“If you no can tink ’pon someting, I gib up all hope,” replied our guide sorrowfully.
“Come, Mak, cheer up,” cried Peterkin. “If the worst comes to the worst, you can, at any rate, fight for your bride.”
“Fight!” exclaimed the negro, displaying his white teeth like a mastiff, rolling his eyes and clinching his fists convulsively. Then in a calmer tone he continued, “Ay, me can fight. Me could kill all de guards an’ take Okandaga by de hand, an’ run troo de bushes for eber. But guards no die widout hollerin’ an’ yellerin’ like de gorilla; an’ nigger mans can run fasterer dan womans. No, no, dat am dumpossobable.”
“Nothing’s ‘dumpossobable’ to brave hearts and stout arms,” replied Jack. “There are only four guards put over her, I believe. Well, there are just four of us—not that we require to be equal, by any means. Peterkin and I could settle them easily; but we require to be equal in numbers, in order to do it quietly. I have a plan in my head, but there’s one hitch in it that I cannot unravel.”
“And what may that be?” If asked.
“Why, I don’t see how, after getting clear off with Okandaga, we are to avoid being pursued on suspicion and captured.”
“Dere is one cave,” remarked the guide, “not far off to here. P’raps we be safe if we git into ’im. But I ’fraid it not do, cause him be peepiled by fiends an’ dead man’s spirits.”
“That’s a grave objection,” said Peterkin, laughing.
“Yes, an’ de tribe neber go near dere; dey is most drefful terrorfied to be cotched dere.”
“Then, that will just do,” cried Jack, with animation. “The very thing. And now I’ll tell you what my plan is. To-morrow morning early we will tell the king that we wish to be off at once—that we have put off too much time already, and wish to make no further delay. Then we’ll pack up and start. At night we will encamp in a quiet, out-of-the-way part of the woods, and slip back to the village in the dark a short time before midnight. The whole village will at that time be assembled, probably, at the spot where the execution is to take place; so we can rush in, overpower the guard, free Okandaga, and make our escape to the cave, where they will never think of looking for us.”