He grunted once more, but did not reply.
“Think how sorry your little girl would be,” said Carrie.
But the Indian was not strong in the way of sentiment. His feelings were not easily touched. Besides, he felt sleepy. So he answered thus: “Little girl no talk. Indian tired. He go sleep.”
So saying, he stretched himself out at length on the leaves. But first he thought it necessary to give the child a caution.
“Little girl stay here,” he said. “Sleep, too.”{176}
“I am not sleepy any more,” said Carrie.
“No go way. Suppose go, then Indian kill her,” he concluded, with a fierce expression.
“You wouldn’t be so wicked as to kill me, would you?” said Carrie, turning pale.
“Me kill you, if go away.”
Carrie implicitly believed him; and, as she did not know her way about, she would not have dared to disobey his commands. Then all at once there came another fear. The evening before Julius had read her a story of a traveler meeting a lion in the forest, and narrowly escaping with his life. It is true the forest was in Africa, but Carrie did not remember that. She did not know but that lions were in the habit of prowling about in the very forest where she was. Suppose one should come along while the Indian was asleep. She shuddered at the thought, and the fear made her speak.