And here, my lord, I am come at last with much toil, and now I pray you deliver my mistress the Shepherdess from the hands of the Yellow Devil.

Oh! my Lord, I seem poor and wretched; but I tell you that if you can deliver her you shall win a great reward.

Yes, I will reveal to you that which I have kept hidden all my life, ay, even from Mavoom my master; _I will reveal to you the secret treasures of my people, 'The Children of the Mist.'_" Now when Leonard, who all the while had been listening attentively and in silence to Soa's tale, heard her last words, he raised his head and stared at her, thinking that her sorrows had made her mad.

There was no look of madness upon the woman's fierce face, however, but only one of the most earnest and indeed passionate entreaty.

So, letting this matter go by for the while, he spoke to her: "Are you then crazed, mother ?" he said.