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And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora was walking fast. Nevertheless, she obeyed him, except in the matter of sweet things.
Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook her head; and then "If you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb. She must be English girl now, like poor Lucy." "Well then," said Amyas, "do you recollect, Ayacanora do you recollect what shall I say? anything that happened when you were a little girl?" She paused awhile; and then moving her hands overhead
"So what?" asked she, crying more bitterly than ever. "So like a wild girl, Ayacanora." Her hands dropped on her knees: a strong spasm ran through her throat and bosom, and she fell on her knees before him, and looked up imploringly in his face. "Yes; wild girl poor, bad wild girl. . . . But I will be English girl now!" "Fine clothes will never make you English, my child," said Amyas.
And when it was done, she led Ayacanora out, and began busying herself about the girl's comforts, as calmly as if Frank and Amyas had been sleeping in their cribs in the next room. But she had hardly gone upstairs, when a loud knock at the door was followed by its opening hastily; and into the hall burst, regardless of etiquette, the tall and stately figure of Sir Richard Grenville.
"Brave maid! you have cheated Satan this time," quoth he; while Yeo advised that the "idolatrous relic" should be forthwith "hove over cliff." "Let be," said Amyas. "What is the meaning of this, Ayacanora? And why have you followed us?"
Why should she? But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it break in his hand at last. "Set not your affections on things on the earth," murmured Yeo to himself, as he pored over his Bible, in the vain hope of forgetting his little maid. But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between himself and Ayacanora? Many reasons might be given: I deny none of them.
Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a very Boadicea, was much vexed. "Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?" asked Amyas. She shook her head, and denied the imputation with much disgust. Amyas was relieved; he had shrunk from joining the thought of so fair a creature, however degraded, with the horrors of cannibalism. But the cacique was a man of business, and held out stanchly.
All eyes were turned in the direction of which he spoke. And, wonder of wonders! up came none other than Ayacanora herself, blow-gun in hand, bow on back, and bedecked in all her feather garments, which last were rather the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel.
So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles upward along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, "There they are;" and Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of bamboo, beheld a scene which, in spite of his wrath, kept him silent, and perhaps softened, for a minute.
So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and the process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and moody, wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and brought home at evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows; two or three old hands were sent out to hunt likewise; so that, what with the game and the fish of the river, which seemed inexhaustible, and the fruit of the neighboring palm-trees, there was no lack of food in the camp.
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