do I hear you say that you and
your brethren, who with many another were saved from shame and toil by
the Deliverer, are about to leave him in his hour of danger?"

"You have heard aright, Shepherdess," the man answered sadly.

"It is well, Peter. Go, children of Mavoom, my father, who can desert me
in my need. For learn, Peter, that where you fear to tread, there I,
a white woman, will pass alone with the Deliverer. Go, children of my
father, and may peace go with you. Yet, as you know, I, who foretold
the doom of the Yellow Devil, am a true prophetess, and I tell you this,
that but a very few of you shall live to see your kraal again, and _you_
will not be of their number, Peter. As for those who come home safely,
their names shall be a mockery, the little children shall call them
coward, and traitor and jackal, and one by one they shall eat out
their hearts and die, because they deserted him who saved them from the
slave-ship and the scourge. Farewell, children of my father: may peace
go with you, and may his ghost not come to haunt you on your path," and
with one indignant glance she turned scornfully away.

"Brethren," said Peter after a moment's pause, "is it to be borne that
the Shepherdess should mock us thus and tie such ropes of shame about
our necks?"

"No," they answered, "we cannot bear it."

Then for a while they consulted together again, and presently Peter
stood forward and said: "Deliverer, we will accompany you and the
Shepherdess into the country of devils, nor need you fear that we shall
desert or betray you. We know well that we go to our death, every one
of us; still it is better to die than to live bearing the burden of such
bitter words as hide within the Shepherdess's lips."

"Very well," answered Leonard. "Get your loads and let us start."

"Ay! It is well indeed," put in Otter with a snort of indignation. "I
tell you this, Peter, that before you left this place the words of the
Shepherdess had come true for you and one or two others, for I should
have fought you till I was killed, and though I have little wisdom yet I
know how to fight."

Leonard smiled at the dwarf's rage, but his heart was heavy within him.
He knew that these men had reason on their side, and he feared greatly
lest their evil forebodings should come true and the lives of all of
them pay forfeit for his rashness.

But it was too late to turn back now: things must befall as they were
fated.

CHAPTER XIX

THE