"Make very good eat for black boy, save yopolo for Missa," he said. "Think dinner time now, Missa eat meat, Kadok eat snake."
It made Jean feel very queer to see him cut off a piece of the tail, roast it and eat with great enjoyment, but before night she was to look upon the snake as her greatest friend.
She dropped asleep after eating and did not waken until almost time for supper, when she found that Kadok had been sleeping too.
"Foot very much better, think we go find Mother to-morrow," he said, as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Little Missa not cry, be good Missa. We be all right. Time to eat again."
"I'm not very hungry," she said, "but I want some fresh water to drink."
"Little Missa not go to the spring. Kadok not like," he said so earnestly that she said,
"Well, never mind, I can drink the old water and chew some hibiscus leaves."
"Think I can go for Missa," said Kadok as he rose and tried his foot. "Not very bad."
"Oh, never mind," she said, but he took the billy and his stick and limped through the bushes. He was gone only a moment or two when she felt a strange feeling as of some one looking at her, and she raised her head to see, staring through the bushes, the same savage eyes which had frightened her the day before.