of the bole.

It was then that many wished to turn back, arguing that they
had offended some demon of the wood upon whose preserve they had
trespassed; but Usanga refused to listen to them, assuring them
that inevitable torture and death awaited them should they return
and fall again into the hands of their cruel German masters. At
last his reasoning prevailed to the end that a much-subdued and
terrified band moved in a compact mass, like a drove of sheep,
forward through the valley and there were no stragglers.

It is a happy characteristic of the Negro race, which they hold
in common with little children, that their spirits seldom remain
depressed for a considerable length of time after the immediate
cause of depression is removed, and so it was that in half an hour
Usanga's band was again beginning to take on to some extent its
former appearance of carefree lightheartedness. Thus were the heavy
clouds of fear slowly dissipating when a turn in the trail brought
them suddenly upon the headless body of their erstwhile companion
lying directly in their path, and they were again plunged into the
depth of fear and gloomy forebodings.

So utterly inexplicable and uncanny had the entire occurrence been
that there was not a one of them who could find a ray of comfort
penetrating the dead blackness of its ominous portent. What had
happened to one of their number each conceived as being a wholly
possible fate for himself--in fact quite his probable fate. If such
a thing could happen in broad daylight what frightful thing might
not fall to their lot when night had enshrouded them in her mantle
of darkness. They trembled in anticipation.

The white girl in their midst was no less mystified than they; but
far less moved, since sudden death was the most merciful fate to
which she might now look forward. So far she had been subjected
to nothing worse than the petty cruelties of the women, while, on
the other hand, it had alone been the presence of the women that
had saved her from worse treatment at the hands of some of the
men--notably the brutal, black sergeant, Usanga. His own woman
was of the party--a veritable giantess, a virago of the first
magnitude--and she was evidently the only thing in the world of
which Usanga stood in awe. Even though she was particularly cruel
to the young woman, the latter believed that she was her sole
protection from the degraded black tyrant.

Late in the afternoon the band came upon a small