The man he might have tolerated,
but he could not even consider the presence of the girl in the
far-off cabin, which had in a way become sacred to him through
its memories, without a growl or anger rising to his lips. There
remained, then, but the one way, since he could not desert them.
He must move by slow and irksome marches back to the east coast,
or at least to the first white settlement in that direction.
He had, it is true, contemplated leaving the girl to her fate but
that was before she had been instrumental in saving him from torture
and death at the hands of the black Wamabos. He chafed under the
obligation she had put upon him, but no less did he acknowledge
it and as he watched the two, the rueful expression upon his face
was lightened by a smile as he thought of the helplessness of them.
What a puny thing, indeed, was man! How ill equipped to combat the
savage forces of nature and of nature's jungle. Why, even the tiny
balu of the tribe of Go-lat, the great ape, was better fitted to
survive than these, for a balu could at least escape the numerous
creatures that menaced its existence, while with the possible
exception of Kota, the tortoise, none moved so slowly as did helpless
and feeble man.
Without him these two doubtless would starve in the midst of plenty,
should they by some miracle escape the other forces of destruction
which constantly threatened them.
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