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.

"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