THE JOKERS OF NEW GIBBON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10957, 23 December 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE JOKERS OF NEW GIBBON.

(By Jack London.)

"I'm almost afraid to take you to New Gibbon," David Grief" said. "It wasn't until you and the British gave, - me a free hand and let the place alone that anv results were accomplished." ; Wallensteiu, the German Resident Commissioner from Bougainville, poured. himself a long Scotch: and soda,, and smiled. '■.'■■-.' ■'. ;■;-. "We take oft our ,hats *to you, 3lr Grief," he said in, perfectly good Eng-, lish., -"What you. have done.on the devil island is a miracle. And we shall continue,not.to interfere. It-is a devil island, and old.Koho is the, big chief devil of them.' a 11..; We : never. ■ could bring him to; terms* He is a liar,, and lie is no fool. .He is a black. Napoleon, a "head-hunting, man-eating Talleyrand. 1 remember six years ago, when I landed .there, in the British cruiser. Tlie ■' niggers .cleared out. for the bush,. of course, but' we;'-found....several -.who coiiiclii't "get away'. /.One was his latest wife. She had been hiing up by one arm in the sun for two days and night's.. We cut her down, but she died ]ust the same. And staked.out in the fresh running water, up to their necks, were three more women.; All, their bones were' broken', and their joints crushed. The process is supposed to make them tender t':.r. tha t'-;ting. They were still alive'. -Tin... 'viuaity. was remarkable. One woman, .th.-. eldest, lingered, nearly ten days: Well, that was a sample of Koho's diet. No .wonder he's, a wild beast. How you ever pacified him is our everlasting puzzlement." „.,,.. . "I-wouldn't call him pacified," Grief answered; "though he comes in once in: a- while and eats out of the hand." "That's more than we accomplished with our cruisers. Neither the Germans nor the-English, ever laid eyes on him. You were tlie first." ' . "No; M'Tavish "was the first," Grief • disclaimed. "Ah, yes, I remember him —the little dried-up Scotchman." Wallenstein sipped his whisky. "He's called the TrouDie-Mender, isn't lie?"

Grief nodded. . I "And they say the screw you pay him is bigger than mine or the British Resident's?" . "I'm afraid it is," Grief admitted. "You see, and no offence, he's-really worth it. He spends his time wherever the trouble is. He is a wizard. He's the one who got me my lodgment on New Gibbon. He's down on Malaita. now. starting a plantation for me." "The first?" "There's not even a trading on all Alalaita. The recruiters still' use covering boats and carry; the old. barbed wire above their rails. There's the plantation now. We'll be in in half an hour." He handed the binoculars to his <niest. ' 'Those are the boat sheds to tlie left of the bungalow. . Beyond are the barracks. And to. the right are the copra sheds. We dry quite a bit already. Old Koho's getting civilised enough to make .his people bring in the nuts. There's the mouth of the stream where you found the three women." , .

The Wonder, wing-and-wmg, was headed directly in for the anchorage. She rose and fell lazily ever a glassy swell flawed here and there by catspaws from astern. It was the tailend of the monsoon seascm, and the air was heavy : and sticky with tropic moisture, the sky a florid, leaden mass of formless clouds. The .rugged land was swathed with cloud banks and squall wreaths, through which headlands and interior peaks "thrust darkly. On one promontory a slant of sunshine blazed torridly, on another scarcely a mile away a squall was bursting in furious downpour of driving rain. This was the dank, fat, savage island of New Gibbon, lying fifty miles to leeward of Clioiseul. Geographically, it belonged to' the Solomon group. Politically, the dividing line of German and British influence cut it in halves, hence the joint control by the two resident commissioners. In the case of New Gibbon this control existed only on paper in the colonial offices of the two countries. There was no real control of. the island at all,. and never had been. The beche do mer fishermen of the old davs had passed it by. The sandalwood traders, after stern experiences, had given it up. The blackbirders had not succeeded in recruiting one laborer on the island and, after the schooner Dorset had been cut off .with all hands, they left the place severely alone. Later a German company had attempted a coeoanut plantation, which was abandoned after several managers, and a number of contract laborers had lost their heads. German cruisers and British cruisers had failed to get the savage blacks to listen to reason. Four times the missionary societies had essayed the peaceful conquest of the island, and four times, between sickness and massacre, they had been driven awav. More cruisers, more pacifications had." followed, and followed fruitlessly. The cannibals had always retreated into the bush and laughed' at the. screaming shells. When the warships left it was an easy matter to rebuild the burned grass-houses and set up the ovens in the old-fashioned way. New Gibbon was a large island, fully one hundred and fifty, miles long and half as broad. Its windward coast was ironbound, without anchorages or in- i lets, and it was inhabited by scores of warring tribes —at least it had been until Koho had arisen, like a Kamehameha, and by force of arms and considerable statecraft firmly welded the greater portion of the tribes into.a confederation. His policy of permitting no intercourse with white men had- been eminently right, as far as survival of his own people was concerned ; and after the visit of the last cruiser he had had his way until David Grief and M'Tavish the Trouble-Mender landed on the deserted beach where once had stood the German bungalow and barracks and the various Ifinglish mission houses.' There followed wars, false peaces, and more wars. The weazened little Scotchman could make trouble as well a.s mend- it, and, not content with holding the beach, he imported bushmen from Malaita arid invaded the wildpig runs of the interior jungle. He burned villages until Koho wearied of rebuilding them, and when he captured Koho'seldest son he compelled a conference with the old chief. It was then that M'Tavish laid down the rate of headexchange. For each head of his own people he promised to take ten of Koho's. After Koho had learned that the Scotchman w-as a man of his word, the first true peace was made.. In the meantime M'Tavish had built . the bungalow . and fcarracks, cleared the jungle land along the beach, and laid out the plantation. After that he had gone on Iris way to mend trouble on the atoll, of. Tasman, where a plague of black measles : had broken-out and been ascribed by the devil-devil doctors to Grief's plantation. ; Once, a year later, he had. been called back again to straighten, up New .Gibbon; and Koho, after paying a forced fine of two.-huiiT dried thousand cocoanuts, decided it was cheaper to keep the peace and sell the

nuts. Also, the fires of his youth bad burned down. He was getting old and limped on. one leg where a bullet bad perforated the calf. . ■■;■;. ii:;-'-.•;■''.: •■ ,; V : • "I knew a chap'in Hawaii," Grief said, ."superintendent of a sugar plantation, who used a hammer and a ten-" penny. nail." . ::.-. ; They were sitting on the broad bungalow verandah and watching "Worth, the manager of New Gibbon, dqctpring the sick squad. They were New Georgia' boys, a- dozen of them, and the. one ' with the aching tooth had been put < back to the last. "Worth had just fail-- < ed in his first attempt. He wiped the ( sweat from his forehead with one .hand [ and waved the forceps with the other. r ' i •'And broke more than onejawj" he h asserted grimly. ( Grief shook his head. Wallenstein <

smiled and elevated his brows. : : •■ ' "He said not, at any rate," Grief qualified. "He assured me, furthermore, that he always succeeded on the first trail.'' "I saw it done when I was second mate on a limejuiccr," Captain Ward spoke up. "The old man used a caulking mallet and a steel marlingspiko. He took the tooth out with the first stroke, too. clean as a whistle." "lie for the forceps," Worth muttered grimly, inserting his own pair in the mouth of the Mack. As he pulled the man groaned and rose in the air. "Lend a hand somebody and hold him down," the manager appealed. j Grief and Wallenstein. on either side, | gripped the black and held him. And he, in turn, struggled against them and 1

j clenched his teeth on tlie forceps. The group swayed back and forth. Such esertion, in the stagnant heat, brought the sweat out on all of them. The black sweated too, , but his was the sweat of excruciating pain. The chair on. which he sat was overturned. Captain Ward paused in the act of pour 7 ing hiriiself a drink.- and called encouragement, i Worth pleaded with his assistants to hang' on, and hung on himself, twisting,, the tooth till it crackled and then :' attempting a straightaway pull. -■'■:. :■ ' ■ .'•" Nor did any of them notice the little :black.roah. ; who limped up the steps and stood lociking on. Kobo was a con--servative. His fathers before him had worn no clothes, and neither did lie, not even a gee-string. The many emptv perforations in nose and lips and ears "told of decorative passions long since dead. The holes in both ear lobes had been torn out, but their size was attested bv the strips of withered flesh that hung down and swept his shoulders; He cared now only for utility, and in one of the half-dozen minor holes in his right ear he carried a short clay pipe. Around his waist was buckled a cheap trade belt, and between the imitation leather and the naked skin was 'thrust the naked blade of a long knife. Suspended from the belt was his bamboo betel-nut-and lime box. In his hand 'was -a short-barrelled, large-bore rifle. He was indescribably filthy, and here and there marred by scars, the worst being the one left by the bullet which had "withered the calf to half the size, of its mate. His shrunken, mouth showed that few teeth were left to serve | him. Face and body were shrunken, bufhis black, beadlike eyes, small andclose together, vfere very bright, withal they were restless and querulous and more like a monkey's than a man s. He looked on, grinning like a shrewd little ape. His joy in the torment of the patient was natural, for the world lie lived in was a world of pain. He had endured his share of it and inflicted far more than his share on others. "When the tooth parted from its locked hold in the jaw and the forceps raked across the other teeth and out of the mouth with a nerve-rasping sound, old Koho's eyes fairly sparkled and lie looked with glee at the poor, black collapsed on the verandah _tloqr and groaning terribly as he held his head in both his hands. . . "I think he's going to faint, Grief said, bending over the victim. "Captain' Ward, give him a drink, please. You'd better take one yourself, Worth; you're shaking like a.leaf." ""And I think I'll take one," said Wallenstein, wiping the sweat from his face. His eye caught the shadow of Koho on the floor and followed it up to the old chief himself. "Hello, who's this?" "Hello, Koho," Grief said genially, though' he knew better than to offer to shake hands. It was one of Koho's tanibos, given him by the deil-devil doctors when he was born, that never was his flesh to come in contact with the flesh of a white man. Worth and Captain Ward, of the Wonder, greeted Koho, but Worth frowned at sight of the rifle, for it was one of his tanibos that no visiting bushman should carry a weapon on the plantation. Rifles had a nasty way of going off at the hip under such circumstances. The manager clapped his hands, and a black house boy, recruited from San Cristobal, came running. At a sign from Worth he took the rifle from the visitor's hand and carried it inside the bungalow-. " "Koho," Grief said, introducing the German .Resident, "this big fella marster belong Bougainville —my word, big fella marster too much." Kolio, remembering the visits of the various German cruisers, smiled with a light of unpleasant reminiscence in his eyes. : "Don't shake hands with him, Wallenstein," Grief warned. "Tambo, you know." Then to Koho: "My word, you get 'm too much fat stop along you. Bime by you marry along new fella Mary, eh?" "Too old fella me," Koho answered with a weary shako of the head. "Me no like 'm Mary. Me no like 'm kaikai (food). Close up me die along altogether." He stole a significant glance at Worth, whose head was tilted back to a long glass. "Me like 'm rum." Grief shook his head. "Tambo along black fella." "He black fella no tambo," Koho retorted, nodding toward the groaning laborer.

"He fella sick," Grief explained. "Me fella sick." 'You fella big liar," Grief laughed. "Rum tambo, all the time tambo. Now, Koho, we have big fella talk along this big fella marster." And he and Wallenstein and the old chief sat down on the verandah to confer about affairs of state. Koho was complimented on the peace he had kept, and he, with many protestations of his aged decrepitude, swore, peace again and everlasting. Then was discussed the matter of starting a German plantation twenty miles down the coast. The land, of course, was to be bought from Koho, and the price was arranged in terms of tobacco, knives, beads, pipes, hatchets, porpoise teeth, and shell-money—in terms of everything except rum. "While the talk went on, Koho, glancing through the window, could see Worth mixing medicines and placing bottles back in the medicine cupboard. Also, lie saw the manager complete his labors by taking a drink of Scotch. Koho noted the bottle carefully, And, though he.hung about for an hour after the eonference was over, there was never a moment when some one or another was not in the room. When Grief and Worth sat down to a business talk Koho gave it up. "Me go along schooner," he announced, then turned and limped out. "How are the mighty fallen!" Grief laughed. "To think that used to be

Koho, the fiercest red-handed murderer in the Solomons, who defied all his life two of the greatest world Powers. And now he's going aboard to try and cadge Denby for a drink." 111. For the last time in his life the super-cargo of the Wonder j>erpetrated a practical joke on a native. He was in the main cabin, checking off the list of goods being landed in the whaleboats, when Koho limped down the companiqnway and took a seat opposite him at the table.

"Close.up me die along altogether,"' was the burden of the old chief's plaint. All the delights of this world had forsaken him. "Me no like 'm kai-kai. Me too much sick fella. Me close up finish." A long, sad pause, in which his face expressed unutterable concern for his stomach, which he patted gingerly and with an assumption of pain; "Belly belong me too much sick." . •* , Another pause, which was an invitation to Denby to make suggestions. Then followed a long, weary, final sigh, and a "Me like 'm rum."

penby. laughed heartlessly. He had been cadged for drinks before by the old; cannibal, and the.sternest tambo Grief and M'Tavish .had laid down was the,one forbidding alcohol to the natives of New Gibbon.. The.trouble .was that Koho had acquired the taste. In his younger days he had learned the delights of drunkenness when he.cut off.the schooner Dorset, but unfortunately he had learned it-along with all his tribesmen, and the supply had not held out long. Later, when he led his naked - warriors down to the destruction of the German plantation, he was wiser, and he appropriated all the liquors for his sole use." The result had been a gorgeous mixed drunk on a dozen different sorts of drink, ranging from beer, doctored with quinine to absinthe and apricot brandy. The. drunk had lasted for months, and itliad left him-with a- thirst that would remain with him until he died... Predisposed, toward alcohol, after the way of . sayages, all, the chemistry of his flesh, clamored for it. This craving was to- him expressed in terms -of tingling and sensation, . of maggots, crawling warmly, and deliriously in his brain, of good feeling and well being and high exaltation. And in his barren old age; when feasting was a weariness and when , old liatgs had smouldered down, he desired more and more the revivifying fire that came liquid out of bottles—out of all sorts of bottles, lor he remembered them well. He would sit in the sun for hours in mournful contemplation of the great crgy that had been his when the German plantation was cleaned out. Denby was sympathetic. He sought out the old chief's symptoms and offered his dyspepsia tablets from the medicine chest, pills, and a varied assortment of harmless tabloids and capsules.

But Koho steadfastly declined. Once, when be- cut the Dorset off, he had bitten . through a. capsule of quinine; m addition, two of nis warriors had partaken of a white powder and laid down and died, very violently in a. very short time. JX T o; he did not believe in drugs. But the liquids from bottles, the „cool flaming youth-givers and warm-glowing dream-makers—no, wonder the white men valued them so highly. : "Rum he good fella," he repeated over, and over plaintively and with, the weary patience, of age. And then Deuby made his mistake and piaved his joke.-. Stepping around behind Koho, he unlocked the medicme closet and took out a four-ounce bottle labelled essence of mustard. As. lie made believe to draw the. cork and drink of the contents, in the mirror on the for'ard bulkhead he glimpsed Koho, twisted hall' around, intently watching him. Denby smacked his lips and cleared his throat appreciatively as he.replaced the bottle. Neglecting to relock the medicine closet, he returned to his chair and, after a decent interval, went on deck. He stood beside the companionway and listened. After several moments the silence below was broken bv a fearful, wheezing, propulsive, strangling cough. He smiled to himself and returned leisurely down the companionwav. The bottle was back, on the shelf wliere it belonged, nnd_tlie old man sat in the same position. Denbv marvelled at his iron control. Mouth and lips and tongue, and all sensitive membranes, were a. blaze ol fire. He gasped and nearly coughed several times, while involuntary tears brimmed in his eves and ran. down his cheeks. An ordinary man would have coughed and strangled for half an hour. But old Koho's face was grimly composed. It dawned on him that.a trick had been piaved. and into his eyes came an expression of hatred and malignancy so

primitive, so abyssmal, that it sent chills up and down Don by's spine. Kolio arose proudly. "Me go along," he said. ">onsmg n\it one fella- boat stop along me." IV. Having scon Grief and Worth start for a ride over the plantation, U alienstain sot down in the big living room and with -gun oil and old rags '.proceeded to take apart and clean his auto-

matic pistol. On the table beside him stood the. inevitable bottle of Scotch and numerous soda bottles. Another bottle part full, chanced to stand there, it was also labelled Scotch, but its content was liniment which Worth had mixed for "the horses and neglected to put away. •Vs Walleiistein worked he glanced through'the window, and saw Koho cominc'up the compound path. He. was limping very rapidly, but when he came along the verandah and entered the roonr his gait was slow and dignified. He sat down and watched the guncleaning. Though mouth and lips and tongue were alire, he gave.no sign. At the end of live minutes he spoke. "I?inn he good fella. Me like m rum." , . , . . Walleiistein smiled and shook his head, and then it was that his pervor.se imp suggested what was to be his last joke on a native. The similarity of the two bottles was the real suggestion. He laid his pistol parts on the' 0 table and mixed himself a long drink. Standing as lie did between Koho and the table, he interchanged the two bottles, drained his glass, made ar, if to seiu-ch for something, and left the room. From outside he heard the surprised splutter and cough; but when he returned the old chief sat as before. The liniment in the bottle still oscillatcd - , -, , • i i Koho stood up, clapped his -hands and, when the house boy answered, signed that he desired his rifle. The boy fetched the weapon and according to custom preceded the visitor down the pathwav. Not until ontsid'e the gate did the boy turn the rifle over to its owner. Walleiistein, chuckling to himself, watched the old chief limp along the beach in the direction of the river.

A few minutes later as he put his pistol together Wallenstein heard the distant report of a gun. For the instant he thought of Koho, then dismissed the conjecture from his mind. Worth and Grief had taken shotguns with them, and it was probably one of their shots at a pigeon. Wallenstein lounged back in his chair, chuckled, twisted his yellow moustache, and dozed. He was.aroused by the excited voice of Worth, crying put to a houseboy : "Ring the big fella belli Ring plenty too much! Ring plenty!" Wallenstein gained the verandah in time to see the manager jump his horse over the low fence of the compound

and dash down the beach after Grief,

who was riding madly ahead. A loud crackling and smoke rising through the coroanut trees told the story. The boat-houses and the barracks were on fire. The big plantation bell was ringing wildly as the German Resident ran down the beach, and he could see whalcboats hastily putting off from the schooner.

Barracks and boat-houses, grassthatched and like tinder, were wrapped in flames. Grief emerged from the kitchen, carrving a headless black child by the leg. "The cook's in there," he told Worth. "Her head's gone too. She was too heavy, and I had to clear out." "It was my fault," Wallenstein said. "Old Koho did it. But I let him take a drink of Worth's horse liniment."

"I guess he's headed for the bush," Worth said, springing astride his horse and starting. "Oliver is down there by the river. Hope he didn't get him." ' The manager galloped away through the trees. A few minutes later, as the charred wreck of the barracks crashed in, they heard him calling and followed. On the edge of the river bank they came upon him. He still sat on his horse, Very white faced, and gazed at something on the ground. It was the body of Oliver, the young assistant manager, though it was hard to recognise it. The black laborers, breathless from their run in from the fields, v.- L -ri->

now crowding around, and under Gr!:■"'.•: direction they rmprovised a litter Tor the dead man. Wallenstein was afflicted witlj paroxysms of true German sorrow and contrition. The tears were frankly in his eyes by the time ho ceased from lamenting, and began to swear. The wrath that flared up was as truly German as' the oaths, and when he tried to seize Worth's shotgun a. fleck of foam had appeared on his lips. "None of that!" Grief commanded sternly. "Straighten up, Wallenstein. Don't be a fool."

"But you are going to lot him escape?" the German cried wildly. "He has escaped.. The hush begins right here at the river. You can see where he waded across. He's in the wild pig runs already. It would' be like ■the needle in the hay-stack, and if we followed him some of his young men would get ns. Besides, the runs are all man-trapped —you know,' stake pits, poisoned thorns, and) the rest. M'Tavish and his bushmen are the only fellows who can negotiate the runs, and three of his men were lost that way the last time Come on. back to the house. You'll hear the conches to-night and the war-drums, and all merry hell break loose. They won't rush us, but keep all the. boys close "up to the house, Mr Worth. Come on."

As they returned- along the path they came xipon a black who wliimperod and cried' vociferously. "Shut up mouth belong you!" -Worth shouted'. "What name you make'm noise?"

"Him fella Koho finish along two fella bnllnmaeow," the black answered, drawing a forefinger significantly across his throat. "He knifed the cows," Grief said. "That means no more milk for some time for you Mr Worth. I'lhsee about sending a couple up from Ugi." Wallenstcih proved inconsolable "until Denby coming ashore, confessed to. the dose of essence of mustard. Thereat the German" resident became even more cheerful, though he twisted his yellow mous f aohe up more fiercely and continued to curse the Solomons with violent oaths.

I Next morning, visible from the masthead of the Wonder, the bush was alivewith signal-smokes. From promontory i to promontory, and back through th's solid jungle, the smoke pillars curled and .puffed, and talked. Remote villages on the higher peaks, beyond the farthest raids M'Tavish had ever driven, joined in the troubled conversation, from across the river persisted a bedlam of conches; while from everywhere, drifting for,miles along the quiet air, came the deep reverberations of tha great war drums—huge tree trunks hoi-.

lowed bv fire and carved with stone and shell. '■You're- all right as long as you stay • lose." Grief told his manager. "I've got to get along to Guvutu. They won't come out in the open and attack you. Keep the work gangs close. Stop the i learing till this blows over. They'll get any detached gangs yon send.out." And, whatever yon do. don't be fooled into going into the bush after Koho. IFyoii do he'll get yon. AH yoifve got to do is wait for M'Tavish. -I'll send him. up with a bunch, of his Maiaita bush- ; men. He's the only man who can. go inside. Also, until he comes, I'll leave Denby with you. You don't mind, do you, Mr Denby? I'll send M'Tavish up with the Wanda, and you can go back on her and rejoin the Wonder. Captain Ward can manage, without you for a trip.:' "It was just what I was going to volunteer," Denby answered. "I never dreamed all this muss would 1m kicked up over a. joke. You see, in a way, I'm responsible for it." "So am I," Wallenstein said. "But 1 started it," the supercargo urged. "Maybe you. did, but I carried it .long." "And Koho finished it," Grief said. "At any rate I, too, shall remain," fukl the German. "I thought you were coming to Guvutu with mo" Grief protested. "I was. But this is my jurisdiction partly, and I have made a fool of myself in it completely. I shall remain and help things straight again." V. At Guvutu, Grief sent full instructions to M'Tavish by a recruiting ketch that was just starting for Maiaita. Captain Ward sailed in the Wonder for the Santa Cruz Islands: and Grief, borrowing a whaleboat and a crew of black prisoners from the British Resident, crossed the Channel to Guadalcanar to examine the grass lands back of Pendufi'ryn.

Three weeks later, with a free sheet dv.d a lusty breeze he threaded the coral patches and surged' up the smooth water to Guvutu anchorage. The harbor was deserted, save for a small ketch, which lay close in to the shore reef. (rrief recognised it as the Wanjhj. Siie had evidently just got in by the Tulagi Passage, for lier black crew was stili at work furling the sails. As he rounded alongside M'Tavish himself extended a hand to help liim over the rail. "What's the matter?" Grief asked. '■Haven't you started yet?" M-Tavish nodded. "And got back. Everything is all right on board." "How's New Gibbon?" "All there, the last I saw of it. barriu' a few inconsequential frills that a good eye could make out lacking from the landscape."

He was a cold flame of a man. small as Koho, and as dried tip, with a mahogany complexion and small, expressionless blue eyes that were more like dmlet-points than the eyes of a Scotchman. Without fear, without enthusiasm, impervious to disease and climate and sentiment, he was lean and bitter :md deadly as a snake. That his present dour look boded ill news Grief was iveil aware.

"Spit it out." he said. '"What's Lap-po-ned?" '■ °Tis a thing severely to be condemned, a shame, this joking with the teat hen niggers," was the reply. "Also, 'tis very expensive. Come below, llr Grief. You'll be better for the information with a long glass in your hand. Alter you."

"How did you settle things?" his employer demanded as soon as they were seated in the cabin. The little Scotchman shook his head.

"There was nothing to settle. It all depends how you look at it. The other say would be to say it was settled, en-

tirely settled, mind you, before I got tiu>re."

"But the plantation, man? The plantation?"

"No plantation. AH the years of our sork have gone for naught. 'Tis back sriiere we started, where the missionaries started, where the Germans started — itid where they finished. Not a stone stands on another at the landing pier. Hie houses are black ashes. Every tree is hacked down, and the wild pigs are rioting out the yams and sweet potato ~ 's. "These boys from New Georgia, a

E::e bunch they were, five score of them. ;:nd they cost you a pretty penny. 3lr Grief, and not one is left to toll the

He paused and began fumbling in a Liriie locker under the companion steps. •■Bnt Worth? And Denby? And Wallenstein?"

•That's what I'm telling von. Take a look."

M'Tav'sli dragged out a sack made of rife matting and emptied its contents on tin l floor.

David Grief pulled himself together vatii a jerk, for lie found himself gazi:iu" fascinated at the heads of the three* m- n he had left at New Gibbon.

'I don't know how it happened." the Scotchman's voice went on drearily. Bat I surmise they went into the bush .liter the old devil."

"And where is Koho?" Grief asked •u-Iy.

"Back in the bush and drunk as •• iord. That's how I was able to recover the heads. He was too drunk to stand. Tiiey lugged him on their backs out of the "village when I rushed it. And if y.u'll relievo me of the heads I'll b? t-Miged." He paused and sighed. "I suppose they'll have regular funerals over them and pnt them in the ground. But in my way of thinking they'd make excellent enrios. Any respectable _muwum. would pay a hundred quid apiece. Better have another drink. You're i ■ king a bit pale- - . . There, put that i-wn von. . . . And if you'll take my advice" Mr Grief. I would say set your tV.ce sternly against any joking with the niircrers. It always makes trouble, and it is a very expensive advertisement.