260 JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS

great lustrous romantic eyes never left me. He said,
because his mind was full of love and friendship,
dancing and the moon, "You've come from Buzie
country. They have wonderful medicines there.
There is a medicine for venereal disease. You tie a
rope round your waist. I have never tried it." He
said wistfully, "I guess you white people aren't
troubled with venereal disease." He brooded a long
time on our departure. He wished he was coming
too, but he would always be my friend. He would
have letters from me. That night when I was making
my way out of the compound into the forest: he inter-
cepted me. He said he hoped I wouldn't mind his
stopping me, but there was a very good closet behind
the Colonel's bungalow with a wooden seat. It was
more suitable for me than .the bush, he said, but I
couldn't help remembering that he had not yet tried
the Buzie medicine and I went inexorably on into the
forest. He got up very early next morning to see us
go, and the last I remember of Tapee was his warm
damp romantic handshake in the grey deserted
compound.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE LAST LAP
A Touch of Fever

I HAD never imagined that Grand Bassa would one
day become my ideal of a place to sleep and rest in*
now it seemed like heaven. There would be