all follow them."

"You swear it," said the priest contemptuously: "you are come to this,
that you will sacrifice your revenge to satisfy your greed, O White Man
with a noble heart! Now I will outdo you, for I, who am not noble, will
sacrifice my life to disappoint you of your desires. What! shall the
ancient holy treasure of the People of the Mist be stolen by two white
thieves and their black hound? Never! I would have killed you all had
time been granted to me, but in that I failed, and I am glad that I have
failed, for now I will deal you a bitterer blow than any death. May the
curse of Jal and Aca cleave to you, you dogs without a kennel! May you
live outcasts and die in the dirt, and may your fathers and your mothers
and your children spit upon your bones as I do! Farewell!"

And shaking his disengaged hand at them he spat towards them; then with
a sudden motion Nam hurled himself backwards off the point of rock and
vanished into space, bearing the treasure with him.

For a while the three stood aghast and stared at each other and the
point of rock which had been occupied by the venerable form of the late
high priest; then Juanna sank upon the snow sobbing.

"It is my fault," she wailed, "all my fault. Just now I was boasting to
myself that I had won wealth for you, and I have lost everything. And we
have suffered for nothing, and, Leonard, you are a beggar. Oh! it is too
much--too much!"

"Go out there, Otter," said Leonard in a hoarse voice, pointing to the
place where Nam had hurled himself, "and see whether there is any chance
of our being able to climb down into the gulf."

The dwarf obeyed and presently returned shaking his head.

"It is impossible, Baas," he said; "the walls of rock are sheer as
though they had been cut with a knife; moreover there is water at the
bottom of them, as the old wizard said, for I can hear the sound of it.
Oh! Baas, Baas, why did you not kill him at first, or let me kill him
afterwards? Surely I told you that he would bring evil on us. Well, they
are gone and we can never find them again, so let us save our lives if
we may, for after all these are more to us than bright stones. Come now
and help me, Baas, for I have found two flat rocks that will serve our
turn, a big one for you and the Shepherdess, since doubtless she will
fear to make this journey alone, and a smaller one for myself."

Leonard followed him without a word; he was too heart-broken to speak,
while Juanna