“Yet your chief insulted Old Shatterhand. See, he begins to move.”
Tangua, whom Stone and Parker had laid down again, raised himself, looking at us at first as though he did not feel sure what had happened, then he recovered consciousness perfectly and cried: “Take off these bands.”
“Why did you not listen to my request?” I asked. “You can’t give orders here.” He gave me a look of rage, and snarled:
“Silence, boy, or I’ll tear your eyes out.”
“Silence is more fit for you than for me,” I answered. “You insulted me, and I knocked you down. Old Shatterhand does not let go unpunished him who calls him a toad and a white dog.”
“I will be free in a moment. If you do not obey me, my warriors shall wipe you from off the earth.”
“You’d go first. Hear what I have to say. There stand your people; if one of them moves a foot without permission, my knife goes into your heart. How!”
I set the knife-point against his breast. He saw that he was in our power, and could not doubt that I would fulfil my threat. There was a pause, during which he seemed to long to annihilate us with his wildly rolling eyes; then he tried to control his rage, and asked more mildly:
“What do you want of me?”
“Nothing except what I have already told you: that the Apaches shall not die by torture.”