The details having been settled after an hour or more
of that bickering argument of which the native African is so fond,
the newcomers entered the village where they were assigned to huts.
Bertha Kircher found herself alone in a small hut to the palisade
at the far end of the village street, and though she was neither
bound nor guarded, she was assured by Usanga that she could not
escape the village without running into almost certain death in the
jungle, which the villagers assured them was infested by lions of
great size and ferocity. "Be good to Usanga," he concluded, "and
no harm will befall you. I will come again to see you after the
others are asleep. Let us be friends."
As the brute left her the girl's frame was racked by a convulsive
shudder as she sank to the floor of the hut and covered her face
with her hands. She realized now why the women had not been left
to guard her. It was the work of the cunning Usanga, but would not
his woman suspect something of his intentions? She was no fool and,
further, being imbued with insane jealousy she was ever looking
for some overt act upon the part of her ebon lord. Bertha Kircher
felt that only she might save her and that she would save her if
word could be but gotten to her. But how?
Left alone and away from the eyes of her captors for the first time
since the previous night, the girl immediately took advantage of
the opportunity to assure herself that the papers she had taken
from the body of Hauptmann Fritz Schneider were still safely sewn
inside one of her undergarments.
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