"Remember," warned the captain as he passed Polaris. "Patience and that strong heart of yours shall carry you far before your sun goes down."
He went out and the door closed after him.
"What does he mean, with his talk of slaves and the mines and all those strange names?" Rose Emer asked wonderingly. "Where are we?"
Polaris told her all that he had learned from the captain. She heard him with wide eyes.
"You—a slave!" she cried. "Ah, no, not that? Is it to be like this all our lives—to see happiness just ahead of us, but never reach it? Fate cannot be so cruel. Think what you have endured. And now to be a slave here in this terrible foreign land!"
Perhaps Fate was listening then—Fate, who can be both cruel and kind, sordid and splendid, according to her whim. She had played many strange tricks on this man. But she now decreed that he should never serve the king Bel-Ar as a slave.
Soon after the departure of Oleric, the door of the cabin was opened again, and an armored man entered. It was he of the black beard, whom Polaris rightly guessed to be the captain of the fademe. With him came three other men, unarmored, who evidently were members of the crew of the craft.
Sturdy, black-haired fellows these were, dressed alike in loose, neckless blue tunics of some woven material, with elbow-sleeves, and belted in at the waist. Beneath the tunics they wore long, close-fitting nether garments like the hose of the Middle Ages, only these were both hose and trousers, too. On their feet were shoes of soft leather, the tops of which came nearly to their knees, and which were laced with gay-colored cords. Their heads were covered with flat caps of cloth which resembled somewhat the tam-o'-shanters of the Scots. Those, too, were dyed in bright colors.
With a motion of his arm the captain indicated to Rose and Polaris that they were to leave the cabin. The girl still was weak from her swoon, and tottered when she stood, and her garments were wet and bedraggled. Polaris wrapped her in the robe of furs with which Oleric had covered her, and lifted her in his arms. As he did so, one of the sailors spoke harshly and snatched at the robe. He was clumsy, and his fingers caught in Rose's unbound hair and pulled it so that she winced.