“I’ll say I did,” said Jack, and he explained what he had been through.
“What happened to you?” he asked. “Did things work out as planned?”
“Exactly as planned,” said Mr. Hampton, while Mr. Ransome and Niellsen who stood behind Mr. Hampton nodded.
Then he explained that when summoned to the square they had found Chief Namla already there, surrounded by a big crowd of his people. In fact, everybody in the place was on hand, made curious to hear what the chief’s answer to the white men’s strange request would be.
“The chief asked us to show him our machine, as Mfum-ba had prompted him,” continued Mr. Hampton. “So Niellsen set it up and let him look into the range-finder. When he saw reflected there every hut, distant volcano or warrior close at hand, at which Niellsen directed the camera, he was stupefied. That was what we had expected. And so we invited his chief men to step up and have a look. The crowd became more and more excited.
“Then we told the chief we had a communication from the Great Spirit of the white man to deliver.” He paused, glancing at Mr. Ransome. “I thought you did that rather well, Ransome,” he said, smiling. “Of course, I don’t know just what hash the interpreter made of your remarks. But at any rate, they got across.”
“The Prophet was brought from his hut to face us,” he said. And he laughed heartily, as if at some humorous recollection. “You could never imagine what he is, Jack,” he said, “so I’ll tell you. Of course, I can’t be sure. But I believe he is one of these soured German professors, a man who doesn’t know the Great War ended years ago. In his warped mind there is only one thought uppermost. And that is that Germany was martyred in the war, that all the world was against her without reason, and that he must obtain revenge. I think he is a little crazy.”
“At any rate, he scorned us. ‘Pigs, you think to scare me,’ he said. ‘It is you who shall pay with your lives.’ Nevertheless, I think he was impressed at our promise to make the Great Spirit speak from the air at 8 o’clock tonight. And he’ll be outside to listen. And so will everybody else in the place.”
Sharp at 8 o’clock, Mr. Hampton and Mr. Ransome set off the rockets in the square. And as they went up with their comet’s tail of fire, the “Ohs” and “Ahs” of the natives could be heard all over the big enclosure ringed by its grass-thatched huts and lighted by a fire flaming in the center.