advocates have done, to hide his short-comings behind a
screen of rhetoric.

He came to the part of his narrative where Bosambo was taken ill without
creating any notable sensation, save that Sanders's grey eyes narrowed
a little and he paid greater heed to the rest of the story.

"There was poor old Bosambo knocked out, sir--ab-so-lutely done
for--fortunately I did not lose my nerve. You know what I am, dear old
officer, in moments of crisis?"

"I know," said Hamilton grimly, "something between a Welsh revivalist
and a dancing dervish."

"Please go on, Bones," begged the girl, not the least interested of the
audience.

"I dashed straight back to the _Wiggle_," said Bones breathlessly,
"searched for my medicine chest--it wasn't there! Not so much as a
mustard plaster--what was I to do, dear old Miss Hamilton?" he appealed
dramatically.

"Don't tell him, Pat," begged Hamilton, "he's sure to guess it."

"What was I to do? I seized a bottle of brandy," said Bones with relish,
"I dashed back to where Bosambo was lyin'. I dashed into the village,
into his hut and got a glass----"

"Well, well!" said Sanders impatiently, "what happened after all this
dashing?"

Bones spread out his hands.

"Bosambo is alive to-day," he said simply, "praisin'--if I may be
allowed to boast--the name of Bones the Medicine Man. Look here, sir."

He dragged towards him along the floor of the hut a package covered with
a piece of native sacking. This he whisked away and revealed the
hideous handiwork of an artist who had carved and painted as true to
nature as a man may who is not quite certain whether the human eye is
half-way down the nose or merely an appendage to his ear.

"That, sir," said Bones impressively, "is one of the most interestin'
specimens of native work I have ever seen: a gift! From Bosambo to the
jolly old doctor man who dragged him, if I might so express it, from the
very maws of death."

He made his dramatic pause.

Sanders bent down, took a penknife from his pocket and scraped the paint
from a flat oblong space on the top.

There for all men to see--save Bones who was now engaged in a relation
of his further adventure to his one sympathizer--was a brass plate, and
when the paint had been scraped away, an inscription--

Department du Medicins, Etat CONGO BELGE.

Sanders and Hamilton gazed, fascinated and paralysed to silence.

"I've always had a feelin' I'd like to be a medicine man." Bones
prattled