le.

Dr. McMasters alone was cheerful, for this excursion represented a break
in a somewhat monotonous routine.

"It may be the sun," he suggested. "I have known several fellows who
have gone a little nutty from that cause. I remember a man at Grand
Bassam who shot----"

"Oh, shut up, Mac, you grisly devil!" snapped Hamilton. "Talk about
butterflies."

The _Zaire_ swung round the bend of the river that hid Ranabini's
village from view, but had scarcely come into sight when--

"Ping!"

Sanders saw the bullet strike the river ahead of the boat, and send a
spiral column of water shooting into the air. He put up his glasses and
focussed them on the village beach.

"Bones!" he said grimly. "Take her in, Abiboo."

As the steersman spun the wheel--

"Ping!"

This time the shot fell to the right.

The three white men looked at one another.

"Let every man take cover," said Sanders quietly. "We're going to that
beach even if Bones has a battery of 75's!"

An exclamation from Hamilton arrested him.

"He's signalling," said the Houssa Captain, and Sanders put up his
glasses again.

Bones's long arms were waving at ungainly angles as he semaphored his
warning.

Hamilton opened his notebook and jotted down the message--

"Awfully sorry, dear old officer," he spelt, and grinned at the
unnecessary exertion of this fine preliminary flourish, "but must keep
you away. Bad outbreak of virulent smallpox----"

Sanders whistled, and pulled back the handle of the engine-room
telegraph to "stop."

"My God!" said Hamilton through his teeth, for he had seen such an
outbreak once, and knew something of its horrors. Whole districts had
been devastated in a night. One tribe had been wiped out, and the
rotting frames of their houses still showed amidst the tangle of
elephant grass which had grown up through the ruins.

He wiped his forehead and read the message a little unsteadily, for his
mind was on his sister--

"Had devil of fight, and lost twenty men, but got it under. Come
and get me in three weeks. Had to stay here for fear careless
devils spreading disease."

Sanders looked at Hamilton, and McMasters chuckled.

"This is where I get a swift vacation," he said, and called his servant.

Hamilton leapt on to the rail, and steadying himself against a
stanchion, waved a reply--

"We are sending you a doctor."

Back came the reply in agitated sweeps of arm--

"Doctor be blowed! What am I?"

"Wh