so thoroughly to the jargon Of the kroo-
boy proved the extent of his fear.
Hume affected to make light Of the
witch-doctor and his threats.
go and tell him to stop his nonsense"
n q Of