himself, and they crawled in again--man and wife--and were seen no more,
until they reappeared many years later. Well--that true story has given
me the idea of a plot, which will, I verily believe, take the world by
storm! So original and thrilling! Far beyond any missionary
love-stories."

Helen's calm eyes looked into the excited shining of his.

"Dear, why shouldn't a missionary's love-story be as exciting as any
other? I don't quite see how you can better the strangely enthralling
tale to which we listened."

"Ah, don't you?" cried Ronald West. "That's because you are not a writer
of romances! My dear girl, _two_ men crawled out of the long grass
thirteen feet high, at the place where the woman was waiting! Two
men--do you see? And the man who crawled out first was _not_ the man who
had sent for her! _He_ turned up just too late. Now, do you see?"

"I see," said Helen. "Thirteen is always apt to be an unlucky number."

"Oh, don't joke!" cried Ronald. "I haven't time to tell you, now, how it
all works out. But it's quite the strongest thing I've thought of yet.
And do you see what it means to me? Think of the weird, mysterious
atmosphere of Central Africa, as a setting for a really strong
love-interest. Imagine three quite modern, present-day people, learning
to know their own hearts and each other's, fighting out the crisis of
their lives according to the accepted rules and standards of twentieth
century civilisation--yet all amongst the wild primitive savagery of
uncivilised tribes, and the extraordinary primeval growths of the
unexplored jungles, where plants ape animals, and animals ape men, and