ty-six boxes of
plant preparations, and this despite the fact that the entire fruit of
my first seven years of effort was burned in a tent near Nembos. But
apart from what I have actually done, there is something so real and
solemn about such a life. You live with the sky above you and savages
round about you. These savages are like children. This state of affairs
is, to be sure, being rapidly changed: Europe is breathing its pest into
the paradise. The wiles and weaknesses of these savages are in a way
touching; you feel sorry for them as you feel sorry for a dumb, harassed
beast. I had taken a boy along with me from the boundless, primeval
forests north of the Congo. He was a little bit of a fellow, almost a
dwarf. I liked him; I even loved him. And obedient! I merely had to make
a sign, and he was ready. Well, we came back to the Italian lakes, where
I wished to remain for a while for the sake of the climate before
returning to England. What happened? At the sight of the snow-covered
mountain peaks he was seized with deathly fear; he became homesick; and
in a few days he died of pneumonia."

"Why is it that there was such a long period that we never heard from
you?" asked Daniel, with a timidity and shyness that made Benda's heart
ache.

"That is a long story," said Benda. "It took me two years to get through
that fearful forest and out to a lake called Albert-Nyanza. From there I
wanted to get over to Egypt, but the country was in a state of
revolution and was occupied by the soldiers of the Mahdi. I was forced
to take the route to the Northwest, ran into a pathless wilderness, and
for five years was a captive of a tribe of the Wadai. The Niam-Niam, who
were at war with the Wadai, liberated me. I could move about with
relative freedom among them, but I could not go beyond their boundaries,
for they held me in high esteem as a medicine man and were afraid I
would bewitch them if I ever got out of their personal control. I had
lost my guides, and I had no money to hire new ones. The things I
needed, because of the delicacy of my constitution, as compared with
theirs, I secured through the chieftain from a band of Arabian
merchants. This was all very well so far as it went, but the chieftain
was careful to keep me concealed from the Arabs. I finally succeeded in
coming into personal touch with a Sheik to whom I could make myself
understood. It was high time, for I could not have stood it another
year."

Daniel was