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iIIhtIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItIhIII~IIIiIIiiiif WHITE MAN< By M9A orge Agnew Chamberlain Author of "Home." "Through Stained I Glass." "John Bogardus." etc. Copyright, 1919, The Bobbs-Merrill Company Continued from first page. tbis section. back In front of her, "that are just great roundl hard bowiders." 11er mouth drew down at the cor ners, but she would not sudcumb again to feeling sorry for herself. Instead she shielded her eyes once more and took stock of the various handiworks of God. The world was good to look upon that morning. It was twirling by in a strange rotative movement that gave it an illusive appearance. It was like a new toy in the way of pan oramas. Thlngs started to come nearer, changed their minds ( and then swept into the past, lingering long on a steep horizon as though they hesitated be fore an irrevocable plunge. Andrea found that by holding back her skirts she could look straight down. She did so ot and on for half an hour and the things she saw told hee much. Forest and plain, forest and plain swept under and away in an endless gentle undulation cut twice by long, wandering silvtr bands. From high fi the air those bands were nothing-mere strips of fibbon that a child could step over. But down there? She knew that down be low they were mighty rivers, doubt less teeming with hippos, crocodiles and snakes! The engine missed fire-once, twice. Andrea would scarcely have noticed the fact had it not been for Its ex traordinary effect on the man. All his pose dropped from him. le became galvanized into nervous life and did several things rapidly with twitching fingers. The engine missed again, and he half rose in his sent, craned his neck, turned his face to one side and looked down. In the glimpse she caught she saw that the lines around his mouth had suddenly deepened in credibly. His eyes seemed to fix with a certain relief on a spot, a clearing, He ____ettled___ Back___ Tense___yand___.Made fa h.He settled ack ensely dMd and made for it. The engine bjack fired withl tihe rippling report oif a gat lhng gun, coughed and stoppied. Thle maan gr'ipped the steering gear tightly and tippe(d the machine's nos~e dlowni for a long, reaching volplane. On the( backs of his hands Andrea saiw little gleaming hulbs of sweat. Swverving to escalpe th Ic (rest of ai tree, hei mnade a reasgnably successful landing, in spite of his agitation. The airphine took thei ground in the wide beaten, circle o~ a native kanlal, shot across it and thp caime to a violent stop) with wvings buried in tihe muid-plastered walls of two separate huts. Tihe shock cast Andrea forward ; in stinctively she threw her arms around tile mari's neck. She felt the quiver ing of 'his whIole body as though it were shaking with an ague. To her astonishment lie became for an in stant almost pitIable. But only for an instat ; then he nerved himself, cli mbed~out of the maclilne and( helped her (d*ii. She gave a long sigh of relief and~ looked up at lhim withl a half smile on hecr face. Hie had taken off his. goggles. ills eyes were gray aind hlrge'. Theicy stared tt without11 seeing hier and in themi was a visible trouble as of some deep and hidden~1 struggle. Andrea gazed at him, her lips parted In wnder. At last lie felt her eyes pon him and a deep flush mounted rom his neck and swept upward, ghting the tan of his face with a ubdaed glow. "If that happened to me," thought idren, "I'd be as red as a field of opples." "I-I beg your pardon," stammered lte man and started walking up and own with quick strides. Andrea new Instinctively that he was warm ig up muscles that had been sud enly frozen, steadying shaking knees m( Riiy heart. $lIe tlirUed her eyes from him and Azd1 around t .get her first glimpse f the real Africa. Frrom thie verf tart it left 1her puzzled. She stood Lt tho far side of a great circular ourt, beaten hird and swept clean LS a floor. Within its bounds were wo acacla trees, thickly fronded, vide-spreadilg. Around the court, hirty high-peaked huts stood like sen iaels. Behind the huts other but far mailler structures swarmed-chicken iouses, strongly withed, granaries . on our stilts, pigeon cotes, a stockaded attle kraal and a smaller goat fold. But what pIzzled her were the Af leans themselves. A flying machine iad dropped in their midst and dis ahmarged two fair if not excepional -pecelns of a white and dominant ace, yet the blacks continued their varlous occurations antd disoccupa Jons apparently unperturbed. Wlhat ,ver theIr oc(upati a they made no sudden irove of variation; even their longues kept still. In the shade of one of the vast iceclas there was a veritable con L0ourse of men. They sat for the muost part on their heels smoking Mhite, Slow-burning (lcheroots. Two ody could he said to bo working. Tjhey were very oid and ,at with their backs againstZ the trunk of the tree, their legs stretched st raight out: before I heim and at their sides neat bundles of strippel m leaves. riey were weaving baskets. The mnen at least were not tongule-tied. They seemed to be going through some1 oral cieimony. First on(1e and thon another would take the cheroot from his lips and make a tsngle remark ; then the rest would all grunt in unison and with a deep-chested expelling of all the breath in their bodies that gave al vlost the effect of a1n explosion. It annoyed Andrea that her cor panion seemed to share the stoic calm of the natives in what to her mind ought to .have been an occasion of much excitement and chatter. It never occurred to her that he was unmoved because ho could understand what the men were saying and was merely bored. At the moment the wheels of the flying machine had struck the ground the apparently interminable and, to Andrea, imeaningless chant had been started by the native chief, a wizened figure distinguished in dress from his companions only by the ebony-black ring of polished wax that lie wore like it halo of (arkness on his close. cropped and grizzled head. The white mnan threw ip his heaid ar.d clapped his hands once. The chief grunted; silence fell. Pe spat to one side and spoke deliberately. "Let us arise to greet the master." They came forward and stood In n long file. The chief took one step Ir advance, raised is right hand nni fastened his gize on the white m1an1' face. ills ivn seeied to he workint in a suddl~en excItement. "lBal-ye-te l' hle roared, and1( thlere followed, s< quickly tihat it seemledl but nnotiier syl lable of the salutation, a mlighlty grun fr'om tile depths of thirty chiests inl a mlom~enlt tihe whole scene under went a startlinig transformation. Th<. file broke and1( beenmel garrlouls. Chil OPE ONE NI( BY ALL O GOR( 10 Wonde dren stopped their 'play and ran to join In the rabble. . The men dropped their work and crowded into a com pact group from which camte suddenly a cry that startled Andrea and jerked her around to face it as though she had been yanked by a string. The cry was shrill, high, continuous, It was produced by rounding the open mouth and working the t6ngue laterally in a vibration as rapid as that of a serpent's. It was ghastly to watch, incredible in the rali)dity of the ululation, but once heard, unforget able. It lasted much longer than Andrea could have held her breath, lot alone used it, and ceased as suddenly as it had begun. "All very interesting," said Andrea turning to ier compniiion, "but why didn't they do it before?" Ie looked at her absently. "There Is i ceremionial," he' said, "i (igni1ty. about the African that is absurd t-111 you've known it for years." "For years?" repeated Andrea. "It Is this your home?" lie shook his head. "No, Africa this sort of thing-is never liolni to a white nina. It's a place whiere he goes to forget his Nins. I'v, iwei using it-whenever life has given me a chance-as a suil bat for the soul.'' Andrea stared at Min, a puzzled frown on her brow. She wondered why hIs )lun111tiess did not offnIldi her, woldered if it would ever fall to her lot to hear himi say a senseless thing or laugh aloud. Whlile she still won dered he turned from her anti begain alling out meaningless words: "Shil I ling! Five! Tin hat! Bathtub Overcoat !" At each annie, for names they were, a native stepped forward. They were all bright-faced youngsters, fourteen or fifteen years of age, and their garb, Inadle up of n ( clan cloth hound tightly around slimi hips : and falling to the knees, 11d a red fez with tassel in. tact, marked tlei as househoys trusted pickeninnies who alone had Ihe rithlit to enter the white man's quiaters and1(1:( wver collectively Ills rec ognized mouthpieces in conveying or ders. , "IHathltuh!" repented the white man. A youngster quickly saluted and stepiped (lit of the litle, grinning from car to ear at being distinguished even for a mnoiment above his fellows. With a jerk of his head toward An drea the white man began to talk rap idly. Bathtub's eyes rolled from his face to Andrea's and back agahi. They widened, they narrowed, and, each of the threa times the whito 'man said "Kiboco" with a peculiar emphasis, they noeried to wince. Andrea interrupted, "What does 'Kiboco' mean, please?" "It means a whip o -Taw rhino hide," said the man. "An implement that draws *blood with a whisper." Andrea went white; her eyes blazed. "So you whip your servants?" she said with curled lips. "I have whipped a boy once," an swered the man coolly. "They have never forgotten." He turned to her. "This boy, Bathtub, Is yours. If he ever falls you I shall thrash him with in an inch of his nine lives." He dis missed the boy with a nod. Batltub stepped before lils mis tress, saluted, grinned the broadest, most frieidly grin Andrea had ever seen, annd without waiting for the smiling answer of her eyes was off hike an arrowv. So taken up was Andrea with watch ing tihe white man as lie issued a rapid -fire of orders to his remininilg lieu tenanits that wihen Bathtub returned, ,saluted, and ledl her beneath the les ser of the acaela trees she couldl not - .ontimnumed on fifth page, t hIs section. ,RA HOUS LAURENS, S. 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