not have me for a chief. If I had been clever only, they could
have borne it, they said, or if I had been ugly only, but being both
ugly and clever I was no chief for them. They feared lest I should rule
them too well and make all the people to be born ugly also. Ah! they
were fools; they did not understand that it wants someone cleverer than
I to make people so ugly."

"Never mind all that," said Leonard, who understood however that the
dwarf was talking thus in order to give himself time to think before he
answered. "Show me your mind, Otter."

"Baas, what can I say? I know nothing of the value of that red stone.
I do not know whether this woman, of whom my heart tells me no good,
speaks truth or lies about a distant people who live in a fog and
worship a god shaped as I am. None have ever worshipped me, yet there
may be a land where I should be deemed worthy of worship, and if so
I should like to travel in that land. But as to the rescue of this
Shepherdess from the Nest of the Yellow Devil, I do not know how it can
be brought about. Say, mother, how many of the men of Mavoom were taken
prisoners with your mistress?"

"Fifty of them perchance," answered Soa.

"Well now," went on the dwarf, "if we could loose those men and if they
are brave we might do something, but there are many _if's_ about it,
Baas. Still if you think the pay is good enough we can try. It will be
better than sitting here, and it does not matter what happens. Every man
to his fate, Baas, and fate to every man."

"A good motto," said Leonard. "Soa, I take your offer, though I am a
fool for my pains. And now, with your leave, we will put the matter
into writing so that there may be no mistake about it afterwards. Get a
little blood from the buck's flesh, Otter, and mix gunpo water with it;
that will do for ink if we add some hot water."

While the dwarf was compounding this ominous mixture Leonard sought of
paper. He could find none; the last had been lost when the hut was blown
away on the night of his brother's death. Then he bethought him of
the prayer-book which Jane Beach had given him. He would not use the
fly-leaf, because her name was on it, so he must write across the
title-page. And thus he wrote in small, neat letters with his mixture of
blood and gunpowder straight through the _Order of Common Prayer_:--

"_Agreement between Leonard Outram and Soa, the native woman._

"I. The said Leonard Outram agrees to use his best efforts to