It can hardly
be assumed that he felt no fear; yet, if he did, he hid it perfectly
beneath an imperturbable mask of coolness. Even the brutal Usanga
must have been impressed by the bravery of his victim since, though
he had come to abuse and possibly to torture the helpless prisoner,
he now did neither, contenting himself merely with berating whites
as a race and Englishmen especially, because of the terror the
British aviators had caused Germany's native troops in East Africa.
"No more," he concluded, "will your great bird fly over our people
dropping death among them from the skies--Usanga will see to that,"
and he walked abruptly away toward a group of his own fighting men
who were congregated near the stake where they were laughing and
joking with the women.
A few minutes later the Englishman saw them pass out of the village
gate, and once again his thoughts reverted to various futile plans
for escape.
Several miles north of the village on a little rise of ground close
to the river where the jungle, halting at the base of a knoll, had
left a few acres of grassy land sparsely wooded, a man and a girl
were busily engaged in constructing a small boma, in the center of
which a thatched hut already had been erected.
They worked almost in silence with only an occasional word of
direction or interrogation between them.
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