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"
Where did you get the Englishman?" asked Usanga, the black sergeant, of the
chief Numabo. "Are there many more with him?"
"
He came down from the sky," replied the native chief "in a strange thing which
flies like a bird and which frightened us very much at first; but we watched for a
long time and saw that it did not seem to be alive, and when this white man left it
we attacked him and though he killed some of my warriors, we took him, for we
Wamabos are brave men and great warriors."
Usanga's eyes went wide. "He flew here through the sky?" he asked.
"Yes," said Numabo. "In a great thing which resembled a bird he flew down out of
the sky. The thing is still there where it came down close to the four trees near
the second bend in the river. We left it there because, not knowing what it was,
we were afraid to touch it and it is still there if it has not flown away again."
"It cannot fly," said Usanga, "without this man in it. It is a terrible thing which
filled the hearts of our soldiers with terror, for it flew over our camps at night and
dropped bombs upon us. It is well that you captured this white man, Numabo, for
with his great bird he would have flown over your village tonight and killed all
your people. These Englishman are very wicked white men."
"
He will fly no more," said Numabo "It is not intended that a man should fly
through the air; only wicked demons do such things as that and Numabo, the
chief, will see that this white man does not do it again," and with the words he
pushed the young officer roughly toward a hut in the center of the village, where
he was left under guard of two stalwart warriors.
For an hour or more the prisoner was left to his own devices, which consisted in
vain and unremitting attempts to loosen the strands which fettered his wrists,
and then he was interrupted by the appearance of the black sergeant Usanga,
who entered his hut and approached him.
"
What are they going to do with me?" asked the Englishman. "My country is not
at war with these people. You speak their language. Tell them that I am not an
enemy, that my people are the friends of the black people and that they must let
me go in peace."
Usanga laughed. "They do not know an Englishman from a German," he replied.
"It is nothing to them what you are, except that you are a white man and an
enemy."
"
Then why did they take me alive?" asked the lieutenant.
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