"They're more like scab," said Matt
"They're neither one," Oscar cut in sharply. They're people. Now," he went on, "to try to set up some friendly relations." He turned around, looking for the leader of the group.
The crowd separated, leaving an aisle to the pool. An amphibian, walking alone, but followed by three others, came slowly down this aisle toward them. Oscar faced her. "Greetings, most worthy mother of many."
She looked him slowly up and down, then spoke, but not to him. "As I thought. Take them away."
Oscar started to protest, but it did him no good. Four of the little people closed in around him. Tex yelled at him. "How about it, Oz? Let 'em have it?"
"No!" Oscar called back. "Don't resist."
Three minutes later they were herded into a small room that was almost completely dark, the gloom being broken only by a single sphere of the orange light. After depositing Thurlow on the floor the little people went away, closing the door after them by drawing across it a curtain. Tex looked around him, trying to adjust his eyes to the dim light, and said, "About as cozy as a grave. Oz, you should have let us put up a scrap. I'll bet we could have licked the whole caboodle of 'em."
"Don't be silly, Tex. Suppose we had managed it-a possibility which I doubt, but suppose we had: how would you like to try to swim your way out of here?"
"I wouldn't try it. We'd dig a tunnel up to the surface- we've got two knives."
"Maybe you would; I wouldn't attempt it. The Little People generally built their cities underneath lakes."