The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-02-29

touched his skin What ne suneroo
from was q kind of collapse. since.
although few would have thought
II, this great and utterly fearless
warrior Was at bottom q nervous
and hishly-strung man.
II is only the nervous that climb
the highest point OF anything, and
this is true OF lighters as OF all
others. That fearful fray with
Resu had been great strain on
him, or as he himself put II, the
wizard had sucked the strength out
of him." especially when he found
that owing to his armor he could
not harm him in front, and owing
TO his cunning could not get at him
behind until he conceived the des-
perate expedient of leaping over his
head and shifting backward as be
leaped. a trick that he told me he
had once played years before when
he was young. in order to break a
shield ring and get at one who
stood in its centre.
In this great leap over Rezu's
head he knew he must succeed. or
be defeated and slain. which in turn
would mean my death and that OF
the others, and for that reason he
faced the shame Of seeming to fly
in order to gain the higher ground.
whence alone he could develop the
speed necessary to such a terrific
spring.
Well, he made 1t and thereby
conquered and this was the end,
/, hut as he said, It had left him weak
as a snake when it crawls out Of
its hole into the sun after the long
Winter Sleep,
OF one thing, he added. he was
thankful, namely, that Rezu had
never succeeded In getting his
arms round him, since he was quite
certain that IL he had. he would
have broken him as a baboon breaks
a mealie stalk" No strength, not
even his, could have resisted the
iron might Of that huge gorilla-like
man.
agreed with him who had noted
his vast chest and swelling muscles.
also the weight Of the blows that
he struck with the steel-hafted axe
(which, by the way, when l sought
for 1t, was missing, stolen, ] sup
pose, by one of the Amahagger).
Whence did 1t come, wondered,
in one who from his face appeared
to be old? Was there perchance,
after all, some truth in the legend
Of Samson and did it dwell In that
gigantic beard and those long locks
of his? 1t was impossible to say
and probably the man was but a
Herculean freak, for that he was
as strong as Hercules all the stories
that heard afterwards of his feats,
left little room for doubt.
About only one thing was l Ger.
tain in connection with him, name
ly, that the talk of his supernatural
attributes was the merest humbug.
He was simply one of the represen-
tatives of the family OF strong
men," of whom examples are still
to be seen doing marvellous feats
all over the earth. -
For the rest, he was dead and
broken up by those Amahagger
hounds before I could examine him,
or his body armor either, and there
was an end of him and his stor...
But when Hooked at the corpse OF
poor Robertson, which l did as we
buried Il where he fell, and saw
that, though so large and thick-set,
It was cleft almost in two by a sim
gle blow Of Rezu's axe, I came to
understand what the strength Of
this savage must have been.
/ say savage, but ! am not sure
that this is a right description of
him. Evidently he had religion
of a sort, also imagination, as was
shown by the, theft of the white
woman to be his, queen, by his veil
ing of her to resemble Ayesha
whom he dreaded; by the intended
propitiatory sacrifice; by the guard
of women sworn to her service who
slew the priest that tried to kill
her, and afterwards committed sui
eide when they had failed in their
office and other things.
All this indicated something more
than savagery, perhaps survivals
from q forgotten civilization, or per-
haps native ability on the part of
an individual ruler. do not know
and 1t matters nothing. Rezu is
dead and the world IS well rid of
him, and those who want to learn
more Of his people, can go and
study those who remain of them in
=. their own habitat which for my
part never wish to visit any more.
During our Journey to 'Kor poor
fnez never stirred. Whenever I
went back to look at her In the