As he moved a few paces forward and to his right for a better view his astonishment knew no bounds. For there in the mouth of the cave, facing the angry mob of blacks, stood a gigantic solitary figure. Not a human figure was he, but like one. He had arms that now waved madly from side to side and now shot outward and upward as if to rain blows upon an approaching enemy. He had legs that now were motionless and now set him bobbing wildly up and down like an angry child. He had eyes that gleamed now green, now red, now blue, and jaws that from time to time snapped and cracked like the clamps of a steel trap.
“Of such things,” said Johnny, “madness is made.” He stepped back into the shadows.
Unable to understand the least bit of this wild scene, he found one thought uppermost in his mind; he bore in a sack at his side the precious medicine that might mean life to a dying man. Somehow he must enter the cave. To pass through that angry mob was unthinkable—and impossible.
“There’s a secret entrance over here to the right,” he told himself. “I will go that way.”
Turning, he wearily retraced his steps to approach the cave from a different angle. And still the flashes of light, green, red and blue, continued; so too did the screams and drum beats.
“What’s to come of it all?” he asked himself, and found no answer.
Once more came the roar and shudder of thunder, this time louder and more terrifying.
* * * * * * * *
Dot, still trapped among the rocky ruins, heard that thunder. She heard something more. That something set her heart beating wildly. It was the voice of her cousin, calling: “Dot! Dot! Are you still there? Just think! I have found the King.”
“The King. There is no King.” Dot thought her cousin out of her senses.