They would either kill him or drive him away. A lump
rose in the boy's throat. He craved the companionship of his own
kind, though he scarce realized how greatly. He would have liked
to slip down beside the little girl and talk with her, though
he knew from the words he had overheard that she spoke a language
with which he was unfamiliar. They could have talked by signs a
little. That would have been better than nothing. Too, he would
have been glad to see her face. What he had glimpsed assured him
that she was pretty; but her strongest appeal to him lay in the
affectionate nature revealed by her gentle mothering of the grotesque
doll.
At last he hit upon a plan. He would attract her attention, and
reassure her by a smiling greeting from a greater distance. Silently
he wormed his way back into the tree. It was his intention to hail
her from beyond the palisade, giving her the feeling of security
which he imagined the stout barricade would afford.
He had scarcely left his position in the tree when his attention
was attracted by a considerable noise upon the opposite side of
the village.
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