“Since that time, it seems, he has gone up and down the Mfumbiro Plain, received everywhere amongst the natives with the profoundest of awe. Sometimes he will ascend the slopes of one of the great cones, Sabinio, Namlagira beneath which the natives believe hell to lie; Muhavura or Mgahinga. Always he forbids the natives to follow him on pain of being seized by the spirits. And when he returns, wrapped in his nimbus of fire, he generally predicts an eruption of lava which quite generally is fulfilled. As I say, that is easy enough for a man of science, but the impression it makes on the native minds may easily be comprehended.
“In fact,” said Mr. Hampton, “at that last village, although it is not in the Mfumbiro Plain and no member has yet seen The Prophet, yet his influence has made itself felt. Doubtless you boys noted the veiled hostility of the natives and their reluctance to furnish us vegetables and fruit even in return for ample consideration. That is because the continued statement of The Prophet that the gods are angry with the natives for tolerating white men in their land is taking effect. What must those natives be who live beneath the shadow of the volcanoes and are in contact with The Prophet?
“Now here is what I am coming to. So hostile probably are the natives of the plains that it would be impossible for us to enter and photograph the volcanoes, the lava overflows, or wild game, unless we do something to overcome that hostility. And Mr. Ransome and I have decided that something can be done. If it succeeds, we shall have struck a blow for ourselves and the success of our expedition and he will have eliminated the menace of The Prophet.
“The plan is this. Two of you boys shall put up the radio station around camp here somewhere, and stick by it while the rest of us descend into the plain tomorrow and hunt out The Prophet’s headquarters, providing Mr. Ransome’s spies return with word that he has been located. With us we shall take a portable radio and loudspeaker attachment.
“When we find The Prophet, Niellsen with his motion picture camera will probably be able to create a diversion by drawing the natives about him. And while that is going on, whichever one of you fellows is selected to accompany us will have to seize his opportunity to put up the radio in a good hiding place near The Prophet’s hut.
“Then we will fight The Prophet with his own tactics, only going him one better. For we shall announce to the natives that we are emissaries from the outside world who have heard of The Prophet’s misrepresentations. Instead of coming from heaven on Muhavura, we shall say, he comes from hell in Namlagira. And we shall add that we have been sent to expose him and to warn all natives against listening to his words lest they suffer a more dreadful calamity than any so far experienced.
“That’s where the radio comes in. For after our bold declaration we shall send up signal rockets. And from that precipice out yonder, overlooking the vast plain and the crater region for a hundred miles or more in three directions, a man with spyglasses will easily be able to see them. That will be the signal to you fellows left behind to speak over the radio in the guise of spirits denouncing The Prophet and announcing that he was about to be whisked away.
“When that message comes like a thunderclap from the concealed radio instrument which we shall have set up, its effect undoubtedly will be dismaying. In the ensuing confusion, Mr. Ransome’s trusties will seize The Prophet and whisk him away.
“Well,” he concluded, “what do you think of it?”