“That wouldn’t do, though. Miller is the man I’m after, and besides Mulvey there are four others who are wanted in Kimberley, and I shan’t feel that I’ve kept up my reputation if I don’t succeed in bringing them all back.
“No, Mulvey, if that’s your name, I shall have to let you go for the present, but I’ll see you later, or I’m no American.”
Trim watched the scene until the white man withdrew into the darkness beyond the fire and the savages went to their huts.
The boy was sorely tempted to make an attempt at the capture of the white man.
“I could talk with him,” he thought, “and with him in my possession there would be more chance of my getting at the rest of his gang unobserved.”
He stood up and looked around him. It was a dark night, but just beyond the village he could see the outlines of steep hills. They were without doubt thickly wooded.
“It would be a mighty foolish thing to do,” he concluded, “to try for that man in the night, and in a strange woods, and without the slightest idea of where he is going.
“No, the best thing will be to stick to the other course.”
So he turned to the river and came at length to his own camp.