te men die. They were ranged
right along what may be called the main street, in a dense crowd some
eight or ten deep, for a distance of a quarter of a mile, and were
arranged in two compact lines, with a clear lane of about six feet wide
between the two lines of people. Through a gap which had evidently been
left open in one of these lines for that especial purpose, the two
prisoners were conducted into this lane and led to one extremity of it,
where upon a raised platform sat the cacique, with five men, presumably
the caciques of neighbouring villages, on either side of him. The
Englishmen were marched up to this platform and there left face to face
with the cacique and his friends, the guards retiring through the gap by
which they had entered, which thereupon was immediately closed.

For the space of a full five minutes or more Phil and Dick stood facing
the cacique, while a profound and impressive silence fell upon that vast
crowd of Indians, broken only by the rustle of the wind in the
tree-tops, and a faint rumble caused by the movement of the naked feet
of the assembled multitude, who were in the grip of an excitement so
intense that they apparently found it impossible to stand quite still,
but must needs continually shift the weight of their bodies from one
foot to the other.

At length, when the pause had become almost unbearably impressive, the
cacique rose to his feet and, lifting his hand to command attention,
spoke.

"White men," he said, "ye have told me a story which may or may not be
true. Ye have declared yourselves to be the enemy of the Spaniards and
the friend of the Indian; but how have ye shown your friendship for us?
By causing the death of seventeen men of the Mayubuna, by creating
seventeen widows and forty-six fatherless children, for whom the rest of
the villagers must now provide food. For this great wrong ye are doomed
to die; and it rests with yourselves whether your death shall be quick,
or whether it shall be one of long-drawn-out torment.

"Ye see this great lane of people stretching right through the village,
and ye will note that each man of the front rank is armed with a club.
Now, your doom is this. Ye shall start from where ye now stand, and
shall run to the farther end of the lane of people; and as ye run each
man on either hand shall smite ye as often as he may with his club. If
ye can hold out against the blows which ye will receive, and retain
strength enough to reach