"It is well," replied Gahan; "but where is their
Chief, and where the two Princesses?"
He hastened, therefore, to let the old
chief know his poverty-stricken state, and how little there was to be expected from him.
"Would that I could see its walls crumble to dust!" thought the
chief justice; and, in the bitterness of his heart, he shook his fist at the famous hall.
This was so obviously the right thing to say for an officer of
Chief Inspector Heat's reputation that it was perfectly delightful.
Tarzan explained to the
chief that his people would follow him in a canoe, probably the next day, and that though he might go on ahead of them the
chief was to receive them kindly and have no fear of them, for Mugambi would see that they did not harm the
chief's people, if they were accorded a friendly reception.
"That's radium," answered the
Chief. "We Horners spend all our time digging radium from the mines under this mountain, and we use it to decorate our homes and make them pretty and cosy.
So the
chief of police ordered a gallows to be erected, and sent criers to proclaim in every street in the city that a Christian was to be hanged that day for having killed a Mussulman.
A missionary found a
chief and his tribe in preparation for war; -- their muskets clean and bright, and their ammunition ready.
They landed amidst a rabble crowd, and were received on the bank by the left-handed
chief, who conducted them into the village with grave courtesy; driving to the right and left the swarms of old squaws, imp-like boys, and vagabond dogs, with which the place abounded.
In attempting to express his gratification, the
Chief of Police thrust out his right hand with such violence that his skin was ruptured at the arm-pit and a stream of sawdust poured from the wound.
The old
chief held the tooth in his hands for a long time.
These men, though enchanted with the sovereign for refusing the command of the army, yet blamed him for such excessive modesty, and only desired and insisted that their adored sovereign should abandon his diffidence and openly announce that he would place himself at the head of the army, gather round him a commander in
chief's staff, and, consulting experienced theoreticians and practical men where necessary, would himself lead the troops, whose spirits would thereby be raised to the highest pitch.