Then, bound hand and foot and effectually gagged, Colin and Tiny were laid at full length upon a broad branch thirty feet above the ground, with a dozen or more sinewy, active men keeping guard over the captives and others in the higher branches watching with much approval the deft work of their companions.
Then someone spoke in a tongue that neither Colin nor Tiny recognised, although by this time they had a useful smattering of the native dialects in use around Kilembonga.
There was no doubt about it—the man in charge of the kidnappers knew how to handle them. The discipline was perfect. Unlike most African natives, who can hardly ever carry out any work silently, these men maintained absolute quiet, moving with the precision and smoothness of a well-regulated machine.
Each captive was carefully lifted from branch to branch until they were at least eighty feet above the ground. During the operation the men took particular pains not to break off any of the foliage, methodically bending the twigs that hampered their progress, and not allowing any part of the captives' bodies or clothing to come in contact with the bark.
The next step was to pass the prisoners literally from hand to hand and from tree to tree, the close formation of the massive branches forming an almost continuous arboreal highway.
As fast as each native passed on his load he dropped to a lower branch and made his way to the front of the long line of bearers ready to renew his part in the endless human chain, so that at the end of an hour Colin and Desmond were at least two miles from the scene of their capture.
Here the party—captors and captives—descended to the ground. More natives were waiting with two hammock-like litters of woven grass. Into these Colin and Desmond were placed, no attempt being made to remove either their gags or their bonds.
Then at a rapid pace, but with the same orderly silence that characterised the opening stages of the operations, the natives moved off, the two litters being borne in the centre of the long double file.
At the end of a tedious journey, in which Colin calculated they had covered from ten to twelve miles, the cortège halted in an open space, bounded on three sides by the forest, and on the fourth by a cliff rising sheer to a height of two thousand feet.
The gags were then removed and the prisoners' ankles freed, although their arms were still securely bound as before. Then into a vast circle of armed warriors Colin and his chum were led, to find themselves confronted by a gigantic man holding a gleaming axe of yellow metal. By his side was a pillar of wood, somewhat resembling the mediaeval executioner's block.