hem to call me if he has
a turn for the worse, an' I'm goin' down with a gramophone after dinner,
in case the old fellow wants buckin' up. But now he's asleep, thankin'
you for your great kindness an' sympathy, dear old miss, in the moment
of singular trial."

He took her hand and shook it heartily, tried to say something, and
swallowed hard, then, turning, walked from the verandah in the direction
of his hut.

The girl was smiling, but there were tears in her eyes.

"What a boy!" she said, half to herself.

Sanders nodded.

"Bones is very nice," he said, and she looked at him curiously.

"That is almost eloquent," she said quietly.

"I thought it was rather bald," he replied. "You see, few people really
understand Bones. I thought, the first time I saw him, that he was a
fool. I was wrong. Then I thought he was effeminate. I was wrong again,
for he has played the man whenever he was called upon to do so. Bones
is one of those rare creatures--a man with all the moral equipment of a
good woman."

Her eyes were fixed on his, and for a moment they held. Then hers
dropped quickly, and she flushed ever so slightly.

"I think you have defined the perfect man," she said, turning the leaves
of her book.

The next morning she was admitted to an audience with that paragon of
paragons, Henry Hamilton Bones.

He lived in the largest of the Houssa huts at the far end of the lines,
and had for attendants two native women, for whom Bones had framed the
most stringent and regimental of orders.

The girl paused in the porch of the hut to read the typewritten
regulations which were fastened by drawing-pins to a green baize board.

They were bi-lingual, being in English and in coast Arabic, in which
dialect Bones was something of a master. The girl wondered why they
should be in English.

"Absolutely necessary, dear old lady friend," explained Bones firmly.
"You've no idea what a lot of anxiety I have had. Your dear old
brother--God bless him!--is a topping old sport, but with children you
can't be too careful, and Ham is awfully thoughtless. There, I've said
it!"

The English part of the regulations was brief, and she read it through.

HENRY HAMILTON BONES (Care of).

1. Visitors are requested to make as little noise as possible. How
would you like to be awakened from refreshing sleep! Be unselfish,
and put yourself in his place.

2. It is absolutely forbidden to feed the ch