“You will go to the settlement for soldiers,” one snarled.
“I will go to the Black Woods, to the Bloody Dam if need be, for your children, and I will fetch them back. I do not lie,” he declared with great soberness.
“You shall go. The white woman may assemble near the boat with the engineer; but if in three-quarters of an hour you have not returned, they shall all be destroyed,” the old man answered, and the other nodded their assent.
“You have been in the Black Woods and you cannot lie,” a younger man spoke sharply. “If we do not hear the loud purr of your engines in the time set, they shall die. While you are gone, many of the friendly tribe will post themselves so that they will know if you do not keep your word, and if but one soldier appears, all shall be killed.”
“I’m not worrying,” Jim answered, and wished clear down to his boots that the statement was true, for he was frightened.
“Can all the natives speak English?” Bob asked.
“You mean those with the professor?” Donald wanted to know.
“Yes.”
“A few of them can.”
“Good. Now, where is that plane? Howard said it had a cabin. How many women and children did they leave behind?”