The man and the girl stood before the pool; the still water reflected the stars.
'This is the place,' Baraka said. 'Do you see anything?'
'I see water and a wall of rock,' the man answered. 'I have been here alone by day. I know this place. There is nothing here, and there is no way up the wall.'
Baraka laughed softly. [{9}]
'The secret could not have been kept by my fathers for fourteen generations if it were so easy to find out,' she said. 'The way is not easy, but I know it.'
'Lead,' replied the traveller. 'I will follow.'
'No,' returned the girl. 'I will go a little way down the gorge and watch, while you go in.'
The man did not trust her. How could he tell but that she had brought him to an ambush where he was to be murdered for the sake of his money and his good weapon? The rubies were real, so far as he could tell, but they might be only a bait. He shook his head.
'Listen,' said Baraka. 'At the other side of the pool there is a place where the water from this spring flows away under the rock. That is the passage.'
'I have seen the entrance,' answered the traveller. 'It is so small that a dog could not swim through it.'