However that might be, in an
instant I made up my mind.
As soon as it was quite dark I would swim the water, holding the
little rifle, /Intombi/, above my head, and try to steal the canoe. If
the old wizard was watching, which I hoped might not be the case,
well, I must deal with him as best I could. I knew the desperate
nature of the expedient, but there was no other way. If we could not
get a boat we must remain in that foodless forest until we starved. Or
if we returned to the island of the Flower, there ere long we should
certainly be attacked and destroyed by Komba and the Pongos when they
came to look for our bodies.
"I'll try it, Hans," I said.
"Yes, Baas, I thought you would. I'd come, too, only I can't swim and
when I was drowning I might make a noise, because one forgets oneself
then, Baas. But it will be all right, for if it were otherwise I am
sure that your reverend father would have shown us so in the sign. The
moth floated off quite comfortably on the wood, and just now I saw it
spread its wings and fly away.
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