Page 354 (1/1)

"It cannot be? Who says it cannot be? Who dares stand out and challenge me?"

"I, H'yemba, the man of iron and of fla with sudden passion At realization that in the exact psychological moht baffle him, he felt a wave of murderous hate

He realized that the dreaded catastrophe had indeed come to pass Now his sole claim to chieftainship lay in his power to defend the title Failureon the sri vouchsafed an answer, he swung toward the elders

"I challenge!" he exclai his long white beard

"Speak on!" he answered "Such is our ancient custo the throng, "will ye follow one who breaks the tribal lected to obey it? Will ye trust yourselves into hands stained with law-breaking of our blood?"

A h the people By the greenish flare-light Stern could see looks of wonder and dismay Some frowned, others stared at him or at the smith, and many muttered

"What the devil and all have I broken noondered Allan "Plague take these barbarous customs! Jove, they're worse than the taboos of the old Maoris, in the ancient days! What's up?"

He had not long to wonder, for of a sudden H'yemba wheeled on him, pointed hier cried: "The law, the law of old! No man shall be chief who does not take a wife from out our people! None eds one of the Lanskaarn, the island folk, or the yellow-haired Skeri beyond the Vortex, none such shall ever rule us Yet this s very hard to be believed, scorns our custo us he has taken, but instead, that vuedma of his own kind! What? Will ye--"

He spoke no further, for Allan was upon him with one leap At sound of that word, the ue, the fires of Hell burst loose in Stern

Reckoning no consequences, staying for no parley or diplo, he struck

The bloent home on the s, swung at hie-hammer sweep

It would have killed had it landed, but Allan was not there In point of tactics, the twentieth century met the tenth