Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "BONES" being Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders' Country BY EDGAR WALLACE Author of "Sanders of the River," etc. WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED LONDON AND MELBOURNE To Isabel Thorn WHO WAS LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING SANDERS INTO BEING This Book is Dedicated CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE PROLOGUE--SANDERS, C.M.G 7 I HAMILTON OF THE HOUSSAS 52 II THE DISCIPLINARIANS 71 III THE LOST N'BOSINI 88 IV THE FETISH STICK 108 V A FRONTIER AND A CODE 123 VI THE SOUL OF THE NATIVE WOMAN 148 VII THE STRANGER WHO WALKED BY NIGHT 164 VIII A RIGHT OF WAY 180 IX THE GREEN CROCODILE 193 X HENRY HAMILTON BONES 209 XI BONES AT M'FA 225 XII THE MAN WHO DID NOT SLEEP 240 "BONES" PROLOGUE SANDERS--C.M.G. I You will never know from the perusal of the Blue Book the true inwardness of the happenings in the Ochori country in the spring of the year of Wish. Nor all the facts associated with the disappearance of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Blowter, Secretary of State for the Colonies. We know (though this is not in the Blue Books) that Bosambo called together all his petty chiefs and his headmen, from one end of the country to the other, and assembled them squatting expectantly at the foot of the little hillock, where sat Bosambo in his robes of office (unauthorized but no less magnificent), their upturned faces charged with pride and confidence, eloquent of the hold this sometime Liberian convict had upon the wayward and fearful folk of the Ochori. Now no man may call a palaver of all small chiefs unless he notifies the government of his intention, for the government is jealous of self-appointed parliaments, for when men meet together in public conference, however innocent may be its first cause, talk invariably drifts to war, just as when they assemble and talk in private it drifts womanward. And since a million and odd square miles of territory may only be governed by a handful of ragged soldiers so long as there is no concerted action against authority, extemporized and spontaneous palavers are severely discouraged.