“All right!” said he. “That'll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life.”
We went to bed about eleven o'clock. We lay down on wide blankets and put Red Chief between us. We weren't afraid he'd run away. He kept us awake for three hours, jumping up and screaming. At last, I fell into a troubled sleep, and dreamed that I was kidnapped and chained to a tree by a pirate with red hair.
2. Good morning
In the morning I was awakened by Bill's screams. They weren't yells, or shouts, such as you'd expect from a man – they were simply humiliating screams, such as women make when they see ghosts or caterpillars. It's an awful thing to hear a strong, fat man scream in a cave at daybreak.
I jumped up to see what the matter was. Red Chief was sitting on Bill's chest, with one hand in Bill's hair. In the other he had the sharp knife we used for slicing bacon; and he was really trying to take Bill's scalp.
I got the knife away from the kid and told him to lie down again. But, from that moment, Bill's spirit was broken. I slept for some time, but soon I remembered that Red Chief said he was going to burn me at the stake at the rising of the sun. I wasn't afraid, but I sat up and lit my pipe.
“Why did you get up so early, Sam?” asked Bill.
“Oh, I have got a pain in my shoulder.”
“You're a liar!” says Bill. “You're afraid. He said he will burn you at a stake and you are afraid he'll do it. And he would, if he finds a match. Isn't it awful, Sam? Do you think anybody will pay money to get a little devil like that back home?”
“Sure,” said I. “Now, you and the Chief get up and cook breakfast, and I will go up on the top of this mountain.”
I went up on the peak of the little mountain and looked over the surroundings. I expected to see the dozens of villagers armed with scythes and pitchforks and looking for the kidnappers. But I saw a peaceful landscape with one man ploughing with a mule. “Perhaps,” said I to myself, “they didn't find out that the boy was kidnapped.”
When I got to the cave I found Bill backed up against the side of it, breathing hard, and the boy threatening to smash him with a rock half as big as a coconut.
“He put a hot boiled potato in my pants,” explained Bill, “and then smashed it with his foot; and I boxed his ears[9]. Do you have a gun, Sam?”
I took the rock away from the boy and of calmed them down.
After breakfast the kid takes a piece of leather with strings wrapped around it out of his pocket and goes outside the cave.
“What's he going to do now?” says Bill, anxiously. “You don't think he'll run away, do you, Sam?”
Примечания
1
soaked in guano – вымоченный в помёте
2
to the minute – минута в минуту
3
upside down – вверх тормашками
4
cheerful and sociable – радостный и общительный
5
respectable appearance —презентабельная внешность
6
sleep like a top – как убитый
7
temporary mental apparition —временное помутнение рассудка
8
for a while – некоторое время
9
I boxed his ears – я надрал ему уши