crifice us then, O my Lord Jiravai; and let all Mangeroma
see what will happen, and whether any dependence is to be placed on the
words of Inaguy."

The battle was won, and Macoma knew it. So also did the king; for
absolute monarch though he was, there were certain things which he dared
not do, and to go against the directly spoken word of the god Anamac,
and that, too, when the word was the first which the god had ever
condescended to utter--was one of them. Therefore, making the best of
what he now perceived to have been a serious mistake, King Jiravai
smiled across the open space at the now triumphant Macoma, and said:

"It is well, Macoma, I did but try thee. But now, perhaps, having had
time to think, thou may'st be able to say what sacrifice, other than
human, we may acceptably offer to Anamac."

Macoma shook his head. The king had given him, to say nothing of the
other priests, a very nasty five minutes, and even now, when the danger
was past, his nerves were all a-quiver from the shock of finding himself
suddenly looking into the eyes of death; moreover he was a man who did
not easily forgive; he was unwilling to abate one jot of his triumph,
therefore he answered:

"Nay, Lord, I am still unable to answer thee, excepting in so far as
this. Let Inaguy be recalled, and let him put thy question to our Lord
Anamac, and if the god refuses to reply, then I say let Inaguy be
sacrificed as a deceiver."

"Thou hast answered well, Macoma," retorted the king. "It shall be as
thou sayest; and if our lord replies through his mouth it shall be a
sign that Anamac prefers Inaguy to thee, and Inaguy shall be chief
priest in thy stead."

Thus neatly did Jiravai turn the tables upon the man who, a moment
before, had been congratulating himself upon having got the best of the
king in a public battle of wits.

Meanwhile, Dick and Earle had been interested watchers of the scene; and
although the language in which the king and the chief priest had been
sparring was strange to them, they caught a word here and there which
sounded so nearly like words with the same meaning in the language with
which they were by this time becoming fairly conversant, that they were
able to follow, without very much difficulty the general trend of the
conversation, including that portion of it in which Macoma had ventured
to cast a doubt upon Inaguy's _bona fides_. And although Earle had no
great liking for the task of exercising his ventri