The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-02-05

| passing died into the distance when q
new contingent arrived "M'sungo.
M'sungc," the one word she knew,
cropped out from their jabber with
the steady recurrence Of a haunting
fugue. What they bore were six wilde
beeste, male and female, buffoons of
the plains, still pitifully grotesque.
their horse-Iike tails trailing like dis
couraged funeral plumes.
ooh, White Man." gasped Andrea,
covering her eyes, "oh, Msungol"
And then it came again, four loads
this time. but every M as big as a
horse. Eight men strained under each
carcass of Gland, largest and gentlest
! of all the hundred varieties Of ante
lope that swarm over the length and
breadth Of Africa.
Andrea arose, but her knees trem-
bled SC that she quickly sat down in
one of the wicker chairs, clutching Its
arms with hands gone white as though
all the blood in her body had hidden
in shame. Then came the white man,
followed by gu~nbearers, water-bOy and
crackers. His face and his bare arms
were streaked with sweat and dust.
His shirt and trousers clung to him in
great dark blots of moisture. He
nodded to Andrea as he made straight
| for his hut.
Suddenly her strength came back
to her. She sprang up and rushed to
cut him of. you are a murderer"
she gasped as she faced him.
The man stopped In his tracks and
stared at her. Gradually he took in
her meaning. "You think I do II for
for fun?" he exclaimed.
Murderer" she repeated tensely.
The man glanced Mt his hut and
turned his back on II with a sigh.
"Come with me-" he said.
81 shall never go anywhere with
you." replied Andrea. a..
The man faced her quickly. "You
will come with me or be carried. Take
your choice"
Their eyes met and held In one Of
those struggles that measure not so
much the ~contending characters as the
strength of the opposing purposes.
The mans purpose won out. Andrea
dropped her eyes and followed him.
He passed swiftly through the kraal
and along a ~weil-known path that led
TO the fringe 02 the forest. Under an
enormous mafuta tree the butchers
were at work. four to each carcass,
skinning, cutting, hacking with prac-
ticed hands. The meat was being piled
In heaps, and at each heap was sta
toned a black captain. Under his
direction a host of helpers were cutting
the flesh into minute portions.
Beyond the limits of the trees far
flung branches squatted a black army
men with assegais In their hands;
women and children with queer conical
baskets in their laps. Physically these
people were, without exception, q JOY
to the eye, but beyond them, grouped
together under another tree and hope
lesSly staring, was q small band that
brought sudden tears to Andrea's eyes.
Never before had she seen human
bones and skin without flesh, live eyes
staring from the skeleton emblem of
death.
At last the division Of the sangui-
nary spoil was completed. The we'll
fed army lined up. each and every man
accompanied by I'm o. child as
beast for the small burden. These men
were also provided with individual
brass checks, which they cast Into
the baskets at the feet of the captain
upon receipt of their portion of meat.
At the end, to Andrea's amazement,
the tally was exact except that 1t left
the starving group out of the count.
Through 1t. all the white man had
stood grimly by. uttering not a word
and leaving her to the assistance of
her own intelligence. She began to
understand the ~possessors Of the brass
checks had worked for them. But her
eyes fingered pitifully or the starving.
She turned to the man with a ges-
ture of pleading-pleading for pardon
for herself. mercy for the silent suffer
Ing. "What about these?' she asked.
ihCJ IA hCNNlNC u iutiOh VI ia
let" ne answered. Tomorrow the
men will crawl to the forests. twice a
week they will get meat checks. In a
month they and their families will be
fat and sleek. We refuse no one who
wishes to work"
He turoed to lead the way back TO
the oraai and, once there, promptly
disappeared into his hut. Half an hour
Inter Andrea was n~ervously moving
about her room, wondering whether TO
pun on her frock or not, when Bathtub
arrived with a message. Did she wish
to dine alone or with M'sungo?
"Tell your MASTER" she answered,
that I will dine with him with pleas
IRE"
During the meal. the white man
talked, giving her listiessly certain ex-
planatory information. Eight months
ago." he said. II struck this country.
1t was desolation. In spite Of the big
river. which is quite near by, the whole
district was In famine. I passed
through ruined kraal after ruined
kraal. and in some Of them dead bodies
lay about, too dried out in life even
to rot. The game swarmed as 1t does