osambo," said he, leaning over the side of the _Zaire_,
"what name did you call my lord Tibbetti?"

"Bonzi," said Bosambo, innocently, "for such I have heard you call him."

"Oh, dog of a thief!" stormed Hamilton. "If you speak without respect of
Tibbetti, I will break your head."

Bosambo looked up with a glint in his big, black eyes.

"Lord," he said, softly, "it is said on the river 'speak only the words
which high ones speak, and you can say no wrong,' and if you, who are
wiser than any, call my lord 'Bonzi'--what goat am I that I should not
call him 'Bonzi' also?"

Hamilton saw the canoe drift round, saw the flashing paddles dip
regularly, and the chant of the Ochori boat song came fainter and
fainter as Bosambo's state canoe began its long journey northward.

Hamilton reached headquarters with a temperature of 105, and declined
Bones' well-meant offers to look after him.

"What you want, dear old officer," said Bones, fussing around, "is
careful nursin'. Trust old Bones and he'll pull you back to health, sir.
Keep up your pecker, sir, an' I'll bring you back so to speak from the
valley of the shadow--go to bed an' I'll have a mustard plaster on your
chest in half a jiffy."

"If you come anywhere near me with a mustard plaster," said Hamilton,
pardonably annoyed, "I'll brain you!"

"Don't you think!" asked Bones anxiously, "that you ought to put your
feet in mustard and water, sir--awfully good tonic for a feller, sir.
Bucks you up an' all that sort of thing, sir; uncle of mine who used to
take too much to drink----"

"The only chance for me," said Hamilton, "is for you to clear out and
leave me alone. Bones--quit fooling: I'm a sick man, and you've any
amount of responsibility. Go up to the Isisi and watch things--it's
pretty hard to say this to you, but I'm in your hands."

Bones said nothing.

He looked down at the fever-stricken man and thrust his hands in his
pockets.

"You see, old Bones," said Hamilton, and now his friend heard the
weariness and the weakness in his voice, "Sanders has a hold on these
chaps that I haven't quite got ... and ... and ... well, you haven't got
at all. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you're young, Bones, and
these devils know how amiable you are."

"I'm an ass, sir," muttered Bones, shakily, "an' somehow I understand
that this is the time in my jolly old career when I oughtn't to be an
ass.... I'm sorry, sir."

Hamilton smiled up at him.

"It isn't for