ed.

"There is very little necessity. The military doctor comes down
occasionally from headquarters, and we have a native apothecary. We have
few epidemics amongst the natives, and those the medical missions deal
with--sleep-sickness, beri-beri and the like. Sometimes, of course, we
have a pretty bad outbreak which spreads----Don't go, Hamilton--I want
to see you for a minute."

Hamilton had risen, and was making for his room, with a little nod to
his sister.

At Sanders's word he turned.

"Walk with me for a few minutes," said Sanders, and, with an apology to
the girl, he followed the other from the room.

"What is it?" asked Hamilton.

Sanders was perturbed--this he knew, and his own move towards his room
was in the nature of a challenge for information.

"Bones," said the Commissioner shortly. "Do you realize that we have had
no news from him since he left?"

Hamilton smiled.

"He's an erratic beggar, but nothing could have happened to him, or we
should have heard about it."

Sanders did not reply at once. He paced up and down the gravelled path
before the Residency, his hands behind him.

"No news has come from Ranabini's village for the simple reason that
nobody has entered or left it since Bones arrived," he said. "It is
situated, as you know, on a tongue of land at the confluence of two
rivers. No boat has left the beaches, and an attempt to reach it by land
has been prevented by force."

"By force?" repeated the startled Hamilton.

Sanders nodded.

"I had the report in this morning. Two men of the Isisi from another
village went to call on some relations. They were greeted with arrows,
and returned hurriedly. The headman of M'gomo village met with the same
reception. This came to the ears of my chief spy Ahmet, who attempted to
paddle to the island in his canoe. At a distance of two hundred yards he
was fired upon."

"Then they've got Bones?" gasped Hamilton.

"On the contrary, Bones nearly got Ahmet, for Bones was the marksman."

The two men paced the path in silence.

"Either Bones has gone mad," said Hamilton, "or----"

"Or----?"

Hamilton laughed helplessly.

"I can't fathom the mystery," he said. "McMasters will be down
to-morrow, to look at some sick men. We'll take him up, and examine the
boy."

It was a subdued little party that boarded the _Zaire_ the following
morning, and Patricia Hamilton, who came to see them off, watched their
departure with a sense of impending troub