also guns like the
white man. Many guns and a thousand carriers are in the mountains
waiting to come. I hold the Ochori with all my spears. Also the
Isisi chief calls his young men for your King.

"Peace be on your house in the name of Allah Compassionate and
Merciful."

"M-m!" said Sanders, as he folded the paper. "I'm afraid there will be
no fishing this afternoon. Bones, take the _Wiggle_ and get up to the
Akasava as fast as you can; I will follow on the _Zaire_. Abiboo!"

"Lord?"

"You will find me a swift Ochori pigeon. Hamilton, scribble a line to
Bosambo, and say that he shall meet Bones by Sokala's village."

Half an hour later Bones was sending incomprehensible semaphore signals
of farewell as the _Wiggle_ slipped round the bend of the river.

Sokala, a little chief of the Isisi, was a rich man. He had ten wives,
each of whom lived in her own hut. Also each wife wore about her neck a
great ring of brass weighing twenty pounds, to testify to the greatness
and wealth of her lord.

Sokala was wizened and lined of face, and across his forehead were many
deep furrows, and it seemed that he lived in a state of perplexity as to
what should become of all his riches when he died, for he was cursed
with ten daughters--O'femi, Jubasami, K'sola, M'kema, Wasonga, Mombari,
et cetera.

When Wasonga was fourteen, there was revealed to Sokala, her father, a
great wonder.

The vision came at the tail end of a year of illness, when his head had
ached for weeks together, and not even the brass wire twisted lightly
about his skull brought him relief.

Sokala was lying on his fine bed of skins, wondering why strange animals
sat by the fire in the centre of his hut, and why they showed their
teeth and talked in human language. Sometimes they were leopards,
sometimes they were little white-whiskered monkeys that scratched and
told one another stories, and these monkeys were the wisest of all, for
they discussed matters which were of urgency to the sick man rolling
restlessly from side to side.

On this great night two such animals had appeared suddenly, a big grey
fellow with a solemn face, and a very little one, and they sat staring
into the fire, mechanically seeking their fleas until the little one
spoke.

"Sokala is very rich and has ten daughters."

"That is true," said the other; "also he will die because he has no
son."

Sokala's heart beat furiously with fear, but he listened when t