Professor Bigelow was enjoying himself. Every strange custom of the savages appealed to him as a wonderful item to put in the book he intended to write about the primitive inhabitants of these wild regions. But two days later something happened that, although considered a very interesting custom by the anthropologist, was not to the liking of the other whites. A band of twenty-five warriors had gone into the upper reaches of the river several days before, and now they returned laden with—human heads!
“Ugh! Me for the hut,” said Bob, a sickly feeling creeping over him as he viewed the ghastly trophies.
And the others, with the exception of Professor Bigelow, felt the same way. The anthropologist, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the terrible scene.
“How thrilling a custom!” he said to his friends that night, as they prepared to retire.
For answer the others only groaned.
But if the explorers thought the mere carrying in of human heads was gruesome, they were to witness something still more terrible before a week would pass.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Forced Get-away
“BOB!”