But the men track her
and bring her back. They hold her over the smoke of a fire until she
is choked. Ah! God in heaven! I have seen such sights during those
five years!"
Elsie, of course, understood all of this. When Christobal put it into
literal English, Courtenay looked at her. She smiled at his unspoken
thought.
"I am already aware of most of what he is telling us," she said. "It
is very dreadful that such people should exist, but one does not fall
in a faint merely because they cumber the earth. Perhaps you will not
send me away next time, if they try to board the ship again. I can use
a revolver quite well enough to count as one for the defense."
"You are henceforth enrolled as maid-at-arms, Miss Maxwell," said the
captain, lightly. He was by no means surprised at the coolness she
displayed in the face of the new terror. She had given so many proofs
of her natural courage that it must be equal to even so affrighting a
test as the near presence of the Alaculof Indians. But he broke in on
the Spaniard's recital with a question of direct interest.
"Ask him, Christobal, why he said those devils would come again by
daylight.
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