Ill-news travels faster than steam can push a boat, and the little _Zaire_, keeping to mid-stream with the blue flag flying, was an object of interest to many small villages, the people of which crowded down to their beaches and stood with folded arms, or with clenched knuckles at their lips to signify their perturbation, and shouted in monotonous chorus after the boat. "Oh, Sandi--father! How many evil ones have you slain to-day? Oh, killer of devils--oh, hanger of trees!--we are full of virtues and do not fear." "Ei-fo, Kalaba? Ei ko Sandi! Eiva fo elegi," etc. Sanders went with the stream swiftly, for he wished to establish communication with his chief. Somewhere in the country there was a revolt--that he knew. There was truth in all the old man had said before he died--for die he did of sheer panic and age. Who was this king in revolt? Not the king of the Isisi, or of the M'Gombi, nor of the people in the forelands beyond the Ochori. The _Zaire_ went swinging in to the Government beach, and there was a captain of Houssas to meet him. "Land wire working?" said Sanders as he stepped ashore. The Houssa captain nodded. "What's the palaver?" he asked. "War of a kind," said Sanders; "some king or other is on the rampage." And he told the story briefly. The Houssa officer whistled. "By Lord High Keeper of the Privy Purse!" he swore mildly, "that's funny!" "You've a poisonous sense of humour!" Sanders snapped. "Hold hard," said the Houssa, and caught his arm. "Don't you know that Lo Benguela is in rebellion? The description fits him." Sanders stopped. "Of course," he said, and breathed a sigh of relief. "But," said the perplexed Houssa officer, "Matabeleland is three thousand miles away. Rebellion started a week ago. How did these beggars know?" For answer Sanders beckoned a naked man of the Akasava people who was of his boat's crew, being a good chopper of wood. "I'fasi," he said, "tell me, what do they do in your country to-day?" The man grinned sheepishly, and stood on one leg in his embarrassment, for it was an honour to common men that Sanders should address them by name. "Lord, they go to hunt elephant," he said. "How many?" said Sanders. "Two villages," said the man, "for one village has sickness and cannot go." "How do you know this?" said Sanders. "Is not your country four days by river and three days by land?" The man looked uncomfortable. "It is as you say, master--yet I know," he said. Sanders turned to the Houssa with a smile. "There is quite a lot to be learnt in this country," he said. * * * * * A month later Sanders received a cutting from the _Cape Times_. The part which interested him ran: