Samba

is M

est tract-a spur, as Jack understood from Nando's not too lucid explanations, of the vast Upper Congo forest that stretched for many hundreds of miles across the heart of Africa. Jack gazed with great curiosity, merged sometimes in a sense of aw

that forest-little men,

ot plenty good, sah: one arrow shoot two free birds. Dey hab berrah fine eye, sah;

f the paddles and was provoked to investigate its cause; his jaws would open, disclosing a vast pink chasm; and having completed his long yawn, and satisfied himself that the strangers intended no harm, he would plunge his head again beneath the water, or turn clumsily to wallow in uncouth gambols with his ma

an," said Nando; "me plen

but finding the canoe a tougher morsel than he expected, would sink after a disappointed sniffing and disappear. Occasionally Mr. Martindale or Jack would take a sh

rted that they had heard of the massacre at Banonga, and though he assured them that his employer was no friend of the tyrants, he failed to convince them: he was a white man; that was eno

resh to claim the traveller's attention. Jack began to give Samba lessons in English, and found him an apt enough pupil, though,

seen or heard their departure. Breakfast was cleared away, everything was packed up in readiness for starting, and yet the missing members of the party had not appeared. Both were very popular; Samba's unfailing cheerfulness

tindale, when Barney told him of the

said Barney, "and me lips are cracked

h? I reckon Samba's a th

Pat would never agree to be stolen, sorr; besides, he would never be such an ungrateful spalpee

e of them, then? Na

codile come 'long, fink black boy make plenty good chop. Soosh! little black boy in ribber, crocodile eat him all up, sa

Samba's exploit on the night of th

crocodile, wid all his blarney, to eat him; and if a crocodile at

a few words of English; but I've noticed once or twice, after I've done with him, that he pronounces

ish," returned Barney; "did I not hear them wi

d Mr. Martindale. "I was afraid

ncle. Couldn't we wait an hour

t busine

g as a hard-hearted man of business. Y

ort of felt he's a part of the concern; in short, Jac

e. He trotted soberly into the camp, not f

where's Samba?" cried Barn

d put his tail betwee

him, then,"

urned as if to do his bidding, then

at would be in a terrible rage. The bhoy has deser

onger, Barney," said Mr. Mar

of wild ducks, a river hog and an antelope to the larder. Part of the time they watched the men fishing, or rather harpooning, for the

, after all," he said. "I don't reckon he'd an

le. Perhaps he has gon

too, on foot. Anyway, he's an ungrateful young wretch to go without saying a word;

next day in the hope that Samba would return. Then, however

f to whom they were bound, stood a short distance from the river, and the way to it lay through the clear space between two forest belts. A quarter of an hour's walking brought them to the village,

token two years before; had they not become blood brothers! But since then many things had happened. Dark stories had reached his ears of the terrible consequences that followed the coming of the white man. One of his young men-his name was Faraji-who had joined a party of traders carrying copper down the Congo, had just come back with dreadful tales of what he himself had seen. When Imbono was a boy his people had lived in terror of the w

n a village had been robbed of its youth, their places were in course of time filled by other boys and girls. And even when the slave hunters came some villagers would escape, and hide in dens or among the forest trees until the danger had passed. But the servants of the Great White Chief were like a blight settling for ever on the land. T

finished his report. "You can't trade with a man who won't see you.

t, sah; chief

told him our me

orgot dat, dat

ne, or with Mr. Jack, and we'll leave our guns behind us. Tell him the white man he saw two years ago said he

brother. Leaving their rifles and revolvers in Barney's charge, Mr. Martindale and Jack accompanied Nando to the village. The single entrance to the stockade was guard

of beauties," said Mr. Ma

in a scrimma

settlement. Imbono was a tall, well set up, handsome negro, standing half a head taller than the men about him. He received the str

f his peaceable intentions and of his absolute independence of the servants of the Great White Chief. Imbono listened in silence, and made a long reply, repeatin

told his story, with a volubility that outran Nando's powers as an interp

ens, their fowls, their children? No, he was a good chief. Everything that was theirs should be left to them; and the Great White Chief would keep peace in the land, and men should live together as brothers. Only one thing the Great White Chief required of them. In the forest grew a vine that yielded a milky sap. This stuff when hardened with acid from another plant would be of use to the Great White Chief, and he wished them to collect it for him, and bring to his servants every fourteenth day so many baskets full.

they could collect what was demanded! How soon would they become rich! And they set the women and children to weave new baskets

, cruel. They stalked about the village, treating the people as their slaves; they seized the plumpest f

goats, so many fowls, so many fish and cassava and bananas. How could they do it? The rubber vines near by were soon exhausted. Every week

ds. The women cowered and crouched in their huts. No longer did they take pride in tidy homes and well-tende

m down. Some they killed as soon as they found them; others they flogged, chained by the neck, and hauled to prison. There they are given heavy tasks, carrying logs and firewo

killed men, women, and children; yea, among the soldiers were man-eaters, and many of Mpatu's children were

ificantly similar to what he had himself discovered at Banonga, had deeply impressed him. Were these atrocities going on throughout the Congo Free State? Were they indeed a part of the system of government? It seem

an in an aside to Jack, "I am a

hief began

an, and believe that the black man can feel pain and grief; but did not the servants of the Great White Chief say that they were friends of the black man? Did they not say the Great White Chief loved us and wished

ef spoke, there was no

ndale. "It licks me at present, Jack, and that's a

e chief, and were escorted to the

at for months without success, and make Imbono an open enemy into the bargain. We can't fight him, and I don't want to fight him. After what we've se

: I vote we sleep on it. We may see a wa

e word for an

b slave

of the Congo Free State

es, d