"But—how came she to trace you here?"
"Ah! that's just what I have been inquiring of her, and she has been trying to explain to me. You know these four-footed friends of ours have a good deal of difficulty in communicating with us—through our stupidity, bless you, not theirs. They can understand us a great deal better than we can comprehend them. Nelly knows very well what I ask her, and she answers my question; but I don't in the least understand what she says."
"But—when did she come? You know that."
"She came in the nick of time to fly at Moloch's throat and hold him till Satan came to deliver me."
Here the girl burst into a peal of laughter that almost offended Sybil, who gravely inquired:
"What is the matter?"
"I am laughing at your hallucination that Satan came to deliver you."
"What do you mean?" inquired Sybil, surprised and displeased at the girl's untimely mirth.
"Why, you goose," laughed Gentiliska, "don't you know, can't you see, that Satan is a hundred times worse and a thousand times more dangerous than Moloch? I tell you that Captain 'Inconnu' came to your cave on the same errand that brought his lieutenant here. Only, as he happened to be the last comer, and as he found the other here, he chose to take credit as your deliverer! Bosh! your little dog saved you. No other under Heaven did!"
"How do you know these facts?"