as to be read there, for it was impossible
to pierce the mask of solemn calm beneath which, in common with all
his race, the king was accustomed to hide his thoughts. He leant on the
shaft of his broad spear, his head bowed slightly as though in humility,
his dark eyes fixed upon her face, immovable, impassive, a picture of
savage dignity.

Indeed, Juanna was fain to confess to herself that she had never seen a
grander specimen of the natural man than that presented by the chief of
the People of the Mist, as he stood before her in her rock prison. The
light of the candles fell full upon him, revealing his great girth and
stature, beside which those of the finest men of her own race would
have seemed insignificant. It shone upon the ivory torques, emblems of
royalty, which were about his neck, wrists, and ankles, upon the glossy
garments of black goat-skin that hung from his shoulders and middle, and
the raven tresses of his hair bound back from his forehead by a narrow
band of white linen, which showed in striking contrast against the clear
olive colouring of his face and breast.

"Speak, Olfan," said Juanna at length.

"It was told to me, Queen," he answered in a low, full voice, "that you
had words to say to me. Nevertheless, now as always, I obey you. Queen,
I learn that your husband, he whom you loved, is dead, and believe me, I
sorrow for you. In this shameful deed I had no hand; that, together with
the end of the other white man and the dwarf, must be set down to the
account of this priest, who swears that he was driven to it by the
clamour of the people. Queen, they have all gone across the mountains
and through the sky beyond, and you, like some weary dove, far travelled
from a southern clime, are left a prey among the eagles of the People of
the Mist.

"But a few hours since I thought you dead also, for with all the
thousands in the temple I believed that it was your fair body which Nam
hurled at dawn from the brow of the statue, and I tell you that when I
saw it, I, who am a warrior, wept and cursed myself, because, although
I was a king, I had no power to save you. Afterwards this man, the high
priest, came to me, telling me the truth and a plan that he had made for
his own ends, whereby you might be saved alive and lifted up among the
people, and he also might be saved, and my rule be made sure in the
land." And he ceased.

"What is this plan, Olfan?" asked Juanna, after a pause.

"Queen, it is that y