power station, but no sign of the missing man could be discovered. The excitement in the village grew to fever pitch, and spread to the inhabitants along the river’s bank. Endless suggestions and theories were forthcoming as to what had happened and the means to be taken to clear up the mystery, which puzzled the wisest and most expert opinion. One theory set up and spread by the subtle-minded labourers was that the missing man had slipped out of his suit underwater, and had, under cover of the darkness, made his way to a distant part of the river, and there he had climbed out and escaped, his object being to get compensation for his widow and children. This theory spread, in spite of its absurdity, for the simple folk recalled the case of a man who conspired to have his effigy burnt in a fire that took place in another part of the country, and whose supposed widow got insurance money, which the supposed victim and his fellow-conspirators shared among them. Other theories, no less ridiculous, were current, and the superstitions of the natives were aroused, when one of the night watchmen refused further duty at the tragic spot, alleging that he had seen the ghost of the diver emerge from the water and hover round the spot, and it was only when the body of the missing man floated to the surface of the reservoir, a fortnight later, that an end was put to the endless surmises and stupid conjectures that were the talk of the whole neighbourhood. CHAPTER XXVIII _Coffee_ From an obscure origin the habit of coffee-drinking has grown to be almost universal. That the natural home of the plant itself is Abyssinia or East Africa is generally known, but how its fruit came to be used in the making of a beverage is the subject of many legends. One ancient Mohammedan tradition tells how the superior of a monastery, observing that goats eating the coffee berries became very wakeful and lively at night, prepared a decoction of the berries, in order to keep his dervishes awake when the religious services at the mosque demanded their attention during the whole of the night. He proved the efficacy of the beverage, and recommended it to his co-religionists, who, on discovering that it was pleasant as well as useful, soon acquired the coffee habit, and frequently refreshed themselves throughout the day with the dark brown liquid. So popular did coffee-drinking become amongst the faithful that one section endeavoured to put down the practice, which they looked upon as an evil. They alleged that it was an intoxicant, and as such was expressly forbidden by the Koran. Their religious zeal or bigotry was not, however, so powerful as the hold which the coffee bean had acquired over the people, and the custom of coffee-drinking, now time-honoured throughout the East, has spread, not only over the whole of Europe, but practically throughout the world.