The Legendary Detectives II: 8 Classic Novelettes Featuring the World

dangers of war. I realize, dear old Massachuter, that you're a friendly nation, but if you like to come in you'll be fearfully welcome. If there's any last message you'd like to send to jolly old Jane, now's your chance.'

Donald elected for war. An hour later the Wiggle pushed her sharp nose against the black waters of the river and began her laborious 'climb' against the six-knot current to the river city of the N'gombi.

Power is a potent wine that is liable to turn the heads of the strongest. N'kema, the eldest son, did many foolish things. The breath was scarcely out of the body of his father – who died with suspicious suddenness – than he sat himself on the stool of chieftainship and summoned all headmen and petty chiefs to a great palaver of the land. Worse than this, he conveyed to the Little Leopards his desire for their support, and no king in his senses would invoke the aid of that secret society.

It was the time when the Little Leopards flourished; no longer were their mutilated victims found, but they had their strange rites, their dances, and, if the truth be told, their secret killings.

When one of the brothers expostulated, the new king cut him short.

'Must I not bring all magic and power to keep me where I am?' he asked. 'Does not Sandi hate me? Now, if he sees my strength, and knows that all men are for me, he will let me sit quietly, and one day will come and put on my neck the medal which my father wore.'

'What of B'lala?' asked one, and the king made a significant sign.

That night two of his brothers led the ghost walker into the deepest part of the forest, where slinking cat shapes move by night and round green moons of eyes look hungrily through the cover of the scrub; and there they left him. He did not complain, except to say, just before they went away:

'You would not have done this, but my ghost is gone from me tonight.'

'Where is your ghost?' mocked one.

'In all the stars,' was the answer. 'Go quickly before he returns.'

And in terror they fled.

The new king sat in his big hut, an eager listener to all the stories which came to him. Some said that the Ochori were arming against the N'gombi, and that Bosambo the king was gathering his regiments for a great slaughter. Another whispered of Sandi and his soldiers. Yet another spoke of plots made by his own brothers to put him down. So it came about that the maimers of B'lala had scarcely returned to the city before they were seized and hurried away and no man saw them again.

The new king sat and listened, and with every fresh tale his fear grew.

His city was an armed camp. Spearmen answered the frantic summons of the lokali and came flocking through the forests and the swamps to join the army that was assembling.

'Lord, with whom do we war?' asked an old counselor.

'All the world,' said the shivering king.

Some sycophant whispered that the counselor was an enemy or why should he ask this question, and that night the old man was killed in his hut.

Just before the dawn the king was awakened, and came out of his but to find a sweating messenger. The king listened, his teeth chattering; and a frightened man is a terribly dangerous man. He sent for his familiars and gave them brief instructions.

'Tibbetti, the son of Sandi is coming with his soldiers. Let all the men go to the forest with their spears, and he who is seen by Tibbetti I will surely kill!'

The Wiggle came to a peaceable landing beach, where women were dipping their babies in the river and others were beating their clothes upon flat stones. There was no sign of warlike preparation when Bones stepped ashore; indeed, the atmosphere was favorable as N'kema the king came hurrying down to meet his visitor.

'Lord Tibbetti,' he said, his eyes roving the deck for the soldiers, 'you come at a good time, for my father is dead, and all the people with one voice have called me to sit in his seat. Now I will make a great dance for you and for your brother.'

He was puzzled by Donald, a stranger, and found the most likely explanation for his presence.

'There will be no dances, N'kema,' said Bones curtly. 'And as to who shall sit in the king's chair, that is for Sandi. I come now to see B'lala, the king's son.'

There was a dead silence. The chief's discomfort was all too apparent.

'Lord,' he said, 'this boy has gone a long journey, for he was sick, and on the edge of the Isisi.'

'He shall be here by tomorrow,' said Bones. 'The palaver is finished.'

He walked through the village and was relieved to find none of the evidence of feverish activity which invariably marked a change of kingship. As for Mr. Murdock, he was frankly disappointed.

'Where's your old war?' he demanded truculently.

'Dear old sir,' shuddered Bones, 'don't talk about it.'

That afternoon, as they sat on the deck under a double canvas shade, there came an emissary of the king to offer again the honor of a great dance, and this time Bones accepted.

'Shall we see any ghosts?' asked Donald hopefully.

'You don't see our kind of ghosts, old boy,' replied Bones testily, 'you feel 'em!'

Again he spoke prophetically.

The dance passed without incident, and the two loaded automatics in Bones' pocket seemed to be a superfluous precaution. They made their way back in the dark to the ship's side, and for the moment Donald Murdock was so entranced by the queer gyrations he had witnessed that he forgot that there was such a fake in the world as spiritualism.

They had said goodnight when from the darkness of the bank came a sibilant whisper. Bones craned his head forward and listened.

'Tell him to come into my little ship,' he ordered, and they brought into his tiny cabin the second younger son of the old king, he who had demurred at the destruction of his brother; and the story he had to tell struck all the boredom from Lieutenant Tibbetts' face.

'Lord, if the king knows I have been, he will kill me as he has slain my brother,' said the man fearfully. 'But I tell you this because I love Sandi, and because, when he comes to make a chief, he will not forget a son of the king who has helped him.'

'Where did they take B'lala?' asked Bones, and the man told him.

'But, lord, if you go through the woods behind the city, they will kill you,' urged the man, 'for there are more warriors than trees, and each man is strong for my brother.'

Bones did not hesitate. He had a short consultation with Murdock.

'You'll stay here, my dear old New Yorker,' he said. 'This naughty old feller won't do anything tonight-'

'I'm coming along with you,' said Donald recklessly, and in the end his insistence prevailed.

They dropped into a small canoe, paddled softly down the river for a mile and, landing at a convenient place (here Donald nearly fell into the water) followed their guide for two hours through the dense woods which had hidden murders from time immemorial. Once green eyes glared at them ahead; once Donald heard the scream of a monkey in the grip of an invisible enemy.

It was midnight by the illuminated dial on Murdock's wrist when they came to a little clearing and saw a figure in the moonlight, reclining against a big, lightning-blasted tree.

'O B'lala,' said Bones softly, 'I am Tibbetti; the son of Sandi, and I have come to take you away to my fine ship.'

He saw the thick lips of the child twist in a smile – guessed rather than saw the horror of his eyes.

'Lord, I go to a better place than your fine ship,' he said faintly, 'for this night I shall walk among the stars with my new ghost. Do I speak truth?'

At first Bones thought he was addressing him, but saw the head turn slightly to the left and heard the delighted chuckle of the dying boy.

'Lord,' he said, 'I speak truth. Now I tell you, Tibbetti, that there is death in this wood, for this my ghost has told me; also I saw you coming – I who have no eyes! You came in a little boat with my brother, and as you landed, the white man who is with you stumbled and fell.'

Donald felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

'Who told you this?' he said in English, and, to Bones' amazement, this boy, who had never spoken any