Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-22

with barbed spears, spiked clubs and dart
blowpipes, and certainly looked capable OF
making short work Of any prospector."
One Of the party touched Macdonalds arm.
watch that fellow-fourth IN the center row"
he said. They were all watching him. The
fourth figure was the chief tapu priest-the
man whose word was life and death over al
that region.
As the hidden party gazed On the weird scene.
the warriors marched OF into the darkness,
most Of the priests going with them. The exc
petition had probably set out to find their
camp, and Il needed no great imagination 10
picture what would soon have happened had
they been sleeping inside their nets.
Soon only the womsn-fecogntzed az such by
the flowers Ia their hair-and the four chief
priests remained Ie was the white mems
chance to counter-Attack, and they might have
taken it. But ut the very m0ment when the
first of them began to climb the stockade the
Oldest and most experienced present suddenly
held up restraining hand
do any Of you fellows notice anything pc
culiar?" he asked.
MACDONALD did. The chief priest was
scratching the back Of his right leg
only small point; but he remembered sud-
denly that the missing Macrae had had Just
that trick. It had been q mannerism Of his,
well known to his friends
Macrae alive and masquerading as q tapu
No wonder those seven men stood silent with
amazement. And even as they watched came
the proof. One OF the masked priests had Rp-
parently started an argument with his chief
and suddenly the fourth mans fist shot out
left and right in the real British way and the
native who had been arguing went down like
a log.
Come on, boys" shouted some one, and over
the stockade went the seven adventures to the
rescue.
the remaining priests neatly tripped up the
third and sat on his chest. "Glad to see you.
boys" he said, and the seven realized that not
one but two Of Macrae's party were here-by
some miracle, alive and well.
Their story, which they told after tying up
the two native priests securely, beggared any
fiction ever written. These two men were the
survivors Of the massacred party. They had
been taken to the village alive In order %
figure on the menu ON Q special feast day, but
before that day arrived another tribe from
down the river had attacked the village.
During that fight Macrae had saved the
local chief from captivity and the chief, real
izing that these white men could hight, had
not only spared their lives, but made them
priests out of gratitude. Since then they had
initiated the magic Of the witch doctors to
good purpose by curing several members Of
the tribe with pills made out Of SOAP from their
packs with the result that they had become
more popular than ever. They had, further
HOEe, peen Tree 70 W16A1orAW II Cuey WISIleOS
but from that inaccessible spot no two white
men could have reached the coast alive without
a fully equipped expedition So they had
stayed while seeking plan to reach civiliza-
ton, and before the arrival of Macdonald and
his friends had struck rich patch Of gold,
which made them more loath than ever to
depart empty handed.
Apparently the departure Of the warriors and
other priests had not been the preliminary
to an attack ON the white men: they had gone
of on a sortie against another tribe upstream.
but when the seven returned to their deserted