The People of the River

A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook Title: The People of the River
Author: Edgar Wallace eBook No.: 0501111.txt Edition: 1 Language:
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Title: The People of the River Author: Edgar Wallace

To SIR SAMUEL SCOTT, BART, M.P.

1. A CERTAIN GAME
SANDERS had been away on a holiday.
The Commissioner, whose work lay for the main part in wandering
through a malarial country in some discomfort and danger, spent his
holiday in travelling through another malarial country in as great
discomfort and at no less risk. The only perceptible difference, so far as

could be seen, between his work and his holiday was that instead of
considering his own worries he had to listen to the troubles of
somebody else.
Mr. Commissioner Sanders derived no small amount of satisfaction
from such a vacation, which is a sure sign that he was most human.
His holiday was a long one, for he went by way of St. Paul de Loanda
overland to the Congo, shot an elephant or two in the French Congo,
went by mission steamer to the Sangar River and made his way back to
Stanley Pool.
At Matadi he found letters from his relief, a mild youth who had come
from headquarters to take his place as a temporary measure, and was
quite satisfied in his inside mind that he was eminently qualified to
occupy the seat of the Commissioner.
The letter was a little discursive, but Sanders read it as eagerly as a girl
reads her first love letter. For he was reading about a land which was
very dear to him.
"Umfebi, the headman of Kulanga, has given me a little trouble. He
wants sitting on badly, and if I had control . . ." Sanders grinned
unpleasantly and said something about "impertinent swine," but did he
not refer to the erring Umfeb? "I find M'laka, the chief of the Little
River, a very pleasant man to deal with: he was most attentive to me
when I visited his village and trotted out all his dancing girls for my
amusement." Sanders made a little grimace. He knew M'laka for a
rascal and wondered. "A chief who has been most civil and courteous is
Bosambo of the Ochori. I know this will interest you because Bosambo
tells me that he is a special protege of yours. He tells me how you had
paid for his education as a child and had gone to a lot of trouble to
teach him the English language. I did not know of this."
Sanders did not know of it either, and swore an oath to the brazen sky
to take this same Bosambo, thief by nature, convict by the wise
provision of the Liberian Government, and chief of the Ochori by sheer
effrontery, and kick him from one end of the city to the other.

"He is certainly the most civilised of your men," the letter went on. "He
has been most attentive to the astronomical mission which came out in
your absence to observe the eclipse of the moon. They speak very
highly of his attention and he has been most active in his attempt to
recover some of their property which was either lost or stolen on their
way down the river."
Sanders smiled, for he himself had lost property in Bosambo's territory.
"I think I will go home," said Sanders.
Home he went by the nearest and the quickest way and came to
headquarters early one morning, to the annoyance of his relief, who had
planned a great and fairly useless palaver to which all the chiefs of all
the land had been invited.
"For," he explained to Sanders in a grieved tone, "it seems to me that
the only way to ensure peace is to get at the minds of these people, and
the only method by which one can get at their minds is to bring them
all together."
Sanders stretched his legs contemptuously and sniffed. They sat at chop
on the broad stoep before the Commissioner's house, and