“Do you understand their language?”
“I know the chant they were singing. It was learned to the people of Hez by Roderique de Amilo, the founder of the race.”
“Oh!” exclaimed the man, brightening up; “if that is the case, you can, most likely, make yourself understood to them. Are you acquainted with the language in which the chant is sung?”
“I am.”
“Then advance to that man over there and ask him who and what they are, and what they are going to do with us.”
He pointed to the king, who stood with bowed head, as he spoke.
Azurma at once obeyed, and when she began talking the king lifted his head and nodded in a pleased manner.
He replied to all the girls’ questions, who, in turn, translated the conversation to Lacy.
The substance of it was that the people were really called Naztecs, and that their race had been in existence for hundreds of years.
For the past century the population had gradually dwindled, from some unknown cause, and they now numbered scarcely seven hundred, all told.