'I can't see as we're bound to keep our word to a lot of darned niggers,' objected Mr. Bigham, with heat. 'If we get a chance to knock the brown brutes on the head, why shouldn't we take it?'
George answered the fool according to his folly.
'Can't you see, Bigham, that, as we are outnumbered by more than ten to one, we must submit?'
'But only till we get the chance to square the account,' persisted Bigham, who hailed from Bolton, and had all the native obstinacy of the Lancashire man. 'Well; I'll go and tell the men.' And he went.
The voice of the chief roused George from meditations of a somewhat mixed character. 'Have you decided, Hortoni?' he inquired, and there was a note of triumph in his tone which convinced George that he knew a great deal more English than he chose to admit.
After a moment's consideration George replied for himself. 'I give you my word that I will help to navigate the brig to Turanga, and that I will not attempt to embarrass you while I am on board. On your part, you undertake to set me free as soon as we touch land. That is our bargain; is it not?'
'And will Big Man promise, too? Will the sailors help?' asked the chief. 'Ha! here he comes. Let us hear what he has to say.'
'We agree,' the mate announced, but with a wink so portentous that George was made fully aware that the acceptance of the chief's terms covered some deep mental reservation. But he took no notice of the stupid fellow's side-hint, and, turning to their captor, said: 'It is well, O Hawk of the Mountain. We will bring the ship to land, if you will thereafter let us go free.'
'It is well,' echoed Te Karearea, flashing a glance at the mate. 'You have dealt fairly with me, Hortoni, and I am minded to be your friend. The eyes of the hawk are very keen, and he sees what is good and what is bad. So, too, I read the hearts of those upon whom my eyes are fastened.' Just then they were blazing upon Bigham with a malignity which even that dullard should have perceived. But as he regarded George, the chief's glance became milder.
'You have chosen wisely, O Hortoni!' he concluded. Then with a final ambiguity, 'I shall not forget what I have heard,' he folded his mat about his shoulders and stalked out of the deck-house.