part with her whom I loved, and whom I had
nursed from a babe, I yielded. And now you stand upon the borders of the
country of my people. Say, are you minded to cross them, Deliverer?"

"What else did I come for, Soa?" he asked.

"Nay, I know not. You came out of the folly of your heart, to satisfy
the desire of your heart. Listen, that tale I told you is true, and yet
I did not tell you all the truth. Beyond that cliff live a people of
great stature, and very fierce; a people whose custom it is to offer up
strangers to their gods. Enter there, and they will kill you thus."

"What do you mean, woman?" asked Leonard.

"I mean that if you hold your life dear, or her life," and she pointed
to Juanna, "you will turn with the first light and go back whence you
came. It is true that the stones are there, but death shall be the
reward of him who strives to steal them."

"I must say this is cheerful," replied Leonard. "What did you mean,
then, by all that story you told me about a plan that you had to win the
treasures of this people? Are you a liar, Soa?"

"I have said that all I told you was true," she answered sullenly.

"Very well, then, I have come a good many hundred miles to put it to the
proof, nor am I going to turn back now. You can leave me one and all if
you like, but I shall go on. I will not be made a fool of in this way."

"None of us have any wish to be made fools of, Mr. Outram," said Juanna
gently; "and, speaking for myself, I would far rather die at once than
attempt a return journey just at present. So now, Soa, perhaps you will
stop croaking and tell us definitely what we must do to conciliate
these charming countrymen of yours, whom we have come so far to spoil.
Remember," she added with a flash of her grey eyes, "I am not to be
played with by you, Soa. In this matter the Deliverer's interests are my
interests, and his ends my ends. Together we stand or fall, together we
live or die, and that shall be an unhappy hour for you, Soa, when you
attempt to desert or betray us."

"It is well, Shepherdess," she answered, "your will is my will, for I
love you alone in the world, and all the rest I hate," and she glared at
Leonard and Otter. "You are my father, and my mother, and my child, and
where you are, in death or in life, there is my home. Let us go then
among this people of mine, there to perish miserably, so that the
Deliverer may seek to glut himself with wealth.

"Listen; this is the law of my