These words of Sosee, “I must now go back to the Lali,” caused more surprise to the Ammi than her sudden appearance among them had done.
“There is something unfathomable in that girl,” said Pounder. “We undertook this war for her, and now, when we have obtained her, she wants to go back to the enemy. I fear she has been won over to the Apes by flattery, or a new lover, and comes back as a spy. Don’t let her return.”
“I wonder,” observed Koree to himself, “if she really has a new lover.”
“If I do not go back,” she said, “all I have told you will be in vain. If the Lali, who do not yet know that I am here, should learn of my escape, they will attack you at once, suspecting that I have communicated their designs to you; and then all will be lost.”
“If you go,” replied Koree, “all will be lost at any rate—to me.”
And Koree insisted that see should not return.
“I do not believe her story,” said Pounder, “and I insist that we keep our ground and also keep her. Otherwise she may carry back information to the enemy.”
“I think too,” said Koree, “that we should not give up what we came for. If we go back without her our escape will not be worth the making.”