Then at a signal, given by the chief, there was raised a terrible war-whoop and howl.
The chief spat on his dollars and dashed them into a neighbouring pool. Every man did the same.
Roland was looking curiously on. He was wondering what would happen next.
He had not very long to wait, for with his foot the chief turned the dead man on his back, and the blood from his death-stab poured out afresh.
He dipped his palm in the red stream and held it up on high. His men followed his example.
Then all turned to the sun, and in one voice uttered just one word, which, being interpreted by Benee, was understood to mean--REVENGE!
They licked the blood from their hands, and, turning round, marched in silence and in single file out and away from the forest and were seen no more.
[CHAPTER IX--THAT TREE IN THE FOREST GLADE]
The things, the happenings, I have now to tell you of in this chapter form the turning-point in our story.
Weeks passed by after the departure of that mysterious band of savages, and things went on in the same old groove on the plantation.