“Good mans, good!” he repeated, beating on his breast.
They closed in on him now and took away his weapons. The Aleut boy jabbered at him in excited tones, apparently accusing or reproaching him. Jimmy edged away from him and looked at the white faces of the others, which regarded him sternly but with no apparent anger. He sadly pointed to his leg, which had been injured by a fall on the rocks. Evidently he wanted to tell them that if they would take him back on the old footing he, for his part, would be glad enough to come, if only they would keep the savage brown boy away from him.
“Now we’ve got him,” said Rob, at last, “and what shall we do with him?”
“We’ll have to take him down,” said John. “He’d just about die if we left him up here; and I don’t believe he’ll make us trouble any more. Besides, we’ve got Skookie here to watch him now.”
Rob debated the matter in his mind for some time, but finally agreed that Jimmy would probably make them no more trouble, since he very possibly was hiding out more in fear of them than in any wish to harm them. Reasoning that one or both of these natives might be useful in later plans, he at last held out his hand to Jimmy, and with some effort persuaded Skookie that it would be better for him to shake hands with Jimmy than to take a rifle and shoot him, as the boy seemed more disposed to do. He knew that these natives soon forget their animosities.
Thus at length they started down the mountain along the trail, which Jimmy pointed out, hobbling along in advance. In a couple of hours they were at the top of the high rock face above the mouth of the creek. Here Jimmy paused and anxiously scanned the entire expanse of the adjacent cove and the long line of the beach beyond. He seemed overjoyed that there was no longer any sign of the hostile party which had come in pursuit of him. At least the boys guessed that was what he felt, and guessed also that he had been coming down to the stream at night and not in the daytime, perhaps thus sustaining the fall which had hurt his leg.
They were hungry that night as they cooked their evening meal in the smoky barabbara.
“No watch to-night, boys!” said Rob. “These two friends can watch each other, if they feel like it, but I think we may sleep without anxiety.”
“For a prisoner, it looks to me that Jimmy was very glad to be caught,” remarked John.