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For two or three minutes they circled about him until, at a word from Numabo,

they closed in simultaneously, and though the slender young lieutenant struck

out to right and left, he was soon overwhelmed by superior numbers and beaten

down by the hafts of spears in brawny hands.

He was all but unconscious when they finally dragged him to his feet, and after

securing his hands behind his back, pushed him roughly along ahead of them

toward the jungle.

As the guard prodded him along the narrow trail, Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick

could not but wonder why they had wished to take him alive. He knew that he

was too far inland for his uniform to have any significance to this native tribe to

whom no inkling of the World War probably ever had come, and he could only

assume that he had fallen into the hands of the warriors of some savage

potentate upon whose royal caprice his fate would hinge.

They had marched for perhaps half an hour when the Englishman saw ahead of

them, in a little clearing upon the bank of the river, the thatched roofs of native

huts showing above a crude but strong palisade; and presently he was ushered

into a village street where he was immediately surrounded by a throng of women

and children and warriors. Here he was soon the center of an excited mob whose

intent seemed to be to dispatch him as quickly as possible. The women were more

venomous than the men, striking and scratching him whenever they could reach

him, until at last Numabo, the chief, was obliged to interfere to save his prisoner

for whatever purpose he was destined.

As the warriors pushed the crowd back, opening a space through which the white

man was led toward a hut, Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick saw coming from the

opposite end of the village a number of Negroes wearing odds and ends of German

uniforms. He was not a little surprised at this, and his first thought was that he

had at last come in contact with some portion of the army which was rumored to

be crossing from the west coast and for signs of which he had been searching.

A rueful smile touched his lips as he contemplated the unhappy circumstances

which surrounded the accession of this knowledge for though he was far from

being without hope, he realized that only by the merest chance could he escape

these people and regain his machine.

Among the partially uniformed blacks was a huge fellow in the tunic of a sergeant

and as this man's eyes fell upon the British officer, a loud cry of exultation broke

from his lips, and immediately his followers took up the cry and pressed forward

to bait the prisoner.

Tarzan the Untamed