He was evidently delighted at the turn things had taken.

If only he dared--but there; he dared not.

"Fire and Water would never allow it," he murmured softly to himself.

"They know the taboos as well as I do." It was clear to Felix that the savage would gladly have sacrificed him if he dared, and that he made no bones about letting him know it; but the custom of the islanders bound him as tightly as it bound themselves, and he was afraid to transgress it.
"Now listen," Felix said, at last, after a long palaver, looking in the savage's face with a resolute air: "Tu-Kila-Kila, we are not afraid of you.

We are not afraid of all your people.