Then the silence was broken, for the wretched Kalubi sprang from the floor, seized a spear and tried to kill himself.

Before the blade touched him it was snatched from his hand, so that he remained standing, but weaponless.
Again there was silence and again it was broken, this time by the Motombo, who rose from his seat before which he stood, a huge, bloated object, and roared aloud in his rage.

Yes, he roared like a wounded buffalo.

Never would I have believed that such a vast volume of sound could have proceeded from the lungs of a single aged man.

For fully a minute his furious bellowings echoed down that great cave, while all the Pongo soldiers, rising from their recumbent position, pointed their hands, in some of which torches still burned, at the miserable Kalubi on whom their wrath seemed to be concentrated, rather than on us, and hissed like snakes.
Really it might have been a scene in hell with the Motombo playing the part of Satan.