"Never! The thing is absurd! Monsieur, I take my leave. Beuzemaker!——"
He stopped, biting his lips.
"Monsieur Beuzemaker is my prisoner," said Jack suavely, rising. "He will accompany me back to my camp. Of course, if you accept our terms, we will release all the prisoners."
The Belgian turned away in a rage. The meeting broke up; the two parties went their several ways. Jack, as he walked back to the fort, hoped that on thinking the matter over the officer would see the wisdom of compliance. The alternative was starvation. He must see that it would be no easy matter to storm the fort, and that Jack had only to sit tight for a few days. The State troops, none too well disciplined at the best, would soon be clamouring for food. With a starving soldiery, an active well-fed enemy on his rear, and a swarm of scouts cutting off his foraging parties, he must see the impossibility of making his way back through several hundred miles of country inhabited by tribes only waiting an opportunity to rise against their oppressors. So that when Barney met him as he re-entered the fort, and asked eagerly, "Well, sorr, and did the patient swallow the pill?" he smiled as he shook his head, saying—
"Not yet, Barney. But he will swallow it, bitter as it is."
"Or his men will swallow him, bedad!"
And a few hours later a negro soldier marched up the hill with a white flag. Lieutenant Jennaert's note was very brief.
MONSIEUR,—
J'agrée vos conditions.
JENNAERT,
Lieutenant dans l'armée de l'État du Congo.