I noticed that Laputa kept well in cover, preferring the tangle of wooded undergrowth to the open spaces of the water-meadows.

As he talked, his wary eyes were keeping a sharp look-out over the landscape.

I thrilled with the thought that my own folk were near at hand.
Once Laputa checked me with his hand as I was going to speak, and in silence we crossed the kloof of a little stream.

After that we struck a long strip of forest and he slackened his watch.
'If you fight for a great cause,' I said, 'why do you let a miscreant like Henriques have a hand in it?
You must know that the man's only interest in you is the chance of loot.

I am for you against Henriques, and I tell you plain that if you don't break the snake's back it will sting you.' Laputa looked at me with an odd, meditative look.
'You misunderstand again, Mr Storekeeper.