But with the others it was different: they had heard the singing, they had seen the regiment of great men prostrate themselves, and the sound of worshipping had come to their ears like thunder; but of the why and wherefore of it all they could only guess.
"What has happened?" said Leonard eagerly; "your initiation seems to have come off well."
"Bid the men fall back and I will tell you," Juanna answered.
Leonard did so, but instead of speaking she broke into hysterical laughter. Her nerves had been over–strained, and now they sought relief thus.
"You must all be very respectful to Otter and myself," she said at length, "for we really are gods—don't look shocked, Francisco, I begin to believe in it myself. We have only just found it out, but I assure you it is a fact; they accepted us fully, and that after not more than five minutes' cross–examination. Listen!" And she told them all that had passed.
While she was speaking the regiment began to move, no longer in a square, but in a formation of companies. Company by company it rushed past them, shaking the earth with its footsteps, and as each section went by it tossed its spears into the air as a salute, crying: "Glory to the Mother! glory to the Snake!" and fled on towards the city.
At length the story was done and the regiment was gone.
"Well," said Leonard, "so far so good. Juanna, you are the bravest and cleverest girl in the whole world. Most young women would have forgotten everything and gone into hysterics at the critical point."
"I kept them till afterwards," she answered demurely. "And as for being brave and clever, I only repeated what Soa taught me like a parrot; you see I knew that I should be killed if I made any mistake, and such knowledge sharpens the memory. All I have to say is, if the Snake they talk so much about is anything like those which are tattooed upon the old priests' breasts, I have no wish to make a nearer acquaintance with it. I hate snakes. There, don't say any more"—for both Leonard and Francisco were breaking out into fresh protestations of gratitude and admiration; "if you want to thank anybody, thank Soa!"
"And so I do," said Leonard heartily, for his spirits had risen in a most wonderful manner. "Soa, you have told us the truth, and you have managed well and I thank you."
"Did you then take me for a liar?" the woman answered, fixing her gloomy eyes upon Leonard's face. "I told you the truth, Deliverer, when I said that my people would accept the Shepherdess and this black dog of yours as their gods. But did I not tell you also that the death of the rest of us lies in the matter? If not, I say so now. You have not been named a god, Deliverer, nor has yonder Bald–pate"—the natives called Francisco thus because of his tonsure—"and your black dog will betray you by his yapping. When you look down the jaws of the Snake, remember then that Soa told you the truth, Deliverer. Perchance you shall find the red stones you seek hidden in his belly, White Man."
"Be silent," said Juanna indignantly, and Soa slunk back like a whipped hound.
"Confound the old woman!" put in Leonard with a shiver. "She is a black Jonah, and if I have to go inside this snake I hope that it will be a case of ladies first, that is all."
"I am sure I don't know what has happened to Soa," said Juanna. "Her native air has a very bad effect upon her temper."
"Well, the future must look after itself," answered Leonard, "snake or no snake. At present we must follow our luck. Otter, listen to me. Do you understand that you are a god, the god of this people?"
"The god, Baas? What is a god?"
"Have I not told you, thickhead? You are not a man any more, you are a spirit. Once, so it seems, you ruled this people in the past, and now you will rule them again. You and the Shepherdess are both gods. She is your mother and you are her child."
"Yes, Baas, no doubt; but once I had another mother, a much uglier one."
"Otter, cease to talk folly, else when you are no more a god I will beat you. Now you are a god, and we are all your servants, except the Shepherdess. When you speak to us you must speak roughly, like a great chief to the lowest of his people, calling us dogs and slaves. If you name me 'Baas' in public, I will beat you privately when you are no more a god. You will do best to speak little or not at all, so that none can take hold of your words, which are always foolish."
"If you say that I am a god, Baas, it is enough, for doubtless you have met the gods and know their ways, though it is strange that none have told me this before. They must be an ugly people, the gods! But how will it be with the Settlement men when they hear that I am a great spirit? They will say: 'Does a spirit wait upon a man and call him chief? Does a spirit clean the guns and cook the food of a man?' They will ask many such things, and the Great people will hear them. And will they think then that I am a god? No, they will know me for a liar, and will kill me and all of us."
"That is true," said Leonard. Then he summoned Peter and the Settlement men and addressed them. He told them that the plot had succeeded, and that Otter and the Shepherdess were accepted as the gods of the People of the Mist. Because of this they were left alive and held in honour, who, but for it, would now be dead, riddled through with the arrows of the Great People. He explained to them for the second time that it was necessary to the safety of all that this delusion as to the divinity of Otter and the Shepherdess should be maintained, since, if the slightest suspicion of the fraud crossed the minds of the Great People, without doubt they would all be sacrificed as impostors.
This was the tale that they must telclass="underline" —They should say that all of them were hunting game in a far country with himself, Soa, and Francisco, when one night they heard a singing, and by the light of the moon they saw the Shepherdess and the dwarf Otter coming towards them. Then the Shepherdess and Otter commanded them to be their servants and travel with them to a new land, and they obeyed them, black and white together, for they saw that they were not mortals.—This was the tale that they must tell; moreover, they must act up to their words if they would continue to look upon the sun.
But their first surprise was past, the Settlement men, who were quick–witted people, entered into the spirit of the plot readily enough; indeed, Peter caused them to repeat the story to him, so that he might be sure that they had its details by heart.
Then they continued their march towards the city on the hill. The two white men went first, next came Juanna and Otter followed by Soa, and last of all walked the Settlement men. An hour's journey brought them to the bank of the river, which, dividing above it, engirdled the town, to reunite near the roadway that they followed. Here canoes were ready to take them across to the island, or rather the peninsula, on which the city was built. On the other side of the river they found priests waiting in the great gateway with two litters that had been prepared for Juanna and Otter respectively. This, the further bank, was lined with some thousands of spectators, who, when the divine pair set their feet upon its shores, prostrated themselves, men, women, and children, and burst into a shout of welcome.
Juanna and Otter took no heed. With such dignity as they could command, and in the dwarf's case it was not much, they entered the litters, drew the hide curtains, and were borne forward swiftly. After them came Leonard, Francisco, and the others, while the population followed in silence.
Now the sun was sinking, but enough of daylight was left to show how strange were the place and the people among which they found themselves. The city, indeed, was rudely built of like materials and in similar fashion to the house in the plain that has been described already. But the streets were roughly paved; each habitation stood apart from the other in its own garden, and the gates were of wood, fastened together with primitive iron bolts. There were drinking–shops, or rather booths, and a large market–place, which they crossed as they ascended the hill, and where, as they afterwards discovered, this people carried on their trade, if trade it could be called, for they had no money, and conducted all transactions like other savages, upon a principle of barter.