She was very frightened, but this she did not show. She had the disadvantage of being unable to understand the light flow of offensive badinage which passed between her captor and Bones.
"O Tibbetti," said Bucongo, "you see me as a god--I have finished with all white men."
"Soon we shall finish with you, Bucongo," said Bones.
"I cannot die, Tibbetti," said the other with easy confidence, "that is the wonderful thing."
"Other men have said that," said Bones in the vernacular, "and their widows are wives again and have forgotten their widowhood."
"This is a new ju-ju, Tibbetti,cheap chanel bags," said Bucongo, a strange light in his eyes. "I am the greatest of all cross-God men, and it is revealed to me that many shall follow me. Now you and the woman shall be the first of all white people to bear the mark of Bucongo the Blessed. And in the days to be you shall bare your breasts and say, 'Bucongo the Wonderful did this with his beautiful hands.'"
Bones was in a cold sweat and his mouth was dry. He scarcely dare look at the girl by his side.
"What does he say?" she asked in a low voice. Bones hesitated, and then haltingly he stammered the translation of the threat.
She nodded.
"O Bucongo," said Bones, with a sudden inspiration, "though you do evil, I will endure. But this you shall do and serve me. Brand me alone upon the chest,fake chanel bags, and upon the back. For if we be branded separately we are bound to one another, and you see how ugly this woman is with her thin nose and her pale eyes; also she has long hair like the grass which the weaver birds use for their nests."
He spoke loudly, eagerly, and it seemed convincingly, for Bucongo was in doubt. Truly the woman by all standards was very ugly. Her face was white and her lips thin. She was a narrow woman too, he thought, like one underfed.
"This you shall do for me, Bucongo,chanel bags cheap," urged Bones; "for gods do not do evil things, and it would be bad to marry me to this ugly woman who has no hips and has an evil tongue."
Bucongo was undecided.
"A god may do no evil," he said; "but I do not know the ways of white men. If it be true, then I will mark you twice, Tibbetti, and you shall be my man for ever; and the woman I will not touch."
"Cheer oh!" said Bones.
"What are you saying--will he let us go?" asked the girl.
"I was sayin' what a jolly row there'll be," lied Bones; "and he was sayin' that he couldn't think of hurtin' a charmin' lady like you. Shut your eyes, dear old Miss Hamilton."
She shut them quickly, half fainting with terror, for Bucongo was coming towards them,retro jordans for sale, a blazing iron in his hand, a smile of simple benevolence upon his not unintelligent face.
"This shall come as a blessing to you, Tibbetti," he said almost jovially.
Bones shut his teeth and waited.
The hot iron was scorching his silk shirt when a voice hailed the high-priest of the newest of cults.
"O Bucongo," it said.
Bucongo turned with a grimace of fear and cringed backward before the levelled Colt of Mr. Commissioner Sanders.
"Tell me now," said Sanders in his even tone, "can such a man as you die? Think, Bucongo."
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