At the end of the five days Tebeki sat down to consider his position. He was in the act of inventing justification for his crime, when Sanders came on the scene. More ominous were the ten Houssas and the Maxim which accompanied the brown-faced little man. Sanders walked to Tebeki's hut and called him out, and Tebeki, blear-eyed and shaky, stepped forth into the hot sunshine, blinking. "Tebeki," said Sanders, "what of O'Sako and his village?" "Master," said Tebeki, slowly, "he put shame upon me----" "Spare me your lies," said Sanders coldly, and signed to the Houssas. Then he looked round for a suitable tree. There was one behind the hut--a great copal-gum. "In half an hour I shall hang you," said Sanders, looking at his watch. Tebeki said nothing; only his bare feet fidgeted in the dust. There came out of the hut a tall girl, who stood eyeing the group with curiosity; then she came forward, and laid her hand on Tebeki's bare shoulder. "What will you do with my man?" she asked. "I am M'Lino, the wife of O'Sako." Sanders was not horrified, he showed his teeth in a mirthless grin and looked at her. "You will find another man, M'Lino," he said, "as readily as you found this one." Then he turned away to give directions for the hanging. But the woman followed him, and boldly laid her hand on his arm. "Master," she said, "if any was wronged by O'Sako's death, was it not I, his wife? Yet I say let Tebeki go free, for I love him." "You may go to the devil," said Sanders politely; "I am getting tired of you and your lovers." He hanged Tebeki, expeditiously and with science, and the man died immediately, because Sanders was very thorough in this sort of business. Then he and the Houssa corps marched away, and the death song of the woman sounded fainter and fainter as the forest enveloped him. He camped that night on the Hill of Trees, overlooking the sweeping bend of the river, and in the morning his orderly came to tell him that the wife of O'Sako desired to see him. Sanders cursed the wife of O'Sako, but saw her. She opened her mission without preliminary. "Because of the death I brought to O'Sako, my husband, and Tebeki, my lover, the people have cast me forth," she said. "Every hand is against me, and if I stay in this country I shall die." "Well?" said Sanders. "So I will go with you, until you reach the Sangar River, which leads to the Congo. I have brothers there." "All this may be true," said Sanders dispassionately; "on the other hand, I know that your heart is filled with hate because I have taken two men from you, and hanged a third. Nevertheless, you shall come with us as far as the Sangar River, but you shall not touch the 'chop' of my men, nor shall you speak with them." She nodded and left him, and Sanders issued orders for her treatment.