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Dressed as she was in riding breeches with no entangling skirts to hinder or
catch upon passing shrubbery, she soon found that she could cling tightly to the
back of the mighty bull and when a moment later he took to the lower branches
of the trees, she closed her eyes and clung to him in terror lest she be
precipitated to the ground below.
That journey through the primeval forest with the nine great apes will live in the
memory of Bertha Kircher for the balance of her life, as clearly delineated as at
the moment of its enactment.
The first overwhelming wave of fear having passed, she was at last able to open
her eyes and view her surroundings with increased interest and presently the
sensation of terror slowly left her to be replaced by one of comparative security
when she saw the ease and surety with which these great beasts traveled through
the trees; and later her admiration for the young bull increased as it became
evident that even burdened with her additional weight, he moved more rapidly
and with no greater signs of fatigue than his unburdened fellows.
Not once did Zu-tag pause until he came to a stop among the branches of a tree
no great distance from the native village. They could hear the noises of the life
within the palisade, the laughing and shouting of the Negroes, and the barking of
dogs, and through the foliage the girl caught glimpses of the village from which
she had so recently escaped. She shuddered to think of the possibility of having
to return to it and of possible recapture, and she wondered why Zu-tag had
brought her here.
Now the apes advanced slowly once more and with great caution, moving as
noiselessly through the trees as the squirrels themselves until they had reached a
point where they could easily overlook the palisade and the village street below.
Zu-tag squatted upon a great branch close to the bole of the tree and by
loosening the girl's arms from about his neck, indicated that she was to find a
footing for herself and when she had done so, he turned toward her and pointed
repeatedly at the open doorway of a hut upon the opposite side of the street below
them. By various gestures he seemed to be trying to explain something to her and
at last she caught at the germ of his idea--that her white man was a prisoner
there.
Beneath them was the roof of a hut onto which she saw that she could easily
drop, but what she could do after she had entered the village was beyond her.
Darkness was already falling and the fires beneath the cooking pots had been
lighted. The girl saw the stake in the village street and the piles of fagots about it
and in terror she suddenly realized the portent of these grisly preparations. Oh, if
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