The Master Key


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Rob was quickly surrounded by a crowd of the villagers, who chattered  
fiercely and made threatening motions in his direction; but as the chief  
cried out to them a warning in the native tongue they kept a respectful  
distance and contented themselves with brandishing their spears and  
clubs.  
"
If any of your fellows come nearer," Rob said to the fat chief, "I'll knock  
'em over."  
"
What you make do?" asked the chief, nervously.  
"
Watch sharp, and you'll see," answered Rob. Then he made a mocking  
bow to the circle and continued: "I'm pleased to have met you fellows,  
and proud to think you like me well enough to want to eat me; but I'm in  
a bit of a hurry to-day, so I can't stop to be digested." After which, as the  
crowd broke into a hum of surprise, he added: "Good-day, black folks!"  
and quickly turned the indicator of his traveling machine to the word  
"
up."  
Slowly he rose into the air, until his heels were just above the gaping  
blacks; but there he stopped short. With a thrill of fear he glanced at the  
indicator. It was pointed properly, and he knew at once that something  
was wrong with the delicate mechanism that controlled it. Probably the  
pressure of the rope across its face, when he was bound, had put it out  
of order. There he was, seven feet in the air, but without the power to  
rise an inch farther.  
This short flight, however, had greatly astonished the blacks, who, seeing  
his body suspended in mid-air, immediately hailed him as a god, and  
prostrated themselves upon the ground before him.  
The fat chief had seen something of white men in his youth, and had  
learned to mistrust them. So, while he remained as prostrate as the rest,  
he peeped at Rob with one of his little black eyes and saw that the boy  
was ill at ease, and seemed both annoyed and frightened.  
So he muttered some orders to the man next him, who wriggled along the  
ground until he had reached a position behind Rob, when he rose and  
pricked the suspended "god" with the point of his spear.  
"
Ouch!" yelled the boy; "stop that!"  
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Page
25 26 27 28 29

Quick Jump
1 27 54 81 108