and the three captains stared at
Otter like men who think they see a ghost.

But one person in that company kept her head, and that person was Soa.
The captain who guarded her had loosed his hold; silently she slunk back
into the shadows, and, unseen of any, vanished through the doorway by
which she had been led in. A minute passed, and Otter, thinking that he
heard a noise without that door of the cell whereby the two priests had
entered, which had been left ajar, went to it and tried to open it. Just
then, also, Olfan missed Soa.

"Where is the woman, Nam's daughter?" he cried.

"It seems that she has escaped and shut us in, King," answered Otter,
calmly.

Followed by the others, Olfan sprang first to the door of the cell where
they were, and then through the connecting passage to that of Juanna's
prison. It was true, both were closed.

"It matters nothing, here are the keys," said Leonard.

"They will not avail us, Deliverer," answered Olfan, "for these doors
are made fast without by bars of stone thicker than my arm. Now this
woman has gone to rouse the college of the priests, who will presently
come to kill us like caged rats."

"Quick!" said Leonard, "waste no time, we must break down the doors."

"Yes, Deliverer," said Nam mockingly; "batter them in with your fists,
cut through the stone-work with your spears; surely they are as nothing
to your strength!"

CHAPTER XXXVII

"I AM REPAID, QUEEN"

Their position was terrible. Soa had escaped, and Soa knew everything.
Moreover, she was mad with hatred and longing for revenge on Leonard,
Otter, and in a less degree on Olfan the king. Had they succeeded in
revealing themselves to the people, all might have gone well, for Otter
and Juanna would certainly have been accepted as true gods, who had
passed and repassed the gates of death scatheless. But now the affair
was different. Soa would tell the truth to the priests, who, even if
they were inclined to desert her father in his extremity, must strike
for their own sakes and for that of their order, which was the most
powerful among the People of the Mist, and had no desire to be placed
under the yoke of secular authority.

It was clear to all of them that if they could not escape, they
must fall very shortly into the hands of the priests, who, knowing
everything, would not dare to allow them to appeal to the army, or to
the superstition of the outside public. The only good card they held was
the posse