It is a true tale, though hitherto I have hid it from you and your father, Mavoom, lest Mavoom should seek to win the precious stones and come to his death through them.

Listen, Shepherdess," and she repeated the outlines of the story with which she had already made Leonard acquainted, ending thus: "I told this tale to the White Man because I saw that he was greedy, after the fashion of his race, and my strait was desperate.

For this reason I bribed him with the red stone, and with the promise that I would lead him to the land of the People of the Mist, for had I not done so he would never have used his wit or put out his strength to rescue you from the Yellow Devil.

Therefore it was also that I marked this paper on your behalf and my own, knowing well that I had no right to speak for you, and that by and by you could refuse to abide by it, though I am bound." "Frank, at any rate," said Leonard to himself.

"What an attorney the old lady would have made!" "Say, Soa," asked Juanna, "to succeed in the search for these stones is it necessary that I should act a part among your people ?" "I can see no other way," she answered.