A babble of excited exclamations broke out at this sudden intervention of the girl in Bomba’s behalf.
“Pirah!” said the chief, in a voice where sternness was mingled with affection. “Da-rah!”
But Pirah showed no intention of going away. She stamped her foot and clung the more tightly to Bomba’s hand.
The boy recognized her then as the youngest child of the chief, Hondura. He had seen her more than once when he had skirted the village in some of his hunting excursions.
Although the women of the jungle are as a rule even more stolid than the men, Pirah promised to be an exception to the rule.
She it was who liked to play at hunting, shouldering a bow as big as herself and learning to shoot at a target when her baby hands could barely stretch the strings.
Her fire and spirit and playful
