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Updated: June 17, 2025
All the bodies that could be reached had been carried into still another cave, not far from the path of the disaster. All the wounds and injuries had been dressed, and now Beatrice knew her force was at an end. She could do no more. Drained of energy, spent, broken, she dragged herself up the path again. In front of the cave of H'yemba, the smith, a group of survivors had gathered.
One question settled, mighty quick; and H'yemba won't have much to say for a few weeks at least. Not till his jawbone knits again, anyhow!" Upon his arm he felt a hand. Turning, he saw Vreenya, the aged counselor. "Surely, O master, he shall not live, now you have conquered him? The boiling pit awaits. It is our custom if you will!" Allan only shook his head.
If H'yemba has stolen him it's certain the boy is hidden beyond my present power in some far recess of the inter-communicating rabbit-warren of caves below there in the cliff. "I feel positive no bodily harm will be done the child. H'yemba will hold him for power over me. He will try to exact terms even to leadership in the colony, even to possession of Beatrice.
"Barred!" she exclaimed, aghast. Only too true. During her absence, though how or by whom she could not know, the door had been impassably closed to keep her out! Who, now, was working against her will? Could it be that H'yemba, all burned and blinded as he was, could have returned so soon and once more set himself to thwart her? And if not the smith, then who? "Rebellion!" she exclaimed.
Now a peculiarly malevolent expression lay upon the evil countenance. The dead-white skin wrinkled evilly; the pink eyes gleamed with disconcerting malice. But Stern, dead tired, only glanced at H'yemba for a second, then with Vreenya entered the hut and bade the door be closed.
Allan felt his brain whirl; all things seemed to turn about him. But he fought off his faintness, and in a shaken voice once more demanded: "What terms, H'yemba?" "Slavery for you and yours! Your son shall be my serf; your woman my chattel! Ha, that woman! She has already fought me, like one of these strange woods-beasts you have made us kill! See!
Now, above all else, we must work in harmony, stand fast, close up the ranks! This must not be!" Yet she could see no way clear to crush the danger. What could she do against so many nearly all provided with firearms? Why had H'yemba even taken the trouble to steal her weapon? "Coward!" she exclaimed. "Afraid for his own life afraid even to face me, so long as I had a pistol!
And remember, too, the river lies far below, and very sharp are the waiting rocks! "Fool that you are, that think yourself so wise! To leave this place with me! With me, skilled in all labors of metal and stone, strong to cut passage-ways " "You devil! You hewed a way into my house?" H'yemba laughed brutally. "Silently, steadily, I labored!" he boasted. "And behold the reward!
Though still weak and dazed, old Gesafam had now recovered strength and wit enough to soothe and care for the child. Allan heard from her, in a few disjointed words, all she knew of the kidnapping. H'yemba, she said, had suddenly appeared to her, from the remote end of the cave, and had tried to snatch the child. She had fought, but one blow of his ax had stunned her.
He knelt again beside her, cradled her in his arms, kissed and cherished her and he heard broken, disjointed words words that filled him with passionate rage and overpowering woe. "So many dead so many! And so many dying. You, H'yemba! You beast! Let me go! Oh, when the master comes!" Allan understood at last.
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