"I have come to talk with you, Batando," he said, "of the desert people."
Batando grunted. His head ached.
"Yesterday you said that you would lead them to the entrance to the forbidden valley," said Fejjuan. "You mean, then, that you will not fight them?"
"We shall not have to fight them if we lead them to the entrance to the forbidden valley," replied Batando.
"You speak in riddles," said Fejjuan.
"Listen, Ulala," replied the old chief. "In childhood you were stolen from your people and taken from your country. Being young, there were many things you did not know and there are others that you have forgotten.
"It is not difficult to enter the forbidden valley, especially from the north. Every Galla knows how to find the northern pass through the mountains or the tunnel beyond the great cross that marks the southern entrance. There are only these two ways in—every Galla knows them; but every Galla also knows that there is no way out of the forbidden valley."
"What do you mean, Batando?" demanded Fejjuan. "If there are two ways in, there must be two ways out."
"No—there is no way out," insisted the chief. "As far back as goes the memory of man or the tales of our fathers and our fathers' fathers it is known that many men have entered the forbidden valley, and it is also known that no man has ever come out of it."
"And why have they not come out?"