I could not hear them, but the rest listened attentively enough, and at the end of his speech seemed to agree, for they laughed and shouted and made not much comment.
Then the leaders got up and came and looked at me.
"Tell him what we are going to do with him, Evan," one said to the chief.
So Evan spoke in the worst Saxon I had ever heard, and I thought that it fitted his face well.
"No good glaring in that wise," he said; "if you are quiet no harm will come to you.

We are going to hold you as a hostage until your Saxon master or your British father pay ransom for you, and inlaw us again.

That last is a notion of my own, for I am by way of being an honest man.

The rest do not care for anything but the money we shall get for you from one side or the other, or maybe from both.
By and by, when we have you in a safe place, you shall write a letter for us to use, and I will have you speak well of me in it, so that it shall be plain that you owe your life to me, and then I shall be safe.

That is a matter between you and me, however.