For two days they camped there, and constantly
during daylight hours Usanga compelled the Englishman to instruct
him in the art of flying.
Smith-Oldwick, in recalling the long months of arduous training he
had undergone himself before he had been considered sufficiently
adept to be considered a finished flier, smiled at the conceit of
the ignorant African who was already demanding that he be permitted
to make a flight alone.
"If it was not for losing the machine," the Englishman explained to
the girl, "I'd let the bounder take it up and break his fool neck
as he would do inside of two minutes."
However, he finally persuaded Usanga to bide his time for a few
more days of instruction, but in the suspicious mind of the Negro
there was a growing conviction that the white man's advice was prompted
by some ulterior motive; that it was in the hope of escaping with
the machine himself by night that he refused to admit that Usanga
was entirely capable of handling it alone and therefore in no further
need of help or instruction, and so in the mind of the black there
formed a determination to outwit the white man. The lure of the
twenty-four seductive wives proved in itself a sufficient incentive
and there, too, was added his desire for the white girl whom he
had long since determined to possess.
It was with these thoughts in mind that Usanga lay down to sleep
in the evening of the second day.
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