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"Thus says M'ilitani, my lord Tibbetti will come on your feast day and you shall honour him; as for the stick, it stands till Sandi says it shall not stand. The palaver is finished." He paced up and down the deck when the men had gone, his hands behind him, his brows knit in worry. "Four times have I been asked to cut down Sanders' pole," he mused aloud. "I wonder what the idea is?"
"You die alone, Tibbetti," he said, "though I planned a great death for you, with Bosambo at your side; and in the matter of ju-jus, behold! you shall call for Sandi whilst you have a tongue." He took from the raw-hide sheath that was strapped to the calf of his bare leg, a short N'gombi knife, and drew it along the palm of his hand. "Call now, O Moon-in-the-Eye!" he scoffed.
"D'riti," said Hamilton, "to-morrow I send you back to your people." "Lord, I stay with Tibbetti who loves women and is happy to talk of them. Also some day I shall be his wife, for this is foretold." She shot a tender glance at poor Bones. "That cannot be," said Hamilton calmly, "for Tibbetti has three wives, and they are old and fierce " "Oh, lord!" wailed Bones.
He was in his canoe before Hamilton realized what he had said. "Tell me, Bosambo," said he, leaning over the side of the Zaire, "what name did you call my lord Tibbetti?" "Bonzi," said Bosambo, innocently, "for such I have heard you call him." "Oh, dog of a thief!" stormed Hamilton. "If you speak without respect of Tibbetti, I will break your head."
Then a throwing spear snicked the trunk of a tree, and another, for there were no soldiers, and this congregation of exorcisers were mad with wrath at the thought of the evil which Tibbetti was preparing for them. "Snick!" A spear struck Bones' boot. "Shut your eyes, baby," said Bones, and fired into the brown. Then he ran for his life.
Behold now in the pool and you shall come with me to see this wonder is one greater than M'zooba, a vast and splendid spirit which shall protect your crops and be as M'zooba was, and better than was M'zooba. All this I have done for you." "Lord Tibbetti has done for you," prompted Bones, in a hoarse whisper. "All this have I done for you," repeated Hamilton firmly, "because I love you."
The baby's face creased in a smile. "It's nothing to laugh about, you silly ass," said Bones. "Master, of our Lord Tibbetti I do not know," said M'bisibi sullenly. "Yet you shall know before the sun is black," said Hamilton, "and your young men shall find him, or there is a tree for you, old man, a quick death by Ewa!"
Every half-hour the Hotchkiss gun of the Zaire banged noisily; and Hamilton, tramping through the woods, felt his heart sink as hour after hour passed without news of his comrade. "I tell you this, lord," said the headman, who accompanied him, "that I think Tibbetti is dead and the child also. For this wood is filled with ghosts and savage beasts, also many strong and poisonous snakes. See, lord!"
"It is not of you I speak, nor of your people, but of the Akasava and the N'gombi and the evil little men who live in the forest now is it true that they speak mockingly of my lord Tibbetti?" Bosambo hesitated. "Lord," said he, "what dogs are they, that they should speak of the mighty? Yet I will not lie to you, M'ilitani: they mock Tibbetti, because he is young and his heart is pure."
"Lord, it is so," said Ahmet; "for, as your lordship knows, Sandi was very terrible, and then, O Tibbetti, he is an older man, very wise in the ways of these people, and very cunning to see their heart. All great trees grow slowly, O my lord! and that which springs up in a night dies in a day." Bones pondered this for a while, then: "Wake me at dawn," he said.
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