The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
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The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
Children's literature
But there was no time for such reflections now; the savage who was
knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the
ground, and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but
when I saw that, I presented my other piece at the man, as if I
would shoot him; upon this my savage, for so I call him now, made
a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by
my side, which I did. He no sooner had it but he runs to his
enemy, and at one blow cut off his head so cleverly no executioner
in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I thought
very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a
sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords. However,
it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords
so sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will even
cut off heads with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow, too.
When he had done this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph,
and brought me the sword again, and, with abundance of gestures
which I did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the
savage that he had killed, just before me. But that which
astonished him most was to know how I killed the other Indian so
far off; so, pointing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to
him; and I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came to him,
he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turning him first on
one side, then on the other; looked at the wound the bullet had
made, which it seems was just in his breast, where it had made a
hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled
inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows,
and came back; so I turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow
me, making sign to him that more might come after them. Upon this
he made signs to me that he should bury them with sand, that they
might not be seen by the rest, if they followed; and so I made
signs to him again to do so. He fell to work; and in an instant he
had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands big enough to bury
the first in, and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and
did so by the other also; I believe he had buried them both in a
quarter of an hour. Then, calling him away, I carried him, not to
my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the
island: so I did not let my dream come to pass in that part, that
he came into my grove for shelter. Here I gave him bread and a
bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which I found he
was indeed in great distress for, from his running; and, having
refreshed him, I made signs for him to go and lie down to sleep,
showing him a place where I had laid some rice-straw, and a
blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so
the poor creature lay down, and went to sleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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