"Where is she?" asked Beekman.
"Let someone go for Truda. Let her be brought here," said Kobo.
One of the younger women started in the direction of Truda's hut, when, from a clump of trees to the right of the temple, around which the path ran, appeared the two women who had been appointed to watch Truda. The girl herself was between them. Each one clasped an arm. She came along the path without reluctance, her head held high. She shot a glance at her lover which reassured him. He instantly realized the explanation of the happy chance which had saved him, temporarily at least.
Truda had somehow escaped, had got the books, entered the church through the rear doorway as before, and had replaced the books on the altar. What it had cost her he could well understand. Old Kobo stared at the three in amazement.
"How did you come here?" he cried to the two women. "I told you to keep Truda in her house."
"While we watched the door, O Kobo, she escaped through the window. When we found out we searched for her."
"And then?"
"We saw her--" the woman hesitated.
"Where was she?"
"At the back of the taboo house," Answered the younger woman in awe-struck voice, "with the things of the god in her arms."