rchase, fine
clothes and food and women, all the women he wants. Tell him this
and tell him that if he will spare you I give him my word that I
will fetch it all to him."

The girl shook her head. "It is useless," she said. "He would not
understand and if he did understand, he would not trust you. The
blacks are so unprincipled themselves that they can imagine no
such thing as principle or honor in others, and especially do these
blacks distrust an Englishman whom the Germans have taught them to
believe are the most treacherous and degraded of people. No, it is
better thus. I am sorry that you cannot go with us, for if he goes
high enough my death will be much easier than that which probably
awaits you."

Usanga had been continually interrupting their brief conversation
in an attempt to compel the girl to translate it to him, for he
feared that they were concocting some plan to thwart him, and to
quiet and appease him, she told him that the Englishman was merely
bidding her farewell and wishing her good luck. Suddenly she turned
to the black. "Will you do something for me?" she asked. "If I go
willingly with you?"

"What is it you want?" he inquired.

"Tell your men to free the white man after we are gone. He can
never catch us. That is all I ask of you. If you will grant him
his freedom and his life, I will go willingly with you.

"You will go with me anyway," growled Usanga. "It is nothing to
me whether you go willingly or not. I am going to be a great king
and you will do whatever I tell you to do."

He had in mind that he would start properly with this woman. There
should be no repetition of his harrowing experience with Naratu.
This wife and the twenty-four others should be carefully selected
and well trained. Hereafter Usanga would be master in his own house.

Bertha Kircher saw that it was useless to appeal to the brute
and so she held her peace though she was filled with sorrow in
contemplating the fate that awaited the young officer, scarce more
than a boy, who had impulsively revealed his love for her.

At Usanga's order one of the blacks lifted her from the ground and
carried her to the machine, and after Usanga had clambered aboard,
they lifted her up and he reached down and drew her into the fuselage
where he removed the thongs from her wrists and strapped her into
her seat and then took his own directly ahead of her.

The girl turned her eyes toward the Englishman. She was very pale
but her l