“Pig, dog,” he cried, in a voice made squeaky by rage. “I might have known. It is only the radio. I shall show you up.”
But he went alone. Of all those hundreds of natives who heretofore had been his admirers, his followers, almost his slaves, none would have dreamed of invading The Prophet’s hut whence that voice came.
Mr. Hampton chuckled, and leaning close to his companion whispered:
“Jack was right. A scientific man couldn’t be fooled, but would realize we were using the radio. He is falling right into our trap.”
Just what he meant could have been understood by anyone inside The Prophet’s hut. For as the furious man, speeding to search for the radio receiving set which he now realized must have been concealed somewhere within, entered the pitch black darkness of the interior, strong hands closed about his throat, throttling all possibility of outcry. And then a gag was thrust into his mouth, and he was propelled through the parted thatch of the rear wall, Where a half-score armed men tossed him up on a rude litter which they raised to their shoulders, after which they trotted off down the alley between the huts and the wattled wall of the chief’s courtyard and were lost in the darkness.
As they melted away in the night, going in the direction of the mountain wall, eight miles away, upon which lay the expedition’s camp, Jack looking after them heaved a tremendous sigh of relief.
“Whew,” he remarked to Niellsen. “I’m glad that’s done. But it worked to perfection, didn’t it?”
Jack was correct. Men, women and children, every inhabitant of the village was in the square. And, therefore, none saw the shadowy forms of the guards pass between the last huts on the outskirts and disappear with their burden.
Nor were they destined ever to see The Prophet again. For, looking ahead, it may be stated that, kept a close prisoner but well treated during the ensuing weeks of the expedition’s stay in that region, The Prophet, whose real name was Professor von Hertwig, was turned over on the return of the expedition to civilization to the Belgian authorities. Examined by alienists and pronounced insane, he was ordered sent to an asylum in Belgium. But on his way down to the coast under guard he contracted a tropical fever which caused his death.
That the man had not been acting solely on his own initiative but had been the tool of cunning minds still at large was the belief of Mr. Ransome, a belief in which Mr. Hampton concurred. But for the time being these “higher ups” remained quiet, and no trace of them could be found.