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All but a single bar was gone and to this was tied one end of a braided rope fashioned from strips cut from the leather window hangings. To the ordinary dangers of Jane Clayton's existence was now added the menace of Obergatz' knowledge of her whereabouts.
Carry that always in your mind, German." If Obergatz had held any doubt as to the sincerity of her word it would have been wholly dissipated by the scathing contempt of her tone. And so Obergatz, without further parley, got pistols and an extra rifle for Jane, as well as bandoleers of cartridges.
To them Obergatz no longer represented aught else than a powerless and hated foreigner, and short indeed would have been his shrift had not a native woman who had conceived a doglike affection for Jane Clayton hurried to her with word of the murderous plan, for the fate of the innocent white woman lay in the balance beside that of the guilty Teuton.
"O Jad-ben-Otho," he cried, "the warriors of Ja-don have attacked the palace and the temple. Even now they are fighting in the corridors near the quarters of Lu-don, and the high priest begs that you come to the palace and encourage your faithful warriors by your presence." Obergatz sprang to his feet. "I am Jad-ben-Otho," he screamed.
As soon as the gun bearers disappeared in the jungle beyond the village the two Europeans followed along the same trail, nor was there any attempt upon the part of Obergatz' native soldiers, or the warriors of the chief to detain them, for they too doubtless were more than willing that the whites should bring them in one more mess of meat before they killed them.
"The swine think it is a great joke," growled Obergatz, "that the afternoon before I die I go out and hunt meat for them."
She went on with her work, however, removing those parts of the buck she wanted, taking only as much meat as she might consume before it spoiled, as she was not sufficiently a true jungle creature to relish it beyond that stage, and then she straightened up and faced the man. "Lieutenant Obergatz," she said, "by a chance of accident we have met again.
And at last it came, but from an unexpected source in the form of a German native deserter from the theater of war. Footsore, weary, and spent, he dragged himself into the village late one afternoon, and before Obergatz was even aware of his presence the whole village knew that the power of Germany in Africa was at an end.
While here only hardships and discomforts assailed her, Obergatz himself being held in leash by the orders of his distant superior but as time went on the life in the village grew to be a veritable hell of cruelties and oppressions practiced by the arrogant Prussian upon the villagers and the members of his native command for time hung heavily upon the hands of the lieutenant and with idleness combining with the personal discomforts he was compelled to endure, his none too agreeable temper found an outlet first in petty interference with the chiefs and later in the practice of absolute cruelties upon them.
Her spear was almost dragged from her grasp, but she held to it until it broke free from the thing it had pierced. It was Obergatz; the curse had told her that. From below came no further sound. Had she, then, killed him? She prayed so with all her heart she prayed it. To be freed from the menace of this loathsome creature were relief indeed.
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