CHAPTER VII

THE DIARY

Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan
studied this route map with care, and found that it started from Old
Calabar, in the Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence it
ran up to the Great Qua River, which it followed for a long way. Then it
struck across country marked "dense forest," northwards, and came to a
river called Katsena, along the banks of which the route went eastwards.
Thence it turned northward again through swamps, and ended in mountains
called Shaku. In the middle of these mountains was written "Asiki People
live here on Raaba River."

The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer
accustomed to such things, easily calculated that the distance of this
Raaba River from Old Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies,
though probably the actual route to be travelled was nearer five hundred
miles.

Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning page
after page, only here and there could he make out a sentence, such as
"so I defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian minister,
the husband of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought. Sooner would I
be sacrificed to Bonsa."

Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be
read--"They gave me 'The Bean' in a gold cup, and knowing its deadly
nature I prepared myself for death. But happily for me my stomach,