I can get my life from him if I offer to give them back.' It had sounded a good scheme three hours before, but with the man's hard face before me, it seemed a frail peg to hang my fate on.
Laputa's eye fell on me, a clear searching eye with a question in it.
There was something he was trying to say to me which he dared not put into words.

I guessed what the something was, for I saw his glance run over my shirt and my empty pockets.
'You have made little of your treachery,' he said.

'Fool, did you think to escape me?
I could bring you back from the ends of the earth.' 'There was no treachery,' I replied.

'Do you blame a prisoner for trying to escape?
When shooting began I found myself free, and I took the road for home.

Ask Machudi's men and they will tell you that I came quietly with them, when I saw that the game was up.' He shrugged his shoulders.