Part 37 (1/2)
Therefore, it is all important to them that the corn should have a fair start, for if the autureat proportion of the crop turns black and is rendered useless
These agricultural details had no s upon the fate of our adventurers The feast of Jal was celebrated in order to secure a good seed-bed and springing tirain Juanna and Otter had abolished the hideous ceremonies of that feast, and the People of the Mist watched for the results with a gloomy and superstitious eye If the season proved o well, but if it chanced to be bad----!
And, as was to be expected, seeing howproved the very worst which any living man could remember in that country Day after day the face of the sun was hidden with mists that only yielded to the bitter winds which blew fro should have been a month old, the temperature was still that of mid-winter and the corn would not start at all
Leonard and Juanna soon discovered what this meant for them, and never was the aspect of weather more anxiously scanned than by these two fro the blanket of cold round of thewind swept down upon the theh it itself--was only one of many miseries which afflicted them Otter and Juanna were still treated as Gods indeed, and considerable respect was shown to Leonard and Francisco, that is, within the walls of the palace But if, wearied with the monotony of their life, they went out, which they did twice only during these five dreadful weeks, matters were different Then they found thelared at the what they had their Gods had done with the sunshi+ne
On the second occasion indeed they were forced to fly for their lives, and after this they gave upthe attempt to walk abroad, and sat in the palace with Juanna and Otter, who of course never dared to leave it
It was a terrible life; there was nothing to do, nothing to read, and only anxieties to think on The greater part of the day Leonard and Juanna occupied in talking, for practice, in the language of the People of the Mist When their conversation was exhausted they told each other tales of their adventures in past years, or even invented stories like children and prisoners; indeed they were prisoners--prisoners, as they feared, under sentence of death
They grew to know each other very well during those five weeks, so well indeed that each could alhts But no tender word ever passed their lips On this subject, whatever their hearts ues were sealed, and in their curious perversity the chief object of each was to disguise the truth froot that Juanna was his ward, a fact that in itself would have sufficed to cause hiht have felt towards her
So they lived side by side, lovers at heart, yet talking and acting as brother and sister h it all were still happy after a fashi+on because they were together
But Soa was not happy She felt that her uess the cause Day by day she stood behind theyptian feast, and watched Leonard with ever-growing jealousy
Francisco for his part did not attempt to conceal his fears He was certain that they were about to perish and sought consolation in the constant practice of religion, which was edifying but scarcely improved him as a companion As for Otter, he also believed that the hour of death was nigh, but being a fatalist this did not trouble him much On the contrary, in spite of Leonard's re himself freely to the beer-pot When Leonard remonstrated with him he turned somewhat sulky
”To-day I am a God, Baas,” he answered, ”to-morrow I may be carrion
While I am a God, let me drink and be ly, but noife holdsand looking sad? The end will coh Already Nam sharpens the knife for our hearts Come and be merry with me, Baas, if the Shepherdess will let you”
”Do you take o your oay, foolish that you are, but beware of the beer and the spirits Now you are beginning to know this language, and when you are drunk you talk, and do you think that there are no spies here? That girl, Saga, is great-niece to Na us all to death”
”Thither we shall coh before eep, Baas,”
Otter replied sullenly ”Must I then sit here and do nothing till I die?”
Leonard shrugged his shoulders and went He could not blas as a savage would, notwithstanding Francisco's earnest efforts to convert him He sometimes wished, so deep was his depression, that he also was a savage and could do likewise
But the worst of their trials is still to be told For the first week the Settlement men stayed in the palace, their fears and the rumours that had reached the therees, however, this dread wore off, and one afternoon, wearied with the sameness of their life, they yielded to the solicitations of soate, and went out in a body without obtaining Leonard's perht they returned drunk--at least ten of theain, Leonard questioned theive him no satisfactory information They had been into various houses in the city, they said, where the people had plied the more
These two hly frightened, obeyed Leonard's orders and stayed in the palace, although the decoy ates and called the to drown their fears, and the nights huddled together for protection from an unseen foe, more terrible and craftier than the leopard of their native rocks But these precautions were all in vain
Onethem, Leonard went to see as the ; they had vanished in the night, none could say how, vanished though the doors were barred and guarded There where they had slept lay their guns and little possessions, but theno trace When he was consulted Olfan looked very grave, but could throw no light upon the es in the palace, of which the openings were known only to the priests, and that possibly the h for people in their position
CHAPTER XXVI
THE LAST OF THE SETTLEMENT MEN
On that day of the vanishi+ng of the three Settlement men, Nam paid his weekly visit to ”do honour to the Gods,” and Leonard, who by this tiue of the People of the Mist, attacked him as to the whereabouts of their lost servants