DEVILISH FEATS – Page Two

By Philip Shreffler

“Finally, he drifted off into the bush, appearing infrequently to natives as a disheveled wreck, wild-eyed and wild-haired and very appropriately reciting poetry written by Walt Whitman. It is said that when he sang the body electric, African natives who got too close were electrocuted, thus giving rise, among these savages, to his near apotheosis. Indeed, his acolytes referred to him as The Wild Manic One Who Makes Sparks and Fries Things Willy-Nilly. The African translation of the English given here is far briefer but more difficult to pronounce. However, it was rendered by a Chinese Christian living in the region as “One Hot Bugger.”

“Sterndale’s only surviving literary works are The Heart of Black­ness, whose title never really caught on, and the four volume Four Years in the Jungle, which comprises only oblong blocks of wood painted to resemble books.”

(Philip Shreffler was Editor of "The Baker Street Journal" from 1985 to 1992 and the author of the Baker Street Irregulars mystery series, including "The War of the Worlds Mystery" and "The Twentieth Century Limited Mystery," both from Wessex Press.)

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