“Well, Allan, I performed that operation, removing the finger at the base where it joins the hand, as I thought there might be something in his story of the poison.  Indeed, as I found afterwards on dissection, and can show you, for I have the thing in spirits, there was, for the blackness of which he spoke, a kind of mortification, I presume, had crept almost to the joint, though the flesh beyond was healthy enough.  Certainly that Kalubi was a plucky fellow.  He sat like a rock and never even winced.  Indeed, when he saw that the flesh was sound he uttered a great sigh of relief.  After it was all over he turned a little faint, so I gave him some spirits of wine mixed with water which revived him.

“‘O Lord Dogeetah,’ he said, as I was bandaging his hand, ’while I live I am your slave.  Yet, do me one more service.  In my land there is a terrible wild beast, that which bit off my finger.  It is a devil; it kills us and we fear it.  I have heard that you white men have magic weapons which slay with a noise.  Come to my land and kill me that wild beast with your magic weapon.  I say, Come, Come, for I am terribly afraid,’ and indeed he looked it.

“‘No,’ I answered, ’I shed no blood; I kill nothing except butterflies, and of these only a few.  But if you fear this brute why do you not poison it?  You black people have many drugs.’

“‘No use, no use,’ he replied in a kind of wail.  ’The beast knows poisons, some it swallows and they do not harm it.  Others it will not touch.  Moreover, no black man can do it hurt.  It is white, and it has been known from of old that if it dies at all, it must be by the hand of one who is white.’

“‘A very strange animal,’ I began, suspiciously, for I felt sure that he was lying to me.  But just at that moment I heard the sound of my men’s voices.  They were advancing towards me through the giant grass, singing as they came, but as yet a long way off.  The Kalubi heard it also and sprang up.

“‘I must be gone,’ he said.  ’None must see me here.  What fee, O Lord of medicine, what fee?’

“‘I take no payment for my medicine,’ I said.  ’Yet—­stay.  A wonderful flower grows in your country, does it not?  A flower with wings and a cup beneath.  I would have that flower.’

“‘Who told you of the Flower?’ he asked.  ’The Flower is holy.  Still, O White Lord, still for you it shall be risked.  Oh, return and bring with you one who can kill the beast and I will make you rich.  Return and call to the reeds for the Kalubi, and the Kalubi will hear and come to you.’

“Then he ran to his spear, snatched it from the ground and vanished among the reeds.  That was the last I saw, or am ever likely to see, of him.”

“But, Brother John, you got the flower somehow.”

“Yes, Allan.  About a week later when I came out of my tent one morning, there it was standing in a narrow-mouthed, earthenware pot filled with water.  Of course I meant that he was to send me the plant, roots and all, but I suppose he understood that I wanted a bloom.  Or perhaps he dared not send the plant.  Anyhow, it is better than nothing.”