The Mena weekly star., 1920-02-05
CHAPTER VII.

They started out, a skeleton cavai- cade. The three wizened ones led the way and Andrea measured their i'm portance by the fact that they carried M'sungo's battery of rifles. respectful " surrendered by the gunbearers as q fitting tribute from onlookers to men who were hunters in their own right M'sungo nodded toward them and spoke to Andrea over his shoulder. '"rhe old boys are my brothers in arms and they carry the guns as q sort of insignia. When 1t comes down to business they'll slip them to the trained bearers"
 Behind Andrea came Marguerite, his attendant before and Bathtub af- ter him; then followed the gunbearers, 8 single tracker and single water boy. No hangers-on were allowed even to see the cortege from the craal. Over one shoulder Bathtub carried slung a cracker tin, container of all the food allotted to the day.
 In ten minutes march they came to the river which. in spite of it's prox- imity to the camp, Andrea now saw for the first time. Often she had sug- gested to M'sungo that she wished to visit it. but on every occasion his lips had set iD straight line and he had invented manifold reasons for keep ing her from it's shores. The most eff ficacious of these arguments were snakes and crocodiles, but while she conceded the strength of those two deterrents she could not escape from an intuitive belief that there was something else-some other and rank ing cause in the back of Msungo's mind
 The river was treacherous-looking stream, deep, sluggish, bordered fol the most part by fiat-topped banks Where it's shores were broken into shelving slopes these were covered with towering growth of reeds anc matted elephant grass. There was a sand-spit here and there and on eact 1 were lying what appeared to be logs cast up by flood. As the expedition reached the crest of the bank, thereby coming into full view of the river. the logs, one by one elevated themselves a foot into the air through all their length and moved silently. swiftly. horribly ::ssG ::ssG the va ter. Andrea caught her breath. Shs had seen crocodiles in captivity. but never like this, never free to scurry on distorted legs, to sink silently into murky depths and turk.
 "N hite Man." she whispered, "are they as awful as they look?" ''They are" he answered. Tt is pretty generally accepted that more natives succumb to crocs in Africa an. nually than to any other one cause not excepting famine and smallnox. Ii sounds unbelievable until you know the native mind. A man will be taken at certain crossing and half an hour later you may see his companions leisurely wading the stream the same place. The explanation is that they consider that the victim lost his life solely by reason of the cheap brand of medicine he carried. Each one is convinced that his own bit of stone, rag or twisted wood Is the real thing and nothing can dissuade him until the moment when he too is snatched un- der"
 ''How ghastly," said Andrea, land how pitiful."
 'Yes, it is," said M'sungo, and add ed: Sort of knockout to faith, isn't it? But even crocs have character. There are certain crossings swarming with them where they are known to be friendly and where no one has ever been attacked"
 (To be continued.)