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So utterly inexplicable and uncanny had the entire occurrence been that there

was not a one of them who could find a ray of comfort penetrating the dead

blackness of its ominous portent. What had happened to one of their number

each conceived as being a wholly possible fate for himself--in fact quite his

probable fate. If such a thing could happen in broad daylight what frightful thing

might not fall to their lot when night had enshrouded them in her mantle of

darkness. They trembled in anticipation.

The white girl in their midst was no less mystified than they; but far less moved,

since sudden death was the most merciful fate to which she might now look

forward. So far she had been subjected to nothing worse than the petty cruelties

of the women, while, on the other hand, it had alone been the presence of the

women that had saved her from worse treatment at the hands of some of the

men--notably the brutal, black sergeant, Usanga. His own woman was of the

party--a veritable giantess, a virago of the first magnitude--and she was evidently

the only thing in the world of which Usanga stood in awe. Even though she was

particularly cruel to the young woman, the latter believed that she was her sole

protection from the degraded black tyrant.

Late in the afternoon the band came upon a small palisaded village of thatched

huts set in a clearing in the jungle close beside a placid river. At their approach

the villagers came pouring out, and Usanga advanced with two of his warriors to

palaver with the chief. The experiences of the day had so shaken the nerves of the

black sergeant that he was ready to treat with these people rather than take their

village by force of arms, as would ordinarily have been his preference; but now a

vague conviction influenced him that there watched over this part of the jungle a

powerful demon who wielded miraculous power for evil against those who

offended him. First Usanga would learn how these villagers stood with this savage

god and if they had his good will Usanga would be most careful to treat them with

kindness and respect.

At the palaver it developed that the village chief had food, goats, and fowl which

he would be glad to dispose of for a proper consideration; but as the

consideration would have meant parting with precious rifles and ammunition, or

the very clothing from their backs, Usanga began to see that after all it might be

forced upon him to wage war to obtain food.

A happy solution was arrived at by a suggestion of one of his men--that the

soldiers go forth the following day and hunt for the villagers, bringing them in so

much fresh meat in return for their hospitality. This the chief agreed to,

stipulating the kind and quantity of game to be paid in return for flour, goats,

and fowl, and a certain number of huts that were to be turned over to the visitors.

The details having been settled after an hour or more of that bickering argument

Tarzan the Untamed