"Well, I do not wonder that you chose to go," said Leonard.

"Oh, Baas," broke in Otter, "why did you not shoot that old medicine-man
as I told you? It would have been easy when you were about it, Baas, and
now he would have been broken like an eggshell thrown from a house-top,
and not alive and full of the meat of malice. He is mad with rage and
wickedness, and I say that he will kill us all if he can."

"I rather wish I had," said Leonard, pulling his beard. "I thought of
it, but could not do everything; and on future occasions, Otter, will
you remember that your name is Silence? Luckily, these people do not
understand you: if they did you would ruin us all. What is the matter,
Soa?"

"Nothing, Deliverer," she answered; "only I was thinking that Nam is my
father, and I am glad that you did not shoot him, as this black dog, who
is named a god, suggests."

"Of gods I know nothing, you old cow," answered Otter angrily; "they
are a far-off people, though it seems that I am one of them, at any rate
among these fools, your kinsmen. But of dogs I can tell you something,
and it is that they bite."

"Yes, and cows toss dogs," said Soa, showing her teeth.

"Here is another complication," thought Leonard to himself; "one day
this woman will make friends with her venerable parent and betray us,
and then where shall we be? Well, among so many dangers an extra one
does not matter."