You think you can
overpower us. Try it. Seize me, if you like. If you do, I shall give
one more whistle, and my troops--the loyal Indians--will go to work.
You can see them gathering. Look."
I waved my hand at the murk around us. My words were brave but my
flesh was cold. I had told them to look, but what would they see?
Would my men be loyal? Then the signal,--it had been hastily agreed
upon,--would they understand it? I had to push myself around like a
dead body to face what I might find.
For a moment I thought that I had found nothing. But I looked again,
and saw that my eyes had been made blank by fear. For my men were
massed to east and west. They pressed nearer and nearer, and the moon
picked out points of light that marked knives and arquebuses. Some
wore uniforms, and some were naked and vermilion-dyed, but all were
watching me. I could not see their eyes, but I was conscious of them.
I pointed the chiefs to the prospect. "You see. I have only to
whistle, and we shall settle this question of who is master here.
Seize me, and I shall whistle. But I shall do nothing till you move
first. If we are to have war, you must begin it. Are you ready?"
Silence followed.
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