"How is this?" they said. "Will he not give Fire to us all?"
No one could answer this question. They chattered together for a while. Then one said, "What is worth having is worth asking for"; and he went up to Waung's wurley and greeted him civilly.
"Good-day, Waung," he said. "Will you give me some fire to do my cooking?"
"I have only enough for myself," said Waung, and went on with his carving.
"But Fire grows, if you will let it," said the man. "Will you not make it grow, so that each of us may have some?"
"I cannot spare any," was all that Waung would answer. So the man went back to his friends, and told them what Waung said. Then one after another came to Waung, and begged him for a little bit of Fire. But the reply was always the same, and they went away, very sorry that they had ever laughed at Waung. For now he remembered the laughter, and he determined to have his revenge.
In the morning, when the tribe was astir they found that Waung had made a very large oven in front of his wurley, and had hid Fire there. Also he had caught a wallaby in his snare, and all the air was full of the fragrant smell of cooking. It made all the people's mouths water, and they hated Waung exceedingly. But they feared that with the Kar-ak-ar-ook's Fire Waung had also captured their Magic, and so they did not dare to attack him.
So they held a council together, and all talked very fast and angrily: but at the end of it, there was nothing accomplished. Talking did not mend the matter at all, and against Magic, what could anyone do? Then a woman came running, and said she had a message, and though women were not supposed to speak in council, she was told to deliver it at once.
"Waung says he will cook our food!" said she, and stopped for breath. A great shout of joy went up from the men.
"But he will not do it for nothing," went on the woman. At this all their faces lengthened suddenly. The blacks stopped in the middle of their joyful shout, and waited with their mouths wide open to hear what was to follow.