. . stopped a
German bullet in the first week out.
"Now, how the devil, Bramwell, do you suppose that water color
got into a native medicine house?"
The reflective voice replied slowly.
"I've thought about the thing, Sir Godfrey. It must have been
the work of the Holland explorer, Maartin. He was all about in
Africa, and he died in there somewhere, at least he never came
out . . . that was ten years ago. I've looked him up, and I find
that he could do a water color - in fact there's a collection of
his water colors in, the Dutch museum. They're very fine work,
like this one; exquisite, I'd say. The fellow was born an
artist.
"How it got into the hands of a native devil doctor is not
difficult to imagine. The sleeping sickness may have wiped
Maartin out, or the natives may have rushed his camp some
morning, or he may have been mauled by a beast. Any article of a
white man is medicine stuff you know. When you first showed me
the thing I was puzzled. I knew what it was because I had read
Le Petit's pretension . . . I can't call it a pretension now; the
things are there whether he saw them or not.
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