ear.

"I ask regarding Queen Naladi--is she also of your people?"

"We are alike children of the Sun," he responded, his tone more sullen.
"She is of the Sun and was sent to rule; sent by the Sun to lead us
once again unto our own."

"She told you this?"

"We know it by signs, by the prophecy of our fathers; we were long
looking for her coming; she was promised us by the Sun. In the hour of
deepest need, a woman fair of face with hair of reddish gold, a goddess
in earthly form, was to be sent to guide us. She came out of the
mystery, and we wait her will."

"Then she is not of your race?"

"I have answered--she came to our people from the Sun."

I have not often felt too secure while in any position of danger, but
this feeble old savage rested so helplessly back against the base of
the altar, I lost all thought of him as an enemy against whom I needed
to guard. Sunk in contemplation of his story, I sat carelessly, my
head somewhat lowered as I mentally viewed the picture drawn. Cairnes
moved uneasily in his sleep, muttering something indistinctly, and I
turned partially so that I might look at him. Instantly, with the leap
of a tiger, the priest hurled himself upon me. I flung up one arm,
barely in time to intercept a jagged stone aimed full at my head. As
we clinched and went down, the incarnate fiend buried his yellow teeth
in my hand, and, in spite of his weight of years, I found myself hard
pressed in a death struggle. A very demon seemed to possess him; his
grip was satanic in its hate. In truth it was Cairnes who seized him
by the throat, dragging him off me. He struggled insanely against the
two of us, until we bound him so securely that nothing except his eyes
could move.

CHAPTER XXXIII

PERE ANDRE LAFOSSIER

"You treacherous, white-headed old villain," I exclaimed angrily, "I am
half inclined to kill you for so savage a trick. Odds! but my arm
feels as if it were broken."

The fellow grinned at me, showing his yellow fangs.

"I care not if you kill," he answered, with true Indian stoicism. "I
am old, and have served the Sun long. Kill, but I will not be
unavenged of my people; for, whether I live or die, it matters
not--there is no escape for you."

He spoke with such confidence as to stun me.

"No escape? Why?"

His lips curled with undisguised contempt.

"So my words sting. Well, they are true, nor am I unwilling to tell
you. You are trapped here. There is no path