L. Frank Baum (4 page)

Kneeling down, he enjoyed a long, refreshing drink of the clear water,
but as he started to regain his feet a coil of rope was suddenly thrown
about him, pinning his arms to his sides and rendering him absolutely
helpless.

At the same time his ears were saluted with a wild chattering in an
unknown tongue, and he found himself surrounded by a group of natives
of hideous appearance. They were nearly naked, and bore spears and
heavy clubs as their only weapons. Their hair was long, curly, and
thick as bushes, and through their noses and ears were stuck the teeth
of sharks and curious metal ornaments.

These creatures had stolen upon Rob so quietly that he had not heard a
sound, but now they jabbered loudly, as if much excited.

Finally one fat and somewhat aged native, who seemed to be a chief,
came close to Rob and said, in broken English:

"How get here?"

"I flew," said the boy, with a grin.

The chief shook his head, saying:

"No boat come. How white man come?"

"Through the air," replied Rob, who was rather flattered at being
called a "man."

The chief looked into the air with a puzzled expression and shook his
head again.

"White man lie," he said calmly.

Then he held further conversation with his fellows, after which he
turned to Rob and announced:

"Me see white man many times. Come in big boats. White man all bad.
Make kill with bang-sticks. We kill white man with club. Then we eat
white man. Dead white man good. Live white man bad!"

This did not please Rob at all. The idea of being eaten by savages had
never occurred to him as a sequel to his adventures. So he said rather
anxiously to the chief.

"Look here, old fellow; do you want to die?"

"Me no die. You die," was the reply.

"You'll die, too, if you eat me," said Rob. "I'm full of poison."

"Poison? Don't know poison," returned the chief, much perplexed to
understand him.

"Well, poison will make you sick—awful sick. Then you'll die. I'm
full of it; eat it every day for breakfast. It don't hurt white men,
you see, but it kills black men quicker than the bang-stick."

The chief listened to this statement carefully, but only understood it
in part. After a moment's reflection he declared:

"White man lie. Lie all time. Me eat plenty white man. Never get
sick; never die." Then he added, with renewed cheerfulness: "Me eat
you, too!"

Before Rob could think of a further protest, his captors caught up the
end of the rope and led him away through the forest. He was tightly
bound, and one strand of rope ran across the machine on his wrist and
pressed it into his flesh until the pain was severe. But he resolved
to be brave, whatever happened, so he stumbled along after the savages
without a word.

After a brief journey they came to a village, where Rob was thrust into
a brushwood hut and thrown upon the ground, still tightly bound.

"We light fire," said the chief. "Then kill little white man. Then
eat him."

With this comforting promise he went away and left Rob alone to think
the matter over.

"This is tough," reflected the boy, with a groan. "I never expected to
feed cannibals. Wish I was at home with mother and dad and the girls.
Wish I'd never seen the Demon of Electricity and his wonderful
inventions. I was happy enough before I struck that awful Master Key.
And now I'll be eaten—with salt and pepper, probably. Wonder if
there'll be any gravy. Perhaps they'll boil me, with biscuits, as
mother does chickens. Oh-h-h-h-h! It's just awful!"

In the midst of these depressing thoughts he became aware that
something was hurting his back. After rolling over he found that he
had been lying upon a sharp stone that stuck out of the earth. This
gave him an idea. He rolled upon the stone again and began rubbing the
rope that bound him against the sharp edge.

Outside he could hear the crackling of fagots and the roar of a
newly-kindled fire, so he knew he had no time to spare. He wriggled
and pushed his body right and left, right and left, sawing away at the
rope, until the strain and exertion started the perspiration from every
pore.

At length the rope parted, and hastily uncoiling it from his body Rob
stood up and rubbed his benumbed muscles and tried to regain his lost
breath. He had not freed himself a moment too soon, he found, for
hearing a grunt of surprise behind him he turned around and saw a
native standing in the door of the hut.

Rob laughed, for he was not a bit afraid of the blacks now. As the
native made a rush toward him the boy drew the electric tube from his
pocket, pointed it at the foe, and pressed the button. The fellow sank
to the earth without even a groan, and lay still.

Then another black entered, followed by the fat chief. When they saw
Rob at liberty, and their comrade lying apparently dead, the chief
cried out in surprise, using some expressive words in his own language.

"If it's just the same to you, old chap," said Rob, coolly, "I won't be
eaten to-day. You can make a pie of that fellow on the ground."

"No! We eat you," cried the chief, angrily. "You cut rope, but no get
away; no boat!"

"I don't need a boat, thank you," said the boy; and then, as the other
native sprang forward, he pointed the tube and laid him out beside his
first victim.

At this act the chief stood an instant in amazed uncertainty. Then he
turned and rushed from the hut.

Laughing with amusement at the waddling, fat figure, Rob followed the
chief and found himself standing almost in the center of the native
village. A big fire was blazing merrily and the blacks were busy
making preparations for a grand feast.

Rob was quickly surrounded by a crowd of the villagers, who chattered
fiercely and made threatening motions in his direction; but as the
chief cried out to them a warning in the native tongue they kept a
respectful distance and contented themselves with brandishing their
spears and clubs.

"If any of your fellows come nearer," Rob said to the fat chief, "I'll
knock 'em over."

"What you make do?" asked the chief, nervously.

"Watch sharp, and you'll see," answered Rob. Then he made a mocking
bow to the circle and continued: "I'm pleased to have met you fellows,
and proud to think you like me well enough to want to eat me; but I'm
in a bit of a hurry to-day, so I can't stop to be digested." After
which, as the crowd broke into a hum of surprise, he added: "Good-day,
black folks!" and quickly turned the indicator of his traveling machine
to the word "up."

Slowly he rose into the air, until his heels were just above the gaping
blacks; but there he stopped short. With a thrill of fear he glanced
at the indicator. It was pointed properly, and he knew at once that
something was wrong with the delicate mechanism that controlled it.
Probably the pressure of the rope across its face, when he was bound,
had put it out of order. There he was, seven feet in the air, but
without the power to rise an inch farther.

This short flight, however, had greatly astonished the blacks, who,
seeing his body suspended in mid-air, immediately hailed him as a god,
and prostrated themselves upon the ground before him.

The fat chief had seen something of white men in his youth, and had
learned to mistrust them. So, while he remained as prostrate as the
rest, he peeped at Rob with one of his little black eyes and saw that
the boy was ill at ease, and seemed both annoyed and frightened.

So he muttered some orders to the man next him, who wriggled along the
ground until he had reached a position behind Rob, when he rose and
pricked the suspended "god" with the point of his spear.

"Ouch!" yelled the boy; "stop that!"

He twisted his head around, and seeing the black again make a movement
with the spear, Rob turned his electric tube upon him and keeled him
over like a ten-pin.

The natives, who had looked up at his cry of pain, again prostrated
themselves, kicking their toes against the ground in a terrified tattoo
at this new evidence of the god's powers.

The situation was growing somewhat strained by this time, and Rob did
not know what the savages would decide to do next; so he thought it
best to move away from them, since he was unable to rise to a greater
height. He turned the indicator towards the south, where a level space
appeared between the trees; but instead of taking that direction he
moved towards the northeast, a proof that his machine had now become
absolutely unreliable. Moreover, he was slowly approaching the fire,
which, although it had ceased blazing, was a mass of glowing red embers.

In his excitement he turned the indicator this way and that, trying to
change the direction of his flight, but the only result of his endeavor
was to carry him directly over the fire, where he came to a full stop.

"Murder! Help! Fire and blazes!" he cried, as he felt the glow of the
coals beneath him. "I'll be roasted, after all! Here; help, Fatty,
help!"

The fat chief sprang to his feet and came to the rescue. He reached
up, caught Rob by the heels, and pulled him down to the ground, away
from the fire. But the next moment, as he clung to the boy's feet,
they both soared into the air again, and, although now far enough from
the fire to escape its heat, the savage, finding himself lifted from
the earth, uttered a scream of horror and let go of Rob, to fall head
over heels upon the ground.

The other blacks had by this time regained their feet, and now they
crowded around their chief and set him upright again.

Rob continued to float in the air, just above their heads, and now
abandoned all thoughts of escaping by means of his wrecked traveling
machine. But he resolved to regain a foothold upon the earth and take
his chances of escape by running rather than flying. So he turned the
indicator to the word "down," and very slowly it obeyed, allowing him,
to his great relief, to sink gently to the ground.

Once more the blacks formed a circle around our adventurer, who coolly
drew his tube and said to the chief:

"Tell your people I'm going to walk away through those trees, and if
any one dares to interfere with me I'll paralyze him."

The chief understood enough English to catch his meaning, and repeated
the message to his men. Having seen the terrible effect of the
electric tube they wisely fell back and allowed the boy to pass.

He marched through their lines with a fine air of dignity, although he
was fearful lest some of the blacks should stick a spear into him or
bump his head with a war-club. But they were awed by the wonders they
had seen and were still inclined to believe him a god, so he was not
molested.

When he found himself outside the village he made for the high plateau
in the center of the island, where he could be safe from the cannibals
while he collected his thoughts. But when he reached the place he
found the sides so steep he could not climb them, so he adjusted the
indicator to the word "up" and found it had still had enough power to
support his body while he clambered up the rocks to the level,
grass-covered space at the top.

Then, reclining upon his back, he gave himself up to thoughts of how he
might escape from his unpleasant predicament.

"Here I am, on a cannibal island, hundreds of miles from civilization,
with no way to get back," he reflected. "The family will look for me
every day, and finally decide I've broken my neck. The Demon will call
upon me when the week is up and won't find me at home; so I'll miss the
next three gifts. I don't mind that so much, for they might bring me
into worst scrapes than this. But how am I to get away from this
beastly island? I'll be eaten, after all, if I don't look out!"

These and similar thoughts occupied him for some time, yet in spite of
much planning and thinking he could find no practical means of escape.

At the end of an hour he looked over the edge of the plateau and found
it surrounded by a ring of the black cannibals, who had calmly seated
themselves to watch his movements.

"Perhaps they intend to starve me into surrender," he thought; "but
they won't succeed so long as my tablets hold out. And if, in time,
they should starve me, I'll be too thin and tough to make good eating;
so I'll get the best of them, anyhow."

Then he again lay down and began to examine his electrical traveling
machine. He did not dare take it apart, fearing he might not be able
to get it together again, for he knew nothing at all about its
construction. But he discovered two little dents on the edge, one on
each side, which had evidently been caused by the pressure of the rope.

"If I could get those dents out," he thought, "the machine might work."

He first tried to pry out the edges with his pocket knife, but the
attempt resulted in failure, Then, as the sides seemed a little bulged
outward by the dents, he placed the machine between two flat stones and
pressed them together until the little instrument was nearly round
again. The dents remained, to be sure, but he hoped he had removed the
pressure upon the works.

There was just one way to discover how well he had succeeded, so he
fastened the machine to his wrist and turned the indicator to the word
"up."

Slowly he ascended, this time to a height of nearly twenty feet. Then
his progress became slower and finally ceased altogether.

"That's a little better," he thought. "Now let's see if it will go
sidewise."

He put the indicator to "north-west,"—the direction of home—and very
slowly the machine obeyed and carried him away from the plateau and
across the island.

The natives saw him go, and springing to their feet began uttering
excited shouts and throwing their spears at him. But he was already so
high and so far away that they failed to reach him, and the boy
continued his journey unharmed.