And when I turned from him, he struck me down. Here is the mark.”

The mark was horridly patent, and N’shimba’s father was troubled and sought his son.

“Why have you taken this woman?” he asked. “Presently her father will come and demand her price. And Sandi will come and give judgment against me. Let her go, for, even if you are married to her, what does it matter? Is there not a saying that ‘Women marry many times but have one husband’?”

“I am that man,” said N’shimba. “As to Sandi, I am the child of his spirit, as all people know, and I take what I need.”

That evening he beat his new wife, and her father, arriving in wrath to make the best of a bad bargain, was also beaten to his shame.

“Who is N’shimba?” asked Captain Hamilton curiously when the news came to headquarters, and Sanders, a thoughtful, troubled man, explained.

“It wouldn’t worry me at all, but the young devil has used the slogan of the old N’shimba, ‘I take what I need’ – and that is a very bad sign. One whisper of black eggs and I will take N’shimba and hang him.”

He sent a warning, and marked down N’shimba in his diary as one to be interviewed when he next went north. Then one day there came into existence the Blood Friends of Young Hearts.

In native territories, secret societies are born in a night, and with them their inspired ritual. From what brain they come, none knows. The manner of their dissolution is as mysterious. They come and they go; perform strange rites, initiate secret dances; men meet one another and say meaningless but thrilling words; there is a ferment and thrill in life – then of a sudden they are no more. Sometimes there is a little blood-letting, as when the N’gombi people held a society which was called The Mystery of the Five Straight Marks. Five cuts on the left cheek was the sign of the order. Sanders heard, saw, said nothing. On the whole, he thought the personal appearance of the N’gombi people was improved by the mutilations. But when, at a big palaver of the society, an Ochori girl was beheaded and her skin distributed to the members of the order, Sanders went quickly to the spot, hanged the leaders, flogged their headmen, and burnt the village that had been the scene of the ceremony. Thereafter the Five Marks vanished from existence.

“Ahmet says N’shimba is behind this new society,” he said, calling Hamilton into his airy little office. “I’m scared lest N’shimba discovers that the mantle of his disreputable namesake has descended upon him. If he does, there will be bad trouble. I think I’ll send Bones to the Isisi with a platoon of young men. The wholesome presence of authority may nip in the bud the activities of the Young Hearts.”

“Why ‘Young Hearts’?” asked Hamilton lazily.

“They are mostly young men, and the movement is spreading,” said Sanders. “Bosambo has reported that a branch of this interesting society has been formed in the heart of the Ochori city.”

“Send Bones,” suggested Hamilton promptly. “I know of no more depressing influence.”

“What is the matter with him!”

“If this were a civilised country, and the necessary opportunities existed, I should say that Bones was in love,” said Hamilton. “As it is, I think he’s sickening for something.”

“It can’t be measles,” said Sanders. “He’s had them twice.”

Hamilton sniffed. “Bones is the sort of fellow who would have measles three times and never turn a hair. But it isn’t measles. And it isn’t liver. I had him in yesterday morning and insisted on his swallowing three pills.