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have known that I should never live to regain civilization. I have done my bit for

my country, and though it was not much I can at least go with the realization

that it was the best I was able to offer. All that I can hope for now, all that I ask

for, is a speedy fulfillment of the death sentence. I do not wish to linger any more

to face constant terror and apprehension. Even physical torture would be

preferable to what I have passed through. I have no doubt that you consider me a

brave woman, but really my terror has been boundless. The cries of the

carnivores at night fill me with a dread so tangible that I am in actual pain. I feel

the rending talons in my flesh and the cruel fangs munching upon my bones--it

is as real to me as though I were actually enduring the horrors of such a death. I

doubt if you can understand it--men are so different."

"Yes," he said, "I think I can understand it, and because I understand I can

appreciate more than you imagine the heroism you have shown in your

endurance of all that you have passed through. There can be no bravery where

there is no fear. A child might walk into a lion's den, but it would take a very

brave man to go to its rescue."

"Thank you," she said, "but I am not brave at all, and now I am very much

ashamed of my thoughtlessness for your own feelings. I will try and take a new

grip upon myself and we will both hope for the best. I will help you all I can if you

will tell me what I may do."

The first thing," he replied, "is to find out just how serious our damage is, and

then to see what we can do in the way of repairs."

For two days Smith-Oldwick worked upon the damaged plane--worked in the face

of the fact that from the first he realized the case was hopeless. And at last he

told her.

I knew it," she said, "but I believe that I felt much as you must have; that

however futile our efforts here might be, it would be infinitely as fatal to attempt

to retrace our way to the jungle we just left or to go on toward the coast. You

know and I know that we could not reach the Tanga railway on foot. We should

die of thirst and starvation before we had covered half the distance, and if we

return to the jungle, even were we able to reach it, it would be but to court an

equally certain, though different, fate."

"So we might as well sit here and wait for death as to uselessly waste our energies

in what we know would be a futile attempt at escape?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "I shall never give up like that. What I meant was that it was

useless to attempt to reach either of the places where we know that there is food

and water in abundance, so we must strike out in a new direction. Somewhere

148

Tarzan the Untamed