Part 6 (1/2)

”Yes, Baas, for you good night, and forto do, that is why you grow sick Better that we should go and dig again”

”What for, Otter? Ant-bear holes o away and wait no inning of death”

Then there was silence for a while

”The truth is, Otter,” said Leonard presently, ”we are both fools It is useless for us to stay here with nothing to eat, nothing to drink, nothing to s we know not what But what does it matter? Fools and wise men all come to one end Lord! how my head aches and how hot it is! I wish that we had so out,” and he rose impatiently and left the cave

Otter followed hirave

Presently they were there, standing on the hither edge of a ravine A cloud had hidden the face of the , so they stood awhile idly waiting for it to pass

As they rested thus, suddenly a inning with aloail

”What is that?” asked Leonard, looking towards the shadows on the further side of the ravine, whence the cry seemed to proceed

”I do not know,” answered Otter, ”unless it be a ghost, or the voice of one who mourns her dead”

”We are the only mourners here,” said Leonard, and as he spoke oncewail thrilled upon the air Just then the cloud passed, the ht shone out brilliantly, and they saho it was that cried aloud in this desolate place For there, not twenty paces from them, on the other side of the ravine, crouched upon a stone and rocking herself to and fro as though in an agony of despair and grief, sat a tall and withered woman

With an exclamation of surprise Leonard started towards her, followed by the dwarf So absorbed was the woman in her sorrow that she neither saw nor heard them Even when they stood close to her she did not perceive them, for her face was hidden in her bony hands Leonard looked at her curiously She was past e, but he could see that once she had been handsorizzled and crisp rather than woolly, and her hands and feet were slender and finely shaped At the moment he could discern no more of the woman's personal appearance, for the face was covered, as has been said, and her body wrapped in a tattered blanket

”Mother,” he said, speaking in the Sisutu dialect, ”what ails you that you weep here alone?”

The stranger let drop her hands and sprang up with a cry of fear As it chanced, her gaze fell first upon the dwarf Otter, as standing in front of her, and at the sight of him the cry died upon her lips, and her sunken cheeks, clear-cut features, and sullen black eyes becae was her aspect indeed that the dwarf and his master neither spoke nor moved; they stood hushed and expectant It was the wo in a low voice of awe and adoration and, as she spoke, sinking to her knees

”And hast thou co Otter, ”O thou whose nae, and fro? Do I see thee in the flesh, Lord of the night, King of blood and terror, and is this thy priest? Or do I but dream? Nay, I dreaed”

”Here it seems,” said Otter, ”that we have to do with one who is mad”

”Nay, Jal,” the woh to me of late”

”Neither am I named Jal or Darkness,” answered the dith irritation; ”cease to speak folly, and tell the White Lord whence you come, for I weary of this talk”

”If you are not Jal, Black One, the thing is strange, for as Jal is so you are But perchance it does not please you, having put on the flesh, to avow yourself before me At the least be it as you will If you are not Jal, then I aet the sins of my youth and spare me”

”Who is Jal?” asked Leonard curiously

”Nay, I know not,” answered the woer and weariness have turned ive ive me food, for I starve”

”There is scant fare here,” answered Leonard, ”but you are welcome to it Follow a to the cave, the woave her reedily and yet with effort When she had finished she looked at Leonard with her keen dark eyes and said:

”Say, White Lord, are you also a slave-trader?”