Part 57 (1/2)
”Great heavens!” said Leonard, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, ”this is practical tobogganing with a vengeance Is there no other way?”
”I can see none, Baas, except for the birds, and I think that we had better stop talking and make ready, for the priests are still behind us
If you atch on the neck here so that we are not surprised, I will seek stones to carry us”
”How about thisto Nam, who lay face doards on the snow, apparently in a dead faint
”Oh! we must keep him a while, Baas; he may be useful if those priests come If not, I will talk with him before we start He is asleep and cannot run away”
Then Leonard went to the top of the neck, which was distant soan to search for stones suitable to his purpose
As for Juanna, she turned her back to the ice-bridge, at which she scarcely dared to look, and sat herself upon a rock In doing so the jewels in the bag struck against her knee and jingled, and the thought came into her mind that she would examine them while she waited, partly because she desired to distract her thoughts from the vision of this new and terrible ordeal which lay before her, and partly to gratify a not unnatural curiosity
Opening the ers into it, and one by one drew out the biggest ge them on the rock beside her In less than aher eyes upon such a collection of priceless jewels as had never before gladdened the sight of any white woman, even in her wildest dreaht it possible that stones so splendid could exist on the hither side of the walls of heaven
First there were great sapphires roughly squared, and two enormous round star rubies: these had formed the eyes of the colossus, which were removed on thethe blood-red pupils Then there was a heart-shaped ruby of perfect colour and without flaw, al, which on the days of sacrifice had adorned the breasts of the chief priests of the People of the Mist for reatest wonders of this treasure, two marvellous stones, one a sapphire and one a ruby, fashi+oned respectively into models of the statue of the Dwarf and of the hideous shape of the Water-Dweller Then there were others--dozens of them--some rudely cut and polished, and soled out for its remarkable size and flawlessness, or its perfect fire and beauty
Juanna arranged them in rows and stared at them with ecstasy--where is the wo theot everything except the gorgeous loveliness and infinite value of the wealth of ge for Leonard
As that passed from her mind at this e and exhaustion, lay in a see faint upon the snoithin twelve paces of her She never saw him lift his head and look at her with an expression as cold and cruel as that which Otter had seen in the eyes of the Water-Dweller, when he lifted _his_ head from its bed of rock She never saw him roll slowly over and over across the snoards her, pausing a while between each turn of his body, for now she was occupied in replacing the jewels one by one into their bag of leather
At last all were in, and with a sigh--for it was sad to lose sight of objects so beautiful--Juanna drew the ht and prepared to place it round her neck
At this e, passed beneath her eyes, and, swiftly as the snatch of an eagle's talon, seized the bag and rent it froht she be dis from her with incredible speed, was Nam, the jewels in his hand
Otter and Leonard heard her cry, and, thinking that the priest was escaping, sped to cut him off But he had no idea of escape, at least not of such escape as they expected So, a little proulf below the the ridge he halted at its end: indeed he must do, unless he would fall a thousand feet or more to the bottom of the ravine beneath Then he turned and faced his pursuers, who by now had reached the edge of the cliff
”Co fall whence you shall never recover it, for no foot can tread these walls of rock, and there is water at the botto for the fate of the jewels
”Listen, Deliverer,” cried Nam; ”you came to this land to seek these trinkets, is it not so? And now you have found theo you wish to kill eance' sake, because I have shown you to be cheats, and have sought to offer you up to those Gods whom you have blasphemed But the red stones you desire are in ers they will be lost to you and all the world for ever Say now, if I bring theive o my ways in peace?”
”Yes, ill swear it,” answered Leonard, who could not conceal the anguish of his anxiety ”Come back, Nam, and you shall depart unharmed; but if you let the stones fall, then you shall follow them”
”You swear it,” said the priest contemptuously: ”you are coe to satisfy your greed, O White Man with a noble heart! Noill outdo you, for I, who am not noble, will sacrifice my life to disappoint you of your desires What! shall the ancient holy treasure of the People of the Mist be stolen by thite thieves and their black hound? Never! I would have killed you all had tilad that I have failed, for noill deal you a bitterer blow than any death May the curse of Jal and Aca cleave to you, you dogs without a kennel! May you live outcasts and die in the dirt, and may your fathers and your mothers and your children spit upon your bones as I do! Farewell!”
And shaking his disengaged hand at them he spat towards them; then with a sudden motion Nam hurled himself backwards off the point of rock and vanished into space, bearing the treasure with hihast and stared at each other and the point of rock which had been occupied by the venerable forh priest; then Juanna sank upon the snow sobbing
”It isto myself that I had ealth for you, and I have lost everything And we have suffered for nothing, and, Leonard, you are a beggar Oh! it is too much--too much!”
”Go out there, Otter,” said Leonard in a hoarse voice, pointing to the place where Nam had hurled hi able to cliulf”
The dwarf obeyed and presently returned shaking his head
”It is impossible, Baas,” he said; ”the walls of rock are sheer as though they had been cut with a knife; moreover there is water at the bottom of them, as the old wizard said, for I can hear the sound of it