"Do you know him?" Elwig asked her brother. "Do you know this prisoner?"
"Off with you!" was Neroweg's brusque answer. "Get you gone!"
He then proceeded to contemplate me with renewed interest and repeated:
"Yes, it is he; the horseman of the bay steed!"
"Did you ever meet him in battle?" again asked Elwig. "Answer me. Do answer me!"
"Will you be gone!" repeated Neroweg now raising his pike over the head of the priestess. "I told you before, be gone!"
My eyes at that moment caught sight of the group of black warriors. I saw that their captain Riowag could hardly be restrained by his men from drawing his sword, and revenging the insult offered to Elwig by Neroweg.
But so far from obeying her brother, and no doubt fearing that in her absence I might reveal to the Terrible Eagle both her own fratricidal projects and the secret of Victoria's presents which she coveted, Elwig cried:
"No! No! I remain here! The prisoner belongs to me for my auguries. I shall not go away. I shall keep him—"
The only answer that Neroweg vouchsafed his sister were several blows with the handle of his pike, delivered over her back. He thereupon made a sign, and several of the warriors who accompanied him violently drove the priestess, together with the haggish old assistant, back into the cavern at the mouth of which they posted themselves on guard, sword in hand.