“Nothing.”
“Ah!”
And so our conversation appeared to be at an end. But after a few moments my intense desire to discover whether the savages knew aught of Rima or not made me hazard a question.
“Do you live here in the forest now?” I asked.
He shook his head, and after a while said: “We come to kill animals.”
“You are like me now,” I returned quickly; “you fear nothing.”
He looked distrustfully at me, then came a little nearer and said: “You are very brave. I should not have gone twenty days’ journey with no weapons and only an old man for companion. What weapons did you have?”
I saw that he feared me and wished to make sure that I had it not in my power to do him some injury. “No weapon except my knife,” I replied, with assumed carelessness. With that I raised my cloak so as to let him see for himself, turning my body round before him. “Have you found my pistol?” I added.
He shook his head; but he appeared less suspicious now and came close up to me. “How do you get food? Where are you going?” he asked.
I answered boldly: “Food! I am nearly starving. I am going to the village to see if the women have got any meat in the pot, and to tell Runi all I have done since I left him.”