The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-06-11


hurled from the jungle transfixed one
of the men, and then a yolley of ar
rows fell among them.
Raising their carbines, they fired into
the underbrush in the direction from
which the missiles had come.
BY this time the balance of the party
had come up, and volley after volley
was fired toward the concealed foe.
1t was these shots that Tarzan and
Jane Porter had heard.
Lieutenant Charpentier. who had
been bringing up the rear Of the col
umn, now came running to the scene
and on hearing the details Of the IN
buscade ordered the men to follow
him and plunged into the tangled vege-
tation.
In an instant they were in a hand
to hand fight with some fifty black
warriors Of Mbonga's village. Arrows
and bullets flew thick and fast.
Queer African knives and French
gun butts mingled for a moment in
savage and bloody duels, but o the
hdIlNCo hCN INV ~ JulSiC, iCdNlhS
the Frenchmen to count their losses.
Four of the twenty We're dead, a doz-
en- others were wounded, and Lieuten-
ant d'Arnot was missing. Night was
falling rapidly.
There was but one thing to do-make
camp where they We're until daylight.
This work was not completed until
long after dark, the men building a
huge fire in the enter of the clearing
to give them light to work by.
When all was as safe as could be
made from the attack of wild beasts
and savage men Lieutenant Charpen-
tier placed sentries about the little
camp, and the tired and hungry men
threw themselves upon the ground to
sleep.
The groans of the wounded. min
gled with the roaring and growing of
the great beasts, kept sleep except in
its most ftful form from the tired
eyes. 1t was a sad and hungry party
that lay through the long night pray
ing for dawn.
The blacks who had seized D'Arnot
had not waited to participate in the
fight. They hurried their prisoner
along, the sounds of battle growing
fainter and fainter as they drew away
from the contestants until there sud
denly broke upon D'Arnot's vision a
good sized clearing, at one end Of
which stood a matched and palisaded
village.
A cry went up within the palisade.
A great throng of women and children
rushed out to meet the party.
And then began for the French Off
GER the most terrifying experience
which man can encounter upon earth
the reception of a white prisoner into
a village of African %cannibals.
They fell upon D'Arnot tooth and
nail. beating him with sticks and
stones and tearing at him with claw
like hands. Every vestige of clothing
was torn from him, and the merciless
blows fell upon his bare and quivering
flesh.
But not once did the Frenchman cry
out in pain. A silent prayer rose that
he be quickly delivered from his tor
ture.
The death he prayed for was not to
be so easily had. Soon the warriors
beat the m away from their pris-
Oner.
He was to be saved for nobler sport
than this, and. the first wave of their
passion having subsidized, they content
ed themselves with crying u taunts
and insults and splitting upon him.
Presently they gained the center Of
the village. There D'Arnot was bound
securely to the great post from which
no live man had ever been released.
A number of the women scattered to
their several huts to fetch pots and
water, while others built a row of fires
on which portions Of the feast were to
be boiled.
The festivities were delayed, await
ing the return Of the warriors who had