“We’ll think it over,” said the spokesman, finally, “but the white man must not go from this place until we have had more talk.”
With this they gathered up their trinkets and marched away.
Trim paced up and down for several minutes in anxious thought after they had gone.
“Be ee goin’ to turn back, lad?” asked Dobbin.
“No, I’m not!” answered Trim; “but I’ll admit that the situation is serious.
“We cannot afford to make enemies of this big tribe, and we cannot afford to show them that we are afraid of them, either.
“Perhaps I ought to have offered them another handful of playthings. We’ll try that on in the morning.
“Somehow or other, Dobbin, I’m going to make these fellows give us a free pass to the furthest side of their territory.
“If those mischief-making warriors can be kept quiet for another day I think we shall be all right.
“One thing is certain: we shall have to stay in camp here until we get the permission of the elders to go forward.”