ons--for it is the war call of the
N'gombi."

"Lord, it is no war call," said the old man, shifting his feet for
greater comfort, "yet it is a call which may mean war, for it calls
spears to a dance, and it is strange, for the N'gombi have no enemies."

"All men are the enemies of the N'gombi," Bosambo quoted a river saying
as old as the sun.

He listened again, then rose.

"You shall go back and gather me a village of spears, and bring them to
the borderland near the road that crosses the river," he said.

"On my life," said the other.

Muchini, Chief of the Inner N'gombi, a most inflated man and a familiar
of magical spirits, gathered his spears to some purpose, for two days
later Bosambo met him by his border and the chiefs greeted one another
between two small armies.

"Which way do you go, Muchini?" asked Bosambo.

Now, between Muchini and the Chief of the Ochori was a grievance dating
back to the big war, when Bosambo had slain the N'gombi chief of the
time with his own hands.

"I go to the river to call a palaver of all free men," said Muchini;
"for I tell you this, Bosambo, that I have found a great magic which
will make us greater than Sandi, and it has been prophesied that I shall
be a king over a thousand times a thousand spears. For I have a small
box which brings even M'shimba to my call."

Bosambo, a head and shoulders taller than the other, waved his hand
towards the forest path which leads eventually to the Ochori city.

"Here is a fine moment for you, Muchini," he said, "and you shall try
your great magic on me and upon my young men. For I say that you do not
go by this way, neither you nor your warriors, since I am the servant of
Sandi and of his King, and he has sent me here to keep his peace; go
back to your village, for this is the way to Death."

Muchini glared at his enemy.

"Yet this way I go, Bosambo," he said huskily, and looked over his
shoulder towards his followers.

Bosambo swung round on one heel, an arm and a leg outstretched in the
attitude of an athlete who is putting the shot. Muchini threw up his
wicker shield and pulled back his stabbing-spear, but he was a dead man
before the weapon was poised.

Thus ended the war, and the N'gombi folk went home, never so much as
striking a blow for the yellow box which Bosambo claimed for himself as
his own personal loot.

At the time, Mr. Commissioner Sanders, C.M.G., was blissfully ignorant
of the miraculous happenings which