The People of the Mist Part 31

"Who has dared to forbid my servants to come before me and wors.h.i.+p me?

My will is my own, and I only make it known. It is my will that these white men and yonder black woman pa.s.s in before me at their pleasure."

"Your will is our will, Mother," said the priests humbly.

So they went in, and the curtains were closed behind them.

"I am so thankful to see you," said Juanna. "You don't know how dreadfully lonely it has been in this great room all night, and I am afraid of those solemn-eyed priests who stand round the doors. The women who brought me food last evening crawled about the place on all fours like dogs; it was horrible!"

"I am sorry that you have been left alone," said Leonard, "but you must try to make better arrangements. Soa might sleep with you, at any rate.

Where is Otter? Let us pay him a visit; I want to see how the G.o.d is getting on."

Juanna went to the door and addressed the priests, saying that she desired to be led before the Snake, and her servants with her. They demurred a little, then gave way, and all four of them were conducted, first into the courtyard, in which no human being was to be seen, and thence to an adjoining chamber, where a curious sight awaited them. In a huge chair set upon a dais sat Otter, looking furious and by no means at ease; while stretched upon the ground in front of him lay four priests, who muttered prayers unceasingly.

"Welcome, Baas!" he cried in rapture at the sight of Leonard. "Welcome, Shepherdess!"

"You idiot!" answered Leonard in Dutch, but speaking in the most humble voice, and sinking to his knees. "If you will not remember that you are a G.o.d, I will pay you out so soon as we are alone. Bid these fellows begone; the Shepherdess will translate for you."

"Go, dogs!" said Otter, taking the hint; "go, and bring me food. I would speak with my servant, who is named Baas, and with my mother."

"These are the words of the Snake that he speaks in the holy tongue,"

said Juanna, and she translated them.

The four priests rose, and bowing to the earth, crept backwards from the room. So soon as they were gone, Otter leaped from his throne with an exclamation of rage that caused the others to burst out laughing.

"Laugh, Baas, laugh if you will!" said the dwarf, "for you have never been a G.o.d, and don't know what it is. What think you, Baas?--all night long I have sat upon that great stool, while those accursed dogs burnt stinking stuff beneath my nostrils and muttered nonsense. One hour more and I should have fallen on them and killed them, for I have had no meat, and hunger makes me mad."

"Hus.h.!.+" said Leonard, "I hear footsteps! On to your throne, Otter!

Quick, Juanna! stand by his side; we will kneel!"

They had barely time to obey when the curtains were drawn, and a priest entered, holding a vessel of wood covered with a cloth. Slowly he crept towards the throne, with his head bent almost to his knees; then, straightening himself suddenly, he lifted up the wooden vessel and cried aloud:

"We bring you food, O Snake. Eat and be satisfied."

Otter took the dish, and, lifting the cloth, gazed upon its contents hungrily, but with an ever-growing dissatisfaction.

"Son of a dog!" he cried in his own tongue, "is this food to set before a man?" And he held the platter downwards, exposing its contents.

They were simple, consisting of various sorts of vegetables and watercress--poor in quality, for the season was winter, and all of them uncooked. In the centre of this fodder--whether placed there in obedience to some religious tradition or by way of ornament, or perhaps to a.s.sist the digestive process of the G.o.d, as a tenpenny nail is said to a.s.sist that of an ostrich--was a fine ruby stone; not so big, indeed, as that which Soa had given to Leonard, but still of considerable size and value. Leonard saw it with delight, but not so the dwarf, the selfish promptings of whose stomach caused him to forget that his master had journeyed far to seek such gems as this. In the fury of his disappointed appet.i.te he stood upon the footstool of the throne, and, seizing the ruby, he hurled it at the priest, hitting him fair between the eyes.

"Am I an eel?" he roared, "that I should live on water-gra.s.s, and red gravel?"

Then the priest, terrified at the behaviour of this strange divinity, picked up the offending gem--to the presence of which he attributed his anger--and fled, never looking behind him.

Juanna and Francisco were seized with uncontrollable laughter, while even Soa deigned to smile. But Leonard did not smile.

"Oh, you last descendant of generations of a.s.ses!" he said bitterly.

"You a.s.s with four ears and a tenfold bray! What have you done? You have hurled the precious stone at the head of him who brought it, and now he will bring no more. Had it not been for you, doubtless with every meal such stones would have been offered to you, and though you grew thin we should all of us have become rich, and that without trouble, tricks, or violence."

"Forgive me, Baas," lamented Otter, "but my rage took away my reason, and I forgot. See now what it is to be a G.o.d. It is to be fed upon stuff such as would gripe an ox. Oh, Baas, I would that these wild men had made you a G.o.d and left me your servant!" And again he gazed with disgust upon the watercress and rows of leathery vegetables resembling turnips.

"You had better eat them, Otter," said Juanna, who was still choking with laughter. "If you don't you may get nothing more for days.

Evidently you are supposed to have a small appet.i.te."

Then, driven to it by his ravening hunger, the wretched Otter fell upon the turnips and munched them sullenly, Leonard rating him all the while for his unequalled stupidity.

Scarcely had he finished his meal when there was a stir without, and once again priests entered, headed on this occasion by that same aged man who had acted as a spokesman when Juanna declared herself on the previous day, and who, as they had discovered, was named Nam. In fact he had many other and much longer names, but as this was the shortest ad most convenient of them, they adopted it.

It chanced that Leonard was standing by Soa, and when this priest entered, whom she now saw face to face for the first time, he noticed that she started, trembled, and then drew back into the shadow of the throne.

"Some friend of the old lady's youth," thought Leonard to himself. "I hope he won't recognise her, that is all."

Nam bent himself in adoration before the G.o.ds, then began an address, the substance of which Juanna translated from time to time. Bitterly did he grieve, he said, that such an insult had been offered to the Snake as the presenting to him among his food of the red stone, known as the Blood of Aca. That man who had done this folly was doomed to die, if, indeed, he were not already dead. Well could they understand that, the Mother and Snake having become reconciled, the proffering to Jal of that which reminded him of the sin of long ago was a wickedness that might bring a curse upon the land. Let the Snake be appeased. Command had been given that all such stones should be hidden in a secret place by him who had wrought the crime, and, as he had said, if the man returned alive from that place he should be slain. But he would not return alive, for to go thither was death, as it should be death henceforth even to mention that stone, of which but one should now be seen in the land, that which the Mother wore in memory of the past.

"O Otter, my friend," murmured Leonard to himself, "if I don't make you pay for this, my name is not Outram!"

But enough of the stones, went on Nam; he had come upon a more important matter. That night an a.s.sembly of all the tribe would be held in the great temple an hour before moonrise, that the Mother and the Snake might take up their royalty in the presence of the people. Thither they would come to lead them and their servants at the appointed time. Was this pleasing to the G.o.ds?

Juanna bent her head in a.s.sent, and the priest turned to go with many obeisances; but before he went he spoke again, asking if all things were as the G.o.ds desired.

"Not altogether, my servant," answered Juanna. "It is our will that these, our other servants, should have free access to us at all times and without question. Also, it is our will that their food should be brought to them with our food. Moreover, it is the desire of the Snake that no more gra.s.s should be given to him to eat; for now, in these latter days, having put on the flesh of men, he needs that which will support the flesh. One thing more, my servant; the Snake forgives the affront that was offered him, and I command that some of the greatest of the holy stones should be brought to me, that I may look on the blood which I shed so long ago."

"Alas! it may not be, Mother," answered the priest in tones of sorrow.

"All the stones, both red and blue, have been placed in bags of hide and cast into that place whence they can be brought no more, together with him who offended. Nor can others be gathered at this season of the year, seeing that deep snow covers the place where they lie buried. In the summer, when the sun has melted the snow, more can be found, if your eyes still desire the sight of them."

Juanna made no reply, and the priest went.

"Here is a pretty business," said Leonard. "That idiot Otter has upset everything. We might have become millionaires for the asking, and now we must wait for months before we so much as get sight of a ruby or a sapphire."

n.o.body answered. Indeed, the whole party were plunged into consternation at the fatal effects of this accident. As for Otter himself, when he understood fully what he had done, he almost wept for grief.

"Who could have known, Baas?" he groaned. "It was the sight of the green food that bewitched me, who have always hated the taste of gra.s.s. And now my folly has undone all, and it seems that I must be a G.o.d for many months, if, indeed, they do not find me out."

"Never mind, Otter," said Leonard, moved to pity by the dwarf's genuine grief. "You have lost the stones and you will have to find them again somehow. By the way, Soa, why did you start so when the old priest came in?"

"Because he is my father, Deliverer," she answered.

Leonard whistled; here was a new complication. What if Nam should recognise her?

CHAPTER XXII

THE TEMPLE OF JAL

In considerable agitation of mind Leonard bid good-bye to Juanna, promising to return soon, and went to visit the Settlement men, whom he had not seen since the previous evening.

He found them in good case enough, so far as their material comfort was concerned, for they were well supplied with food and warmly lodged. So much could not be said, however, of their mental state, for they were terrified by the mult.i.tude of solemn priests and warriors who watched them as cats watch mice. Crouching round him dejectedly they implored Leonard not to leave them, saying that they expected to be murdered every minute. He pacified them as well as he could and left them with the a.s.surance that he would return presently, having first reminded them that the lives of all depended upon the maintenance of the delusion as to the divinity of Otter and the Shepherdess.