"Isisi fighting" (rolls punctuated by shorter tattoos) "Come to me" (a long crescendo roll and patter of taps) "Ochori" (nine rolls, curiously like the yelping of a dog) So the message went out: every village heard and repeated. The Isisi threw the call northward; the N'gombi village, sent it westward, and presently first the Isisi, then the N'gombi, heard the faint answer: "Coming--the Breaker of Lives," and returned the message to N'gori. "Now I shall also break lives," said N'gori, and sacrificed a goat to his success. Sixteen hundred fighting men waited for the signal from the hidden _lokali_ player, on the far side of the river bend. At the first hollow rattle of his sticks, N'gori pushed off in his royal canoe. "Kill!" he roared, and went out in the white light of dawn to greet ten Ochori canoes, riding in fanshape formation, having as their centre a white and speckless _Zaire_ alive with Houssas and overburdened with the slim muzzles of Hotchkiss guns. "Oh, Ko!" said N'gori dismally, "this is a bad palaver!" * * * * * In the centre of his city, before a reproving squad of Houssas, a dumb man, taken in the act of armed aggression, N'gori stood. "You're a naughty boy," said Bones, reproachfully, "and if jolly old Sanders were here--my word, you'd catch it!" N'gori listened to the unknown tongue, worried by its mystery. "Lord, what happens to me?" he asked. Bones looked very profound and scratched his head. He looked at the Chief, at Bosambo, at the river all aglow in the early morning sunlight, at the _Zaire_, with her sinister guns a-glitter, and then back at the Chief. He was not well versed in the dialect of the Akasava, and Bosambo must be his interpreter. "Very serious offence, old friend," said Bones, solemnly; "awfully serious--muckin' about with spears and all that sort of thing. I'll have to make a dooce of an example of you--yes, by Heaven!" Bosambo heard and imperfectly understood. He looked about for a likely tree where an unruly chief might sway with advantage to the community. "You're a bad, bad boy," said Bones, shaking his head; "tell him." "Yes, sah!" said Bosambo. "Tell him he's fined ten dollars." But Bosambo did not speak: there are moments too full for words and this was one of them. CHAPTER II THE DISCIPLINARIANS Lieutenant Augustus Tibbetts of the Houssas stood at attention before his chief. He stood as straight as a ramrod, his hands to his sides, his eyeglass jammed in his eye, and Hamilton of the Houssas looked at him sorrowfully. "Bones, you're an ass!" he said at last. "Yes, sir," said Bones.