In two instances she patted my head and smiled on me, till the corners of her mouth went up to her ears.
On the last occasion she gave me a large iron knife to sharpen, indicating by various signs that a very fine edge must be put upon it.
"She is grateful to you for saving her child," said Amoo, who observed her.
"I am glad of it," said I, with a sigh of mingled bitterness and impatience.
"She means to show you and the tribe that she is so."
"The tribe too, how?"
"Yah, yah," said Amoo, as he placed one hand on my head, and drew the right forefinger of the other across his throat, in a way that was unpleasantly suggestive. Then he laughed and pointed to a gaily painted canoe that lay among some reeds by the river-side.
"She will assist me to escape in it to a big ship at the Pongos?" said I with a glow of hope.
Amoo frowned, then he grinned and shook his head.
"What then?" I asked anxiously.