Page:The Cave Girl - Edgar Rice Burroughs.pdf/145

 Then he rose, very unsteadily, to his feet.

“Nadara,” he said, “Korth lies dead beside the three great trees in the glade that is near the village that was Flatfoot’s. Here is the dead body of Flatfoot, and about my loins hangs the pelt of Nagoola, taken in fair fight.

“I have done all that you desired of me; I have tried to repay you for your kindness to me when I was a stranger in your land. I do not know why you should have tried to kill me while I battled with Korth.

“No more do I know why you have allowed me to live today when it would have been so easy to have despatched me as I lay unconscious here beside Flatfoot.

“I read dislike upon your face, and I am sorry, for I would have parted with you in friendship, so that when the time comes that I return to my own land I should be able to carry away with me only the pleasant memory of it. When we have rested and are refreshed I shall take you back to your father.”

All that had been surging to the girl’s lips of love and gratitude from a heart that was filled with both was congealed by the cold tone which marked this dispassionate recital of the discharge of a moral obligation.

Possibly Waldo’s tone was colored by the vivid