The Priest smoked idly a few minutes longer.

"Where is the other?" he asked again.

"Ask your Golden Man."

"He knows only the dead. Shall I wait?"

"Jus' as you damned please," growled Stubbs.

He saw no use in trying to pacify this devil. Even if he had seen a
hope, it would have gone too much against him to attempt it. He felt
the same contempt for him that he would of a mutinous sailor; he was
just bad,--to be beaten by force and nothing else.

The yellow teeth showed between the thin lips.

"The bearded men are like kings until--they lie prostrate like
slaves."

Stubbs did not answer. His thoughts flew back to Wilson. He pictured
his return to find his partner gone. Would he be able to climb out of
that ill-fated hole without aid? It was possible, but if he succeeded,
he might fall into worse hands. At any cost he must turn suspicion
aside from that particular spot. Apparently it had as yet no especial
significance, if its existence were known at all, to the natives.

"My partner," said Stubbs, deliberately, "has gone to find the girl."

"And you waited for him--up there in the sun?"

"Maybe."

"He had better have remained with you."

"There would have been some dead niggers if he had."

"My friend," said the Priest, "before morning I shall know if you have
told the truth this time. In the meanwhile I shall leave you in the
company of my children. I hope you will sleep well."

"D' ye mean to keep me tied like this till morning?"

"I see no other way."

"Then damn your eyes if----"

But he bit off the phrase and closed his eyes against the grinning
face before him. As a matter of fact, he had made a discovery which
brought with it a ray of hope. He found that with an effort he was
able to bring his teeth against the rope where it passed over his
shoulder. His hands were tied behind his back, but with the slack he
would gain after gnawing through the rope, he would be able to loosen
them. They had taken his revolver, but they had overlooked the hunting
knife he always carried within his shirt suspended from his neck--a
precaution which had proved useful to him before. The very thing he
now hoped for was that they would leave him as he was.

The Priest departed and did not appear again. The three brown men
settled down on their haunches and fell into that state of Indian
lethargy which they were able to maintain for days, every sense
resting but still alert. With their knees drawn up to th