Nobs was between him and the main herd, to which the yearling and
filly had already fled.
As I stood waiting for Nobs' return, I could not but speculate
upon my chances should I be attacked by some formidable beast. I
was some distance from the forest and armed with weapons in the use
of which I was quite untrained, though I had practiced some with
the spear since leaving the Kro-lu country. I must admit that my
thoughts were not pleasant ones, verging almost upon cowardice,
until I chanced to think of little Ajor alone in this same land
and armed only with a knife! I was immediately filled with shame;
but in thinking the matter over since, I have come to the conclusion
that my state of mind was influenced largely by my approximate
nakedness. If you have never wandered about in broad daylight
garbed in a bit of red-deer skin in inadequate length, you can have
no conception of the sensation of futility that overwhelms one.
Clothes, to a man accustomed to wearing clothes, impart a certain
self-confidence; lack of them induces panic.
But no beast attacked me, though I saw several menacing forms
passing through the dark aisles of the forest. At last I commenced
to worry over Nobs' protracted absence and to fear that something
had befallen him. I was coiling my rope to start out in search
of him, when I saw the stallion leap into view at almost the same
spot behind which he had disappeared, and at his heels ran Nobs.
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