He choked down his wrath.

There were grim stories about those who had yielded to the luxury of slaying these white men--stories of villages razed to the ground and destroyed, of a King himself who had been shot, of vengeance very swift and very merciless.

He closed his mouth with a snap and sat up with drunken dignity.

Oom Sam, in fear and trembling, moved to his side.
"What they want ?" the King asked.
Oom Sam spread out the document which Trent had handed him upon a tree-stump, and explained.

His Majesty nodded more affably.