“I will take the blow if you will get the child,” replied Sosee.
“As long as the two old apes are so near it, we could not carry it off if we got it,” he said. “They would pursue us and overtake us with our load.”
“Two ought to be able to resist two; and Orlee would help us,” replied she.
“Before our fight could end the other apes would come to their succor,” said he.
“Perhaps,” suggested Sosee, “they would give up Orlee if I would stay with them instead.”
“I do not like that suggestion,” replied Koree, “I will get Orlee and keep you. Would you rather have Orlee than me?”
“I was not thinking of that, but only of Orlee.”
They had now approached near enough to see the girl distinctly, whom they recognized to be Orlee. She had wandered so far from her keepers that they did not observe the approaching lovers. Koree and Sosee concluded to steal up to Orlee, and, without raising any suspicion, lead her in the direction of the Swamp and then hurry with her into the bushes where they could not be followed. As it was getting dark the time seemed propitious for their scheme.
The couple in charge of Orlee, were, as will be surmised, Oboo, the ape who had carried her off, and the woman Oola, in whose charge she had been placed. This ape continued his attendance on this woman without interruption, having, while the other Lali were amusing themselves in groups, wandered off with her and the child to be alone. This accounts for their distance from the rest of the Apes. They were so much absorbed, moreover, with each other, that they did not notice that the child, Orlee, had wandered away from them, and was now almost out of their sight, and entirely out of their thoughts. Oboo and the woman simply kept up their love-making, while Koree and Sosee were approaching their prize. What made one pair of lovers forgetful made the other pair alert. Love shuts and opens the eyes of mortals in turn, and lays off the harness from one which it puts on another.