Next the two men, still unconscious, were buried up to their necks.
Their heads, lolling helplessly, were all that was exposed. So it was to
be the Head Out punishment--imprisonment of one day with their bodies
rigidly held by the soil: acute torture to an aborigine. But was this
all?
One of the villagers was driven to the nearest hut, where he was forced
to secure two large stone axes. Bringing these back to the "torture-
place," as the spot was called, the man was compelled to wield one of
the clumsy tools while a companion used the other; and between them they
cut down the tree whose branches had been waving over the prisoners'
heads. Then the villagers were forced to drag the tree away.
All of which occurred in the darkness, and out of sight of Rolla and
Cunora. They could only guess what was going on. Hours passed, and dawn
approached. Not till then did they learn just what had been done.
The villagers, now all awake, were driven by the bees to the place on
the bank of the stream. There, the eight men who had imprisoned the two
discoverers told what had been done with the "magic stones." Each
villager stared at the offenders, and at something which lay on the
ground before them, and in sober silence went straight to his or her
work in the fields.
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