At their unexpected appearance, the feeble resistance of the native ceased altogether. He seemed to be stupefied with terror, and stared from one to the other of his captors with red and watery eyes that begged for mercy.
“We will not hurt you,” said Bomba, taking his hand from his prisoner’s mouth while at the same time he motioned Neram and Ashati to grasp the fellow, should he seek to break away. “Only tell us what you know and you shall go free. But lie to us,” he added, with a significant motion toward his machete, “and you die!”
CHAPTER XVI
THE ISLAND OF SNAKES
The native writhed and twisted, the eyes bloodshot with terror at the threat.
Ashati and Neram came a step nearer with menace in their eyes, and the captive subsided again, gasping and groaning beneath the pressure of Bomba’s knee upon his chest.
“Do not kill me! Only do not kill me!” he jabbered. “I will answer you! You have only to ask.”
“Then listen to me, and listen well.” The fierce, impatient note was in Bomba’s voice again. “Nascanora, the great chief, the chief with a black heart, is the man I want to find. Give me news of him and you shall go free.”
A gleam of hope came into the prisoner’s eyes.
“Yes, yes, I will tell. I will tell you anything I know. But you must not let Nascanora know that I have told, or he will cut my heart and fry it over a fire.”
“Nascanora shall not know,” broke in Bomba, as he lightened somewhat his pressure on the man’s chest and bored him through and through with his eyes as though to wrench the truth from him. “But if you speak with a forked tongue your place will be with the dead.”