CHAPTER NINE A CLEVER PLAN
The village lay on a clearing of brown land, close to a stately rocky ridge which was partially covered with ferns.
As soon as Johnny stepped there, he had the feeling of being inside an almost impregnable fort, which was protected by hard rocks on one side, while on the other the vegetation was growing in a tangled mess. Everything was surrounded by that wall of trees leaving just one way in. The huts were very simple buildings made of wood and dried mud. There wasn’t any logic in their arrangement, excepted a slight convergence to a place where an altar had been erected, based on an elevated platform in front of a burning fire. The drum players were standing there, followed by some men singing propitiatory songs. Johnny could count nearly twenty of them, b
