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that presently entirely surrounded the tree into which their comrade had

vanished.

Usanga called but received no reply; then he advanced slowly with rifle at the

ready, peering up into the tree. He could see no one--nothing. The circle closed in

until fifty blacks were searching among the branches with their keen eyes. What

had become of their fellow? They had seen him rise into the tree and since then

many eyes had been fastened upon the spot, yet there was no sign of him. One,

more venturesome than his fellows, volunteered to climb into the tree and

investigate. He was gone but a minute or two and when he dropped to earth again

he swore that there was no sign of a creature there.

Perplexed, and by this time a bit awed, the blacks drew slowly away from the spot

and with many backward glances and less laughing continued upon their journey

until, when about a mile beyond the spot at which their fellow had disappeared,

those in the lead saw him peering from behind a tree at one side of the trail just

in front of them. With shouts to their companions that he had been found they

ran forwards; but those who were first to reach the tree stopped suddenly and

shrank back, their eyes rolling fearfully first in one direction and then in another

as though they expected some nameless horror to leap out upon them.

Nor was their terror without foundation. Impaled upon the end of a broken

branch the head of their companion was propped behind the tree so that it

appeared to be looking out at them from the opposite side of the bole.

It was then that many wished to turn back, arguing that they had offended some

demon of the wood upon whose preserve they had trespassed; but Usanga

refused to listen to them, assuring them that inevitable torture and death awaited

them should they return and fall again into the hands of their cruel German

masters. At last his reasoning prevailed to the end that a much-subdued and

terrified band moved in a compact mass, like a drove of sheep, forward through

the valley and there were no stragglers.

It is a happy characteristic of the Negro race, which they hold in common with

little children, that their spirits seldom remain depressed for a considerable

length of time after the immediate cause of depression is removed, and so it was

that in half an hour Usanga's band was again beginning to take on to some

extent its former appearance of carefree lightheartedness. Thus were the heavy

clouds of fear slowly dissipating when a turn in the trail brought them suddenly

upon the headless body of their erstwhile companion lying directly in their path,

and they were again plunged into the depth of fear and gloomy forebodings.

Tarzan the Untamed