shed
simultaneously toward the white girl.

Everything about the occurrence, which in itself seemed trivial enough,
aroused in the mind of the Englishman a well-defined apprehension
that something was afoot that boded ill for him and for the girl.
He could not free himself of the idea and so he kept a still closer
watch over the black although, as he was forced to admit to himself,
he was quite powerless to avert any fate that lay in store for
them. Even the spear that he had had when captured had been taken
away from him, so that now he was unarmed and absolutely at the
mercy of the black sergeant and his followers.

Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick did not have long to wait
before discovering something of Usanga's plan, for almost immediately
after the sergeant finished giving his instructions, a number of
warriors approached the Englishman, while three went directly to
the girl.

Without a word of explanation the warriors seized the young officer
and threw him to the ground upon his face. For a moment he struggled
to free himself and succeeded in landing a few heavy blows among
his assailants, but he was too greatly outnumbered to hope to more
than delay them in the accomplishment of their object which he
soon discovered was to bind him securely hand and foot. When they
had finally secured him to their satisfaction, they rolled him
over on his side and then it was he saw Bertha Kircher had been
similarly trussed.

Smith-Oldwick lay in such a position that he could see nearly the
entire expanse of meadow and the aeroplane a short distance away.
Usanga was talking to the girl who was shaking her head in vehement
negatives.

"What is he saying?" called the Englishman.

"He is going to take me away in the plane," the girl called back.
"He is going to take me farther inland to another country where
he says that he will be king and I am to be one of his wives," and
then to the Englishman's surprise she turned a smiling face toward
him, "but there is no danger," she continued, "for we shall both
be dead within a few minutes--just give him time enough to get
the machine under way, and if he can rise a hundred feet from the
ground I shall never need fear him more."

"God!" cried the man. "Is there no way that you can dissuade him?
Promise him anything. Anything that you want. I have money, more
money than that poor fool could imagine there was in the whole
world. With it he can buy anything that money will pu