story you told me about a plan that you had to win the treasures of this people are you a liar 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 said gently and speaking for myself i would far rather die at once than attempt a return journey just at present so now perhaps you will stop and tell us definitely what we must do to 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 in this matter the 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 when you attempt to desert or betray us it is well 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 and you are my father my mother and my child and where you are in or in life there is my home let us go then f the people of the mist among this people of mine there to perish miserably bo that the may seek to himself with wealth listen this is the law of my people or this was law when i left them forty years ago that every stranger who passes through their gates should he offered as a sacrifice to the mother if the time of his coming should be in summer and to the son if the time of his coming be in winter for the do not love strangers but there is a prophecy among my people which tells when many generations have gone by that the mother and x the son shall return to the land which once they ruled clothed in the flesh of men and the shape of shall be such a shape as yours and the shape of js shall be as is the shape of this black dog of a dwarf whom when first i saw him in my folly i deemed immortal and divine then the mother and the son shall rule in the land and its kings shall cease from and the priests of the snake shall be their servants and with them shall come peace and prosperity that do not pass away you know the tongue of the people of the mist for when you were little i taught it to you because to me it is the most beautiful of tongues you know the song also the holy song of ee arising that shall be on the lips of when she comes again and which i being the daughter of the high priest learned with many another secret before i was doomed to be a bride to the snake and fled fearing my doom now come apart with me and you black one come also that i may teach you your lesson of what you shall do when we meet the of the people of the mist rose to obey her followed by grumbling for he hated the old woman as much as she hated him and moreover he did not take kindly to this notion of as a god or indeed to the prospect of a lengthened amongst his but from all accounts somewhat before they went however spoke i have heard you he said and i do not like your words for they show me that your heart is fierce and evil yes you love the your heart is evil hear me should you dare to play us false whatever may befall us be sure of this that moment you die go i spare your threats answered shows her teeth i shall not betray you because to do so would be to betray the but are you then a fool that you think i should fear death at your hands who to morrow with a word could give you all to torment pray that the hour may not be near when you shall rejoice to die by the bullet with which you threaten me so that you may escape worse things and she turned and went i am not nervous said to but that she devil me if it were not for she would cause us to be murdered on the first possible opportunity and if only she can secure her safety i believe that she will do it yet and i believe that she is a witch answered the priest with a servant of the evil one such as are written of in the last night i saw her praying to her gods she did not know that i was near for the place was lonely but i saw her and i never wish to see anything so horrible again i will tell you why she hates us all so much she is jealous because the � does not hate us that woman s heart is wicked wickedness was born in her yet as none are altogether evil she has one virtue her love of the she is and for even among the black people as i have learnt from the settlement men all have feared her and shrunk from her notwithstanding her good looks therefore everything that is best in her has gone to this love for the woman whom she nursed from a babe it was because of her that the who is dead chose her for his daughter s nurse when he found that her 