in the akarti country they worshipped many devils, and feared none, save one strange devil, who was called "wu," which in our language means "they."

"remember this," said sanders of the river, as he grasped the hand of grayson smith, his assistant.

"i will not forget," said that bright young man; "and, by the way, if anything happens to me, you might find out how it all came about, and drop a note to my people—suppressing the beastly details."

sanders nodded.

"i will make it a pretty story," he said; "and, whatever happens, your death will be as instantaneous and as painless as my fountain-pen can make it."

"you're a brick!" said grayson smith, and turned to swear volubly in swaheli at his headman—for smith, albeit young, was a great linguist.

sanders watched the big canoe as it swung into the yellow waters of the fasai; watched it until it disappeared round a bank, then sent his steamer round to the current, and set his course homeward.

to appreciate the full value of the akartis' independence, and their immunity from all attack, it must be remembered that the territory ranged from the forest-by-the-waters to the forest-by-the-mountains. it was a stretch of broad, pastoral lands, enclosed by natural defences. forest and swamp on the westward kept back the rapacious people of the great king, mountain and forest on the south held the ochori, the akasava, and the isisi.

the boldest of the n'gombi never ventured across the saw-shaped peaks of the big mountains, even though loot and women were there for the taking.

the king of the akarti was undisputed lord of vast territories, and he had ten regiments of a thousand men, and one regiment of women, whom he called his "angry maidens," who drank strong juices, and wrestled like men.

since he was king from the forest-by-the-mountains to the forest-by-the-waters he was powerful and merciless, and none said "nay" to n'raki's "yea," for he was too fierce, and too terrible a man to cross.

culuka of the wet lands once came down into n'raki's territory, and brought a thousand spears.

now the wet lands are many miles from the city of the king, and the raid that culuka planned injured none, for the raided territories were poor and stony.

but n'raki, the killer, was hurt in his tenderest spot, and he led his thousands across the swamps to the city of culuka, and he fought him up to the stockades and beyond. the city he burnt. the men and children he slew out of hand. culuka he crucified before his flaming hut, and, thereafter, the borders of the killer were immune from attack.

this was a lesson peculiarly poignant, and when the french government—for culuka dwelt in a territory which was nominally under the tricolour—sent a mission to inquire into the wherefores of the happening, n'raki cut off the head of the leader, and sent it back with unprintable messages intended primarily for the governor of french west africa, and eventually for the quai d'orsay.

n'raki lived, therefore, undisturbed, for the outrage coincided with the findings of the demarcation commission which had been sitting for two years to settle certain border-line questions. by the finding of the commission all the akarti country became, in the twinkling of an eye, british territory, and n'raki a vassal of the king of england—though he was sublimely unconscious of the honour.

n'raki was an autocrat of autocrats, and of his many battalions of skilled fighting men, all very young and strong, with shining limbs and feathered heads, he was proudest of his first regiment.

these were the tallest, the strongest, the fleetest, and the fiercest of fighters, and he forbade them to marry, for all men know that women have an evil effect upon warriors; and no married man is brave until he has children to defend, and by that time he is fat also.

so this austere regiment knew none of the comforts or languor of love, and they were proud that their lord, the king, had set them apart from all other men, and had so distinguished them.

at the games they excelled, because they were stronger and faster, knowing nothing of women's influence; and the old king saw their excellence, and said "wa!"

there was a man of the regiment whose name was taga'ka, who was a fine man of twenty. there was also in the king's city a woman of fifteen, named lapai, who was a straight, comely girl, and a great dancer.

she was a haughty woman, because her uncle was the chief witch-doctor, and such was her power that she had put away two husbands.

one day, at the wells, she saw taga'ka, and loved him; and meeting him alone in the forest, she fell down before him and clasped his feet.

"lord taga'ka," said she, "you are the one man in the world i desire."

"i am beyond desire," said taga'ka, in his arrogant pride; "for i am of the king's regiment, and women are grass for our feet."

and not all her allurements could tempt him to so much as stroke her face; and the heart of the woman was wild with grief.

then the king fell sick, and daily grew worse.

the witch-doctors made seven sacrifices, and learnt from grisly portents, which need not be described in detail, that the king should take a long journey to the far end of his kingdom, where he should meet a man with one eye, who would live in the shadow of the royal hut.

this he did, journeying for three months, till he came to the appointed place, where he met a man afflicted in accordance with the prediction. and the man sat in the shadow of the king's hut.

now, it is a fact, which none will care to deny, that the niece of the chief witch-doctor had planned the treatment of the king. she had planned it with great cleverness, and she it was who saw to it that the deformed man waited at the king's hut.

for she loved taga'ka with all the passion of her soul, and when the long months passed, and the king remained far away, and lapai whispered into the young man's ear, he took her to wife, though death would be his penalty for his wrong-doing.

the other men of the royal regiment, who held taga'ka a model in all things austere, seeing this happen, said: "behold! taga'ka, the favourite of the king, has taken a woman to himself. now, if we all do this, it would be better for taga'ka, and better for us. the king, the old man, will forgive him, and not punish us."

it might have been that n'raki, the king, would have ended his days in the place to which his medicine-man had sent him, but there arose in that district a greater magician than any—a certain wild alien of the wet lands, who possessed magical powers, and cured pains in the king's legs by a no more painful process than the laying on of hands, and whom the king appointed his chief magician. and this was the end of the uncle of lapai; for, if no two kings can rule in one land, most certainly no two witch-doctors can hold power.

and they killed the deposed uncle of lapai, and used the blood for making spells.

one morning the new witch-doctor stood in the presence of n'raki the king.

"lord king," he said, "i have had a dream, and it says that your lordship shall go back to your city, and that you shall travel secretly, so that the devils who guard the way shall not lay hands upon you."

n'raki, the king, went back to his city unattended, save by his personal guard, and unheralded, to the discomfort of the royal regiment.

and when he learnt what he learnt, he administered justice swiftly. he carried the forbidden wives to the top of a high mountain and cast them over a cliff, one by one, to the number of six hundred.

and that mountain is to this day called "the mountain of sorrowful women."

one alone he spared—lapai. before the assembled people in judgment he spared her.

"behold this woman, people of the akarti!" he said; "she that has brought sorrow and death to my regiment. to-day she shall watch her man, taga'ka, burn; and from henceforth she shall live amongst you to remind you that i am a very jealous king, and terrible in my anger."

the news of the massacre filtered slowly through the territories. it came to the british government, but the british government is a cautious government where primitive natives are concerned.

sanders, sitting between downing street and the district commissioners of many far-away and isolated spots, realised the futility of an expedition. he sent two special messages, one of which was to a young man named farquharson, who, at the moment, was shooting snipe on the big swamp south of the ambalina mountains. and this young man swore like a scotsman because his sport had been interrupted, but girded up his loins, and, with half a company of the king's african rifles, trekked for the city.

on his way he ran into an ambush, and swore still more, for he realised that death had overtaken him before he had had his annual holiday.

he called for his orderly.

"hafiz," he said in arabic, "if you should escape, cross the country to the ochori land by the big river. there you will find sandi; give him my dear love, and say that fagozoni sent a cheerful word, also that the slayer of regiments is killing his people."

an hour later farquharson, or fagozoni, as they called him, was lying before the king, his unseeing eyes staring at the hard, blue heavens, his lips parted in the very ghost of a smile.

"this is a bad palaver," said the king, looking at the dead man. "now they will come, and i know not what will happen."

in his perturbation he omitted to take into his calculations the fact that he had in his city a thousand men sick with grief at the loss of their wives.

n'raki, the king, was no coward. there was a prompt smelling out of all suspicious characters. even the councillors about his person were not exempt, for the new witch-doctor found traces of disloyalty in every one.

with the aid of his regiment of virgins, he held his city, and ruthlessly disposed of secret critics. these included men who stood at his very elbow, and there came a time when he found none to whom he might transmit his thoughts with any feeling of security.

news came to him that there was an arab caravan traversing his western border, trading with his people, and the report he received was flattering to the intelligence and genius of the man in charge of the party.

n'raki sent messengers with gifts and kind words to the intruder, and on a certain day there was brought before him the slim arab, ussuf.

"o ussuf," said the king, "i have heard of you, and of your wisdom. often you have journeyed through my territories, and no man has done you hurt."

"lord king," said the arab, "that is true."

the king looked at him thoughtfully. n'raki, in those days, had reached his maturity; he was a wise, cunning man, and had no illusions.

"arabi," he said, "this is in my mind: that you shall stay here with me, living in the shadow of my hut, and be my chief man, for you are very clever, and know the ways of foreign people. you shall have treasures beyond your dreams, for in this land there is much dead ivory hidden by the people of my fathers."

"lord king," said ussuf, "this is a very great honour, and i am too mean and small a man to serve you. yet it is true i know the ways of foreign people, and i am wise in the government of men."

"this also i say to you," the king went on slowly, "that i do not fear men or devils, yet i fear 'they,' because of their terrible cruelty. now if you will serve me, so that i avert the wrath of these, you shall sit down here in peace and happiness."

thus it came about that ussuf, the arab, became prime minister to the king of akarti, and two days after his arrival the new witch-doctor was put away with promptitude and dispatch by a king who had no further use for him.

all the news that came from the territories to sanders was that the country was being ruled with some wisdom. the fear of "they" was an ever-present fear with the king. the long evenings he sat with his arab counsellor, thinking of that mysterious force which lay beyond the saw-back.

"i tell you this, ussuf," he said, "that my heart is like water within me when i think of 'they,' for it is a terrible devil, and i make sacrifices at every new moon to appease its anger."

"lord king," said ussuf, "i am skilled in the way of 'they,' and i tell you that they do not love sacrifices."

the king shifted on his stool irritably.

"that is strange," he said, "for the gods told me in a dream that i must sacrifice lapai."

he shot a swift glance at the arab, for this ussuf was the only man in the city who did not deal scornfully with the lonely, outcast woman, whose every day was a hell.

it was the king's order that she should walk through the city twice between sunrise and sunset, and it was the king's pleasure that every man she met should execrate her; and although the native memory is short, and the recollection of the tragedy had died, men feared the king too much to allow her to pass without a formal curse.

ussuf alone had walked with her, and men had gasped to see the kindly arabi at her side.

"you may have this woman," said the king suddenly, "and take her into your house."

the arab turned his calm eyes upon the wizened face of the other.

"lord," he said, "she is not of my faith, being an unbeliever and an infidel, and, according to my gods, unworthy."

he was wise to the danger his undiplomatic friendship had brought him. he knew the reigns of prime ministers were invariably short.

he had become less indispensable than he had been, for the king had regained some of his lost confidence in the loyalty of his people; moreover, he had aroused suspicion in the akartis' mind, and that was fatal.

the king dismissed him, and ussuf went back to his hut, where his six arab followers were.

"ahmed," he said to one of these, "it is written in the blessed word that the life of man is very short. now i particularly desire that it shall be no shorter than the days our god has given to me. be prepared to-morrow, therefore, to leave this city, for i see an end to my power."

he rose early in the morning, and went to the palaver which began the day. he was not perturbed to discover the seat usually reserved on the right of the king occupied by a lesser chief, and his own stool placed four seats down on the left.

"i have spoken with my wise counsellors," said the king, "also with witch-doctors, and these wise men have seen that the crops are bad, and that there is no fortune in this land, and because of this we will make a great sacrifice."

ussuf bowed his head.

"now, i think," said king n'raki slowly, "because i love my people very dearly, and i will not take any young maidens, as is the custom, for the fire, and for the killing, that it would be good for all people if i took the woman lapai."

all eyes were fixed on ussuf. his face was calm and motionless.

"also," the king went on, "i hear terrible things, which fill my stomach with sorrow."

"lord, i hear many things also," said ussuf calmly; "but i am neither sorry nor glad, for such stories belong to the women at their cooking-pots and to men who are mad because of sickness."

n'raki made a little face.

"women or madmen," he said shortly, "they say that you are under the spell of this woman, and that you are plotting against this land, and have also sent secret messengers to 'they,' and that you will bring great armies against my warriors, eating up my country as sandi ate up the akasava and the lands of the great king."

ussuf said nothing. he would not deny this for many reasons.

"when the moon comes up," said the king, and he addressed the assembly generally, "you shall tie lapai to a stake before my royal house, and all the young maidens shall dance and sing songs, for good fortune will come to us, as it came in the days of my father, when a bad woman died."

ussuf made no secret of his movements that day. first he went to his hut at the far end of the village, and spoke to the six arabs who had come with him into the kingdom.

to the headman he said:

"ahmed, this is a time when death is very near us all, be ready at moonrise to die, if needs be. but since life is precious to us all, be at the little plantation at the edge of the city at sunset, as soon as darkness falls and the people come in to sacrifice."

he left them and walked through the broad, palm-fringed street of the akarti city till he came to the lonely hut, where the outcast woman dwelt. it was such a hut as the people of akarti built for those who are about to die, so that no dwelling-place might be polluted with the mustiness of death.

the girl was starting on her daily penance—a tall, fine woman. she watched the approach of the king's minister without expressing in her face any of the torments which raged in her bosom.

"lapai," said ussuf, "this night the king makes a sacrifice."

he made no further explanation, nor did the girl require one.

"if he had made this sacrifice earlier, he would have been kind," she said quietly, "for i am a very sorrowful woman."

"that i know, lapai," said the arab gently.

"that you do not know," she corrected. "i had sorrow because i loved a man and destroyed him, because i love my people and they hate me, and now because i love you, ussuf, with a love which is greater than any."

he looked at her; there was a strange pity in his eyes, and his thin, brown hands went out till they reached to her shoulders.

"all things are with the gods," he said. "now, i cannot love you, lapai, although i am full of pity for you, for you are not of my race, and there are other reasons. but because you are a woman, and because of certain teachings which i received in my youth, i will take you out of this city, and, if needs be, die for you."

he watched her as she walked slowly down towards where the people of the akarti waited for her, drawn by morbid curiosity, since the king's intention was no secret. then he shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

at nine o'clock, when the virgin guards and the old king went to find her for the killing, she had gone.

so also had ussuf and his six arabi. the king's lokali beat furiously, summoning all the country to deliver into his hands the woman and the man.

sanders, at that moment, was hunting for the long man, whose name was o'fasa. o'fasa was twelve months gone in sleeping-sickness, and had turned from being a gentle husband and a kindly father into a brute beast. he had speared his wife, cut down the houssa guard left by sanders to keep the peace of his village, and had made for the forest.

now, a madman is a king, holding his subjects in the thrall of fear, and since there was no room in the territory for two kings and sanders, the commissioner came full tilt up the river, landed half a company of black infantry, and followed on the ravaging trace of the madman.

at the end of eight days he came upon o'fasa, the long man. he was sitting with his back against a gum-tree, his well-polished spears close at hand, and he was singing the death song of the isisi, a long low, wailing, sorrowful song, which may be so translated into doggerel english:

life is a thing so small

that you cannot see it at all;

death is a thing so wise

that you see it in every guise.

death is the son of life,

pain is his favourite wife.

sanders went slowly across the clearing, his automatic pistol in his hand.

o'fasa looked at him and laughed.

"o'fasa," said sanders gently, "i have come to see you, because my king heard you were sick."

"o ko!" laughed the other. "i am a great man when kings send their messengers to me."

sanders, his eye upon the spears, advanced warily.

"come with me, o'fasa," he said.

the man rose to his feet. he made no attempt to reach his spears. of a sudden he ducked, and turned, running swiftly towards the black heart of the forest. sanders raised his pistol, and hesitated a second—just too long. he could not kill the man, though by letting him live he might endanger the lives of his fellows and the peace of the land.

the commissioner was in an awkward predicament. ten miles beyond was the narrow gap which led into the territory of n'raki. to lead an armed expedition through that gap would bring about complications which it was his duty and desire to avoid. the only hope was that o'fasa would double back, for the trail they followed left little doubt as to where he had gone. unerringly, with the instinct of the hunted beast, he had made for the gap.

they came to the gorge, palm-fringed, and damp with the running waters, at sunset, and camped. they found the spoor of the hunted man, lost it, and picked it up again. at daybreak sanders, with two men, pushed through the narrow pass and came into the forbidden territory. there was no sign of the fugitive.

sanders's lokali beat out four urgent messages. they were addressed to a mr. grayson smith, who might possibly be in that neighbourhood, but if he received them, he sent no reply.

now, madmen and children have a rooted dislike for strange places, and sanders, backing on this, fixed his ambush in the narrow end of the gorge. sooner or later o'fasa would return. at any rate, he decided to give him four days. thus matters stood when the sometime minister, ussuf, with a woman and five arabi, made for the gap, with the swift and tireless guards of the king at their heels.

three times the arab had halted to fight off his pursuers, and in one of these engagements he had sustained his only casualty, and had left a dead arab follower on the ground of his stand.

the gap was in sight, when a regiment of the north, summoned by lokali, swept down on his left and effectively blocked his retreat. ussuf took up his position on a little rocky hill. his right was protected by swamp land, and his left and rear were open.

"lapai," he said, when he had surveyed the position, "it seems to me that the death you desire is very close at hand. now, i am very sorry for you, but god knows my sorrow can do little to save you."

the woman looked at him steadily.

"lord," she said, "i am very glad if you and i go down to hell together, for in some new, strange world you might love me, and i should be satisfied."

ussuf laughed, showing his straight rows of white teeth in genuine amusement.

"that we shall see," he said.

the attack came almost at once, but the rifles of the six shot back the assault. at the end of two hours the little party stood intact. a second attack followed; one man of the arab guard went down with an arrow through his throat, but ussuf's shooting was effective, and again the northern regiment drew off.

before the hill, and in the direction of akarti city, was the king's legion. it was from this point that ussuf expected the last destroying assault.

"lapai," he said, turning round, "i——"

the woman had gone! in the fury of the defence he had not noticed her slip away from him. suddenly she appeared half-way down the hill and turned to him.

"come back!" he called.

she framed her mouth with two hands that her words might carry better. in the still evening air every word came distinctly.

"lord," she said, "this is best, for if they have me, they will let you go, and death will come some day to you, and i shall be waiting."

she turned and ran quickly down the hill towards the stiff lines of warriors below.

then suddenly appeared out of the ground, as it seemed, a tall, lank figure right in her path. she stopped a moment, and the man sprang at her and lifted her without an effort. ussuf raised his rifle and covered them, but he dare not shoot.

there was another interested spectator. king n'raki, a vengeful man, and agile despite his years, had followed as eagerly as the youngest of his warriors, and now stood in the midst of his counsellors, watching the scene upon the hill.

"what man is that?" he asked. "for i see he is not of our people."

before the messengers he would have dispatched could be instructed, the tall man, running lightly with his burden, came towards him, and laid a dead woman almost at the king's feet.

"man," he said insolently, "i bring you this woman, whom i have killed, because a devil put it into my heart to do so."

"who are you?" asked n'raki. "for i see you are a stranger."

"i am a king," said o'fasa, the long man; "greater than all kings, for i have behind me the armies of white men."

the humour of this twisted truth struck him of a sudden, for he burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"you have the armies of the white men behind you?" repeated n'raki slowly, and looked nervously from side to side.

"behold!" said o'fasa, stretching out his hand.

the king's eyes followed the direction of the hand. far away across the bare plain he saw black specks of men advancing at regular intervals. the sinking sun set the bayonets of sander's little force aglitter. the commissioner had heard the firing, and had guessed much.

"it is 'they,'" said king n'raki, and blinked furiously at the long man, o'fasa.

he turned swiftly to his guard.

"kill that man!" he said.

sanders brought his half-company of houssas to the hill and was met half-way by ussuf.

"i heard your rifles," he said. "have you seen anything of a long chap, of wild and aggressive mien!" he spoke in english, and ussuf replied in the same language.

"a tall man?" he asked, and sanders wondered a little that a man so unemotional as was grayson smith, of the colonial intelligence, should speak so shakily.

"i think he is here," said the englishman in arab attire, and he led the way down the hill.

n'raki's armies had moved off swiftly. the fear of "they" had been greater in its effect than all its legions.

the englishmen made their way to where two figures lay in a calm sleep of death.

"who is the woman?" asked sanders.

"a native woman, who loved me," said grayson smith simply, and he bent down and closed the eyes of the girl who had loved him so well.