"I do not believe that Sandi has done this thing," said the chief of the Akasava. "Let us go across the river and see with our own eyes, and if they have lied we shall beat them with sticks, though let no man kill, because of Sandi and his cruelty." So across the water they went, and marched until they came within sight of the Ochori city, and the Ochori people, hearing that the Akasava people were coming, ran away into the woods and hid, in accordance with their custom. The Akasava advanced until they came to the pole stuck in the ground and the board with the devil marks. Before this they stood in silence and in awe, and having made obeisance to it and sacrificed a chicken (which was the lawful property of the Ochori) they turned back. After this came a party from Isisi, and they must needs come through the Akasava country. They brought presents with them and lodged with the Akasava for one night. "What story is this of the Ochori?" asked the Isisi chief in command; so the chief of the Akasava told him. "You may save yourself the journey, for we have seen it." "That," said the Isisi chief, "I will believe when I have seen." "That is bad talk," said the Akasava people, who were gathered at the palaver; "these dogs of Isisi call us liars." Nevertheless there was no bloodshed, and in the morning the Isisi went on their way. The Ochori saw them coming, and hid in the woods, but the precaution was unnecessary, for the Isisi departed as they came. Other folk made a pilgrimage to the Ochori, N'Gombi, Bokeli, and the Little People of the Forest, who were so shy that they came by night, and the Ochori people began to realise a sense of their importance. Then Bosambo, a Krooman and an adventurer at large, appeared on the scene, having crossed eight hundred miles of wild land in the earnest hope that time would dull the memory of the Liberian Government and incidentally bring him to a land of milk and honey. Now Bosambo had in his life been many things. He had been steward on an Elder Dempster boat, he had been scholar at a mission school--he was the proud possessor of a bound copy of _The Lives of the Saints_, a reward of industry--and among his accomplishments was a knowledge of English. The hospitable Ochori received him kindly, fed him with sweet manioc and sugar-cane, and told him about Sandi's magic. After he had eaten, Bosambo walked down to the post and read the inscription-- TRESPASSERS BEWARE. He was not impressed, and strolled back again thinking deeply. "This magic," he said to the chief, "is good magic. I know, because I have white man's blood in my veins." In support of this statement he proceeded to libel a perfectly innocent British official at Sierra Leone. The Ochori were profoundly moved. They poured forth the story of their persecutions, a story which began in remote ages, when Tiganobeni, the great king, came down from the north and wasted the country as far south as the Isisi.