"Ten men in a house," he declared. "Maybe we can catch them all asleep. But even if they are, how are we going to get them out? There'd be a row, and we don't want any noise. Besides, there's always this confounded daylight here. If we tied them up somebody might see us when we got outside. How do we get them out of that house without any rumpus, and down to that boat? That's what I don't see."
"I—do—that," said Anina suddenly.
She had spoken in English, and we looked at her in amazement. She lisped the words in her soft, sweet voice, haltingly, like a little child. Then she turned to Miela and poured out a torrent of her native language. Mercer stared at her in undisguised admiration.
As Miela explained it, Anina proposed that she go into Tao's house alone, and decoy his men down to the boat where we could capture them.
"But how will she get them there?" I exclaimed. "What will she tell them?"
"She says she can make them think she is one of those few of our women who sympathize with their cause," Miela explained. "And she will say that the earth‑man who escaped from them she has seen lurking about their boat; perhaps he plans to steal it. She will go there with them, and they can recapture him."
"They might not all go," said Mercer. "We want to get them all."
"It is Anina's thought that they will all go, for they fear this earth‑man much—and all would go to make sure of him."
I could not feel it was right for us to let Anina do so daring a thing, and Mercer agreed with me heartily. But Anina insisted, with a fire in her eyes and flushed cheeks that contrasted strangely with her usually gentle demeanor.
In the end Mercer and I gave in, for we could think of no better plan, and Miela was confident Anina would not be harmed.