ho feigned to sleep. And then he and she talked for a long time. Then
the white man got up and went to Nanakin, the chief, and talked long
with him also.

"Said Nanakin the chief, 'O White Man, thou art full of cunning, and my
heart is with thee. Yet what will it profit me if Red-Hair dies?'

"'All that is now his shall be thine,' said Harry.

"'And what shall I give thee?' said Nanakin.

"'Only Luliban,'" said the White Man with the tattooed body.

*****

"On the morrow, as the day touched the night, the people of Jakoits
danced in front of Nanakin's house, and Harry, with flowers in his hair
and his body oiled and stained with turmeric, danced also. Now among
those who watched him was Luliban, and presently her husband sought her
and drove her away, saying; 'Get thee to my house, little beast. What
dost thou here watching this fool dance!'

"Harry but laughed and danced the more, and then Red-Hair gave him foul
words. When the dance was ended, Harry went up to Red-Hair and said,
'Get thee home also, thou cutter of sleeping men's throats. I am a
better man than thee. There is nothing that thou hast done that I cannot
do.'

"Then Nanakin, whose mouth was ready with words put therein by Luliban,
said, 'Nay, Harry, thou dost but boast. Thou canst not walk under the
water in the Deep Pool with a heavy stone on thy shoulder--as Red-Hair
has done.'

"'Bah!' said Harry. 'What he can do, that I can do.'

"Now, for a man to go in at one end of this pool here"--and Niya nodded
her head to the waters at her feet--"and walk along the bottom and come
out at the farther end is no great task, and as for carrying a heavy
stone, that doth but make the task easier; but in those days there were
devils who lived in a cave that is beneath where we now sit, and none of
our people ever bathed here, for fear they would be seized and dragged
down. But yet had Red-Hair one day put a stone upon his shoulder, and
carried it under the water from one end of the pool to another--this to
show the people that he feared no devils. But of the cave that can be
gained by diving under the wall of rock he knew nothing--only to a few
was it known.

"'Show this boaster his folly,' said Nanakin to Red-Hair, who was
chewing his beard with wrath. And so it was agreed upon the morrow that
the two white men should walk each with a stone upon his shoulder, in
at one end of the deep pool and come out of the other, and Harry should
prove his boast, that