a plantain sucker stuck in the ground, and, lying about, a cocoanut
shell, palm leaves, and nuts. The fierce warriors who had been
challenging each other and every one they came across to fight to the
death, were paralysed at the sight of the rubbish, and turning with a
yell of terror rushed back the way they had come. Mary sought forcibly
to restrain them, but, frantic with fright, they eluded her grasp, and
ran shrieking towards the last town they had passed to wreak vengeance
on the sorcerers. She ran with them, praying for swiftness and
strength: she passed them one by one, and breathlessly threw herself
into the middle of the path, and dared them to advance. She felt she
was almost as mad as they were, but she relied on a Power Who had never
failed her, and He did not fail her now. Her audacity awed them: they
stopped, protested, argued, and gradually their hot anger, resentment,
and fear died down, and eventually they retraced their steps. She took
up the "medicine" they dreaded, and pitched it into the bush,
ironically invoking the sorcery to pass into her body if it wanted a
victim. But nobody could persuade them to proceed that way, and they
made a long detour.

Unfortunately drink was smuggled to the band, and fighting began. She
induced the more sober to assist her to tie a few of the desperadoes to
trees. Leaving these, the company went on dancing, brandishing arms,
embracing each other, and committing such folly that she felt that she
could bear it no longer. As the swift twilight fell she called her few
followers and returned, releasing on the way the delinquents bound to
the trees, but sending them homewards with their hands fastened behind
their backs. On passing the scene of the sorcery she picked up the
plantain sucker, laughingly remarking that she would plant it in her
yard, and give the witchcraft it possessed an opportunity of proving
its powers.