“That would be better than to have the stranger kill Japazy,” remarked the eldest of the company. “The stranger speaks smooth words, but who knows what black thoughts are in his heart? And if he wounds but does not kill Japazy, what will Japazy do to us because we did not kill the stranger when he came among us?”
That this consideration had weight was evident from the grave expression of his hearers.
At this moment there was a terrific roar from the volcano and the earth shook so violently under Bomba’s feet that he was thrown headlong. For several minutes the quake continued and then gradually subsided.
When Bomba peered again through the crevice he could note consternation on all faces.
“Tamura is angry,” declared Abino solemnly. “To-day he has been more angry than for many moons. Why is that? It is because to-day the stranger came. He does not like the stranger. He wants that he should die. Tamura has spoken.”
A chill went through Bomba’s veins. It had been very unlucky for him that the convulsion should have come at the very moment that they were debating his fate. Now, as he looked from face to face, he could read his doom. To their minds the god of the mountain had spoken, and it only remained for them to bow to the decree.
There were whispers now, as though what they were discussing was too horrid to be spoken of aloud. Strain his ears as he might, Bomba could catch but a single sentence:
“He shall die by the creeping death!”
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FIRE STICK SPEAKS
With the utterance of their ominous words the elderly natives rose to their feet, and it was evident that the meeting was about to break up.