The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-12-24
CHAPTER XIV.
The Wild Animal Pit.

In the Kafir village in British East
Africa, where Amazu once reigned,
Chief Boola now was ruler Boola had
many wives. After each successful
raid on a neighboring tribe he would
buy new wife, paying for these
6pouses with the stolen cattle.
The favorite of all the wives of
Chief Booia was the beautiful Sandili,
for whom he had paid full eighty-fve
head of cattle. Sandili had long
reigned as favorite Of the kings
harem and as queen of the tribe, main
ly because she was an assertive wom-
an who demanded and obtained all her
rights from her liege lord.
Sandili was, moreover, jealous
wife. Every time Boola bought new
spouse Sandili would treat the new
conner as less than the dust beneath
her feet and keep the poor woman thus
in proper subsection. But at that she
was a good-hearted Kafir woman.
Though she insisted upon keeping her
rivals in the harem at hard labor, she
would never deliberately cause them
bodily suffering. And because Sandili
was a good-hearted woman, Edith
Wayne would presently have reason to
thank her stars.
Now, this same Chief Boola-suc-
cessor to Amazu-had established
business new to Kairland He dug a
deep, deep pit which served as a
''storehouse" for the new business
The enterprise was nothing less than
Che capture of wild animals. Leopards,
lions, cheetahs and the like would be
taken in nets and then Boola would
throw these captive beasts into the
deep pit, there to thrive on meat fur
nished by Boola till the coming of
European traders in wild animals, to
whom Boola would sell the beasts.
That Chief Boola was engaged in
this wild animal enterprise and that
he possessed a deep pit full of wild
beasts of the jungle, Edith Wayne
could again thank her stars.
For Edith Wayne was even now not
so very far from the village and the
pit and the wives of Chief Boola. With
Uncle Steve, and with Capt Duncan
Jones, to whom she was now engaged
to be married, and with the half hun
dred Kafrs forming their safari, Edith
Wayne was encamped in the jungle.
Now, on a certain day in August,
Edith and her party set forth on horses
to look once again for sign of the
wild man. This particular morning, as
luck would have it, the wild man had
left his home in the Caves of the Hun
dred Lions and was even now wander
ing on the trail of wounded leopard
a friend whose hurt he wished to heal.
That the leopard was wounded the
wild man could tell by the blood drops
that stained its footprints.
This same morning, too, as luck
would have it, Chief Boola and his
men were abroad in the jungle, ready
to capture wild animals and take them
to the pit
The result was that the wild man
and Boola both saw the wounded
leopard at about the same time Which
was all the worse for the leopard and
for the wild man. For the leopard
bounded away and never did get
healed of it's wound, while the wild
man was roped by Boola and bound by
Boola's men, hand and foot, and
dragged back to Boola's village.
For Boola had often heard of the al
legged power of this wild man over wild
beasts And he did not believe half the
stories that were poured into his ears.
So now, having captured this white
man, he determined to test his prison
er's power by casting him into the
deep pit with the wild animals.
Feed him we'll over night" was
Boolas order to his men, land he will
be all the bigger meal for the leopards
In the pit in the morning"