grey; but the dwarf, your servant, did not wait to have
that office done for him, for he sprang thither himself, ay, and took
one with him."

"Bravo, Otter!" cried Leonard; "I knew that you would die hard."

"Hard did he die indeed, Deliverer," said Nam with a sigh, "so hard that
even now many swear that he was a god and not a man. Scarcely had they
all vanished into the pool when a wonder chanced such as has not
been told of in our records: Deliverer, the white dawn turned to red,
perchance, as I cried to calm the people, because the false gods had met
their doom."

"Then the true ones must be singularly blind," said Juanna, "seeing that
I, whom you dare to call a false god, am still alive."

This argument silenced Nam for a moment, but presently he answered.

"Yes, Shepherdess, you are still alive," he said, laying a curious
emphasis on the "still." "And, indeed," he added hastily, "if you are
not foolish you may long remain so, both of you, for I have no desire to
shed your blood who only seek to end my last days in peace. But listen
to the end of the tale: While the people wondered at the omen of the
changed dawn, it was seen that the dwarf, your servant, was not dead
there in the pool. Yes! this was seen, Deliverer: to and fro in the
troubled waters rushed the great Water Dweller, and after him, keeping
pace with him, went that dwarf who was named Otter. Ay, round and round
and down to the lowest depths, though how it could be that a man might
swim with the Snake none can say."

"Oh, bravo, Otter!" said Leonard again, bethinking him of an explanation
of the mystery which he did not reveal to Nam. "Well, what was the end
of it?"

"That none know for certain, Deliverer," answered the priest
perplexedly. "At last the Water Dweller, from whose mouth poured blood,
was seen to sink with the dwarf; then he rose again and entered the
cave, his home. But whether the dwarf entered with him, or no, I cannot
say, for some swear one thing and some another, and in the foam and
shadow it was hard to see; moreover, none will venture there to learn
the truth."

"Well, dead or alive, he made a good fight for it," said Leonard. "And
now, Nam, what is your business with us?"

This question appeared to puzzle the priest a little, for, to speak
truth, he did not care to disclose the exact nature of his business,
which was to separate Leonard from Juanna, without force if possible.

"I came here, Deliverer," he answered, "to