“I am not sure you will want to come back, with all your ape lovers.”
“I shall not want to come back to you, if you do not let me go; but to my mother and Orlee and the rest I will return. If you care for nothing but your love you are unworthy of mine.”
But Koree was determined, and would not let her go.
She thus saw all her unselfish sacrifices about to be defeated by a selfish lover.
The conversation of the Ammi now reverted to the probability of her story and the advisability of their further retreat.
“Let us wait,” said Abroo, after they had gone some distance into the Swamp, “till we see the result of the alliances formed by the Apes.”
“I will wait,” said Pounder, “only on condition that we return and fight them. If what the girl says is true they will soon fall out among themselves, so that even the cowardly need not fear them.”
“What is to be gained by fighting them at all,” asked Oko, “if they have nothing that we want?”
“You greedy beast!” returned Pounder, savagely; “is it nothing to vanquish the Lali? and if all the Monkeys of the forest are collected, is it nothing to whip them all at once? It is base to make this retreat; and I have a notion to smash the jaw of the fellow that proposed it.”
“This is not a retreat,” explained Abroo, calmly, “but a movement to disable the enemy by delay. We shall be better able to fight when they are less able to coöperate.”