new type and order, possibly I was even
immortal.

As a man they had no fear of me. The revolver which I had slipped from
its holster and cocked had not impressed them. They knew nothing of its
death-dealing quality. That was a point in my favor. It would afford, if
need be, six miracles of mortality, but the jungle that had disgorged
them could disgorge hundreds of others like them--perhaps thousands.
Gods must carry themselves, when they walk among men, with a godlike
scorn of mundane dangers. I turned to the one man who was above the
others, exposing my back to the two spears, as though safe in my
consciousness of immunity. I extended one arm with a gesture intended to
epitomize great majesty. It was a pose borrowed from some old sculptor's
conception of the Olympian Zeus--albeit shamefully exaggerated.

It was an anxious moment. Should he, to whom I made my commanding plea,
lift his finger in signal, the spears from behind, poisoned spears
perhaps, would strike me down. But as I strode forward, with one hand
still pointing heavenward, I commanded him in a mighty voice to stand
aside.

He on his part eyed me dubiously, never shifting his attitude or raising
his club from the earth, but he permitted me to pass from the
amphitheatre unmolested. I went, deliberately, holding my gaze rigidly
to the front and using every ounce of self-control to curb the impulse
of my feet to run, and the impulse of my neck to crane. A vestige of
misgiving, a note of human anxiety, would have destroyed me.

My peril was superlative, and yet as I look back on the occasion, I can
see that it overdid comedy and became pure farce. I was defending my
life with burlesque. My audience would not be impressed by finesse, and
impressing it was a matter of life and death. In the words of the
east-side bruiser, I was "makin' it strong."

At all events my bearing, in a situation without precedent of etiquette,
found sufficient favor to cover my retreat and I went down to the sea
unfollowed. I had none the less seen enough to set me thinking and
thought brought little solace. Were I accepted on the basis of my own
divine assumption, and regarded as a being from another world, the story
would travel fast among their villages. Its wonder would be promulgated
and men would burn with curiosity to behold me. Among those who came as
pilgrims would be some demanding proofs and miracles. I was now
committed to a permanent policy of bluff. I had always bee