| 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
| 1 | 61 | 121 | 182 | 242 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
of which the native African is so fond, the newcomers entered the village where
they were assigned to huts.
Bertha Kircher found herself alone in a small hut to the palisade at the far end of
the village street, and though she was neither bound nor guarded, she was
assured by Usanga that she could not escape the village without running into
almost certain death in the jungle, which the villagers assured them was infested
by lions of great size and ferocity. "Be good to Usanga," he concluded, "and no
harm will befall you. I will come again to see you after the others are asleep. Let
us be friends."
As the brute left her the girl's frame was racked by a convulsive shudder as she
sank to the floor of the hut and covered her face with her hands. She realized now
why the women had not been left to guard her. It was the work of the cunning
Usanga, but would not his woman suspect something of his intentions? She was
no fool and, further, being imbued with insane jealousy she was ever looking for
some overt act upon the part of her ebon lord. Bertha Kircher felt that only she
might save her and that she would save her if word could be but gotten to her.
But how?
Left alone and away from the eyes of her captors for the first time since the
previous night, the girl immediately took advantage of the opportunity to assure
herself that the papers she had taken from the body of Hauptmann Fritz
Schneider were still safely sewn inside one of her undergarments.
Alas! Of what value could they now ever be to her beloved country? But habit and
loyalty were so strong within her that she still clung to the determined hope of
eventually delivering the little packet to her chief.
The natives seemed to have forgotten her existence--no one came near the hut,
not even to bring her food. She could hear them at the other end of the village
laughing and yelling and knew that they were celebrating with food and native
beer--knowledge which only increased her apprehension. To be prisoner in a
native village in the very heart of an unexplored region of Central Africa--the only
white woman among a band of drunken Negroes! The very thought appalled her.
Yet there was a slight promise in the fact that she had so far been unmolested--
the promise that they might, indeed, have forgotten her and that soon they might
become so hopelessly drunk as to be harmless.
Darkness had fallen and still no one came. The girl wondered if she dared venture
forth in search of Naratu, Usanga's woman, for Usanga might not forget that he
had promised to return. No one was near as she stepped out of the hut and made
her way toward the part of the village where the revelers were making merry
7
9
Page
Quick Jump
|