As he spoke utterly oblivious to the fact that not one of the men
could understand him--Lathrop, pale-faced also, stepped forward by
his side.
And there stood the two American boys while the auditors--at first
dumb with amazement--began to buzz angrily like a nest of disturbed
hornets.
One of the white-robed priests gave a sharp order and once more the
red-garbed executors raised their knives.
Billy quietly, though his heart was beating almost to suffocation,
slipped a cartridge from the recovered bag into his Arab rifle. He
leveled it at the red-robed knife wielders.
"The first man that moves I'll shoot!"
Although the words were as unintelligible to the priests and the
cliff-dwellers as any that had gone before, the gesture with which
Billy raised the rifle to his shoulder and covered the group was
eloquent enough. And as it happened, the delay saved the old man's
life; for while they hesitated the sun rushed below the horizon and
the swift African night fell. A loud groan from the crowd announced
that the hour for the culmination of the sacrifice had passed and
that for the time being the intended victim's life was saved.
But for the boys the situation was serious enough. Powerless to
resist such numbers they were seized by scores of the winged men and
hustled into the passage, which was lit up by blazing torches of the
same resinous wood that their guide had used on the first night that
they came there.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173