In a wild bedlam of oaths and shouts we fought and struggled. The "tivo"
dancers had followed upon our track through the long afternoon, and the
time that we had lost in locating Leith had given them an opportunity to
come up with us. In the gloom we threshed backward and forward, but our
efforts to escape were vain. The one-eyed white man appeared
mysteriously out of the shadows to help the huge natives, and in three
minutes Holman and I were tied hand and foot and stretched out near the
unfortunate Professor, who, with bound limbs, was sitting up in the
centre of the grassy clearing where Leith and he had been exchanging
personalities. There were no signs of the girls, and I wondered, as my
brain recovered from the effects of the blow, what had happened to them.
Holman's voice put a question that roused me from my half stupor.
"Did I kill him?" cried the young fellow. "Tell me!"
The question was answered by a stream of blasphemy that came from Leith
himself. The big ruffian had fallen into a bunch of ribbon-grass, but
now, with the assistance of One Eye, he got to his feet and staggered
toward us.
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