way, gasping: "She is accursed! If the evil of her eyes rest upon thee
thou art sick unto death!"

"The devil take you!" muttered Birnier, angry at the touch of force; then
recollecting that the tabu forbade alien eyes to gaze on his sacred body
upon which the world depended, he realized that Mungongo was trying to
save him. He held him off by the arms, saying: "Be quiet, thou fool! Hath
not my magic shown thee that I am above all magic?"

Mungongo appeared to consider that there was some truth in the statement
and at any rate it gave him something to think about. He stood passively
but as if momentarily expecting Birnier, magic or no, to melt before his
eyes. Bending over the fence Birnier saw the slender form of Bakuma
crouched against the earth.

"What dost thou here, O little one?" he whispered, for of course he knew
nothing of her fate after the abduction by MYalu.

So horror-struck at her own temerity in approaching the person of the
King-God was she that she dared not raise her eyes as she stuttered:

"A demon hath driven the bird of my soul into the net of thy wrath."

"Still the black wings in thy breast, O Bakuma," said Birnier, trying to
soothe the child. "Come thou within and show thy father thy bosom."

"Ehh! Ehh!" gasped Bakuma, quivering in greater panic than ever.

Aware of the danger Birnier stooped, took her by the arms and lifted her
over the palisade, remarking the violent trembling of the frail little
body whose limbs seemed like candles.

"Come thou," said Birnier, moving towards the hut.

But she cowered where he had dumped her, covering her eyes with her hands
so that she gazed not upon the sacred body. Mungongo stood like a tree,
the whites of terrified eyes glimmering in the moonlight. Birnier picked
up the girl and carried her into the hut, followed by a quaking Keeper of
the Sacred Fires.

"Go, thou fool," commanded Birnier, "and watch that none approaches!"
Mungongo gasped. But he obeyed. "Now, little one," continued Birnier,
"bare thy bosom that I may know how to make the magic of healing."

Squatting on the threshold, her emaciated arms still covering her eyes,
Bakuma strove to obey. At length she faltered out the story of her double
abduction. The capture by the askaris had made but little difference to
her, for, as she phrased it, the beak of her soul was like unto the mouth
of the crocodile. Her captor had thrust her into a hut in the village
together with some other female