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A few nights after Bones' departure, Makara squatted by the fire of his hut, relating to certain close friends, counsellors and male sycophants, the details of a summary administration of justice. For he had taken T'lini his wife and had beaten her till he was tired, and she had run away into the forest to join a party of wives in their search for a peculiarly succulent monkey that was very satisfying to Makara's epicurean taste.

"She cried 'Wow!' and put her hands up," said Makara with relish. "Then she made a great noise and put her arms so..."

He stopped, peering up the village street towards the wood, where a small column had emerged from the trees—a column that must be made up of hunting parties that were not due for days, and should have been scattered, through the hundred and fifty square miles of game preserves. They marched steadily, carrying neither monkeys nor skins, and there was something very peculiar about their solidarity. Ominous, too, for the red of the setting sun turned their spear-heads to the colour of blood.

"O woman," said Makara, in a passion, as T'lini approached him, "I will whip you—"

A spear-head dropped to his throat and pricked him sorely. He collapsed in a panic and was incapable of resistance, as two strong women bound him foot and hand. They laid the forty-seven males of Kobala'ba, fan fashion, about the palaver house, and T'lini, the chief's wife, spoke.

"Tibbetti, the son of Sandi, told us this tale," she said, looking down at the horrified face of her husband, who was the victim nearest to her. "Cala cala all the bee women worked and gathered their magic from flowers, and the bee men sat at home in their huts and ate all that was brought to them, and did no work and killed their wives. And then all the bee women held a palaver and they said: 'From this day we will kill the bee men at the end of every season, and in the next season we will get new men and kill them also when we are done with them.' And Tibbetti said that because of this great magic all the bee people are happy, so that you hear them singing as they go about their work. Tibbetti told us this, and he is wise, for he has three eyes and sees more than we."

She walked to the side of her husband and looked down at him, her spear poised.

"Now I think we shall be happy," she said, and struck as he had taught her...

So slowly did news travel in that backwater of life that it was nearly a month before Sanders heard of the happening. It was brought by a lithe woman warrior who carried her spears with an air.

Sanders listened, and, seasoned as he was to strange happenings in this strangest of lands, the simple recital took his breath away.

"And now there are no men in obala'ba," concluded the messenger, "but next season we will go to the river villages and take such as we wish. But, Sandi, we wish for a ruler, and because we know you are kind to your people we have had a great palaver, and this is agreed, that we ask you, Sandi, to send us your son Tibbetti, that he may be our Queen Bee according to his magical words."

"Deuced awkward," said Bones dismally, as he pulled at his long nose.