fortune. There is a tribe here called the N'gombi. They
live in a wonderful rubber country, and I am told that they have got all
the ivory in the world, and stacks of rubber hidden away."

Now, it is a fact--and Bones was surprised to hear it related by the
stranger--that the N'gombi are great misers and hoarders of elephant
tusks. For hundreds of years they have traded ivory and rubber, and
every village has its secret storehouse. The Government had tried for
years to wheedle the N'gombi into depositing their wealth in some State
store, for riches mean war sooner or later. They lived in great
forests--the word N'gombi means "interior"--in lands full of elephants
and rich in rubber trees.

"You are a regular information bureau," said Bones admiringly. "But what
has this to do with your inquiry into the origin of the candy tree?"

The man smoked in silence for awhile, then he pulled from his pocket a
big map. Again Bones was surprised, because the map he produced was the
official map of the Territories. He traced the river with his fat
forefinger.

"Here is the N'gombi country from the east bank of the Isisi, and this
is all forest, and a rubber tree to every ten square yards."

"I haven't counted them," said Bones, "but I'll take your word."

"Now, what does this mean?" Mr. Corklan indicated a twisting line of
dots and dashes which began at the junction of the Isisi River and the
Great River, and wound tortuously over five hundred miles of country
until it struck the Sigi River, which runs through Spanish territory.
"What is that?" he asked.

"That, or those," said Bones, "are the footprints of the mighty swoozlum
bird that barks with its eyes an' lives on buttered toast an' hardware."

"I will tell you what I know it is," said the man, looking up and
looking Bones straight in the eye--"it is one of those secret rivers you
are always finding in these 'wet' countries. The natives tell you about
'em, but you never find 'em. They are rivers that only exist about once
in a blue moon, when the river is very high and the rains are very
heavy. Now, down in the Spanish territory"--he touched Bones's knee with
great emphasis--"they tell me that their end of the secret river is in
flood."

"They will tell you anything in the Spanish territory," said Bones
pleasantly. "They'd tell you your jolly old fortune if you'd cross their
palms with silver."

"What about your end?" asked the man, ignoring the scepticism of his
h