"This small jar contains some dye from the juice of a plant which will turn your hair black--at least, as they use it for dyeing the skins of animals black, I suppose it will affect your hair."
Roger at once took off his gaudy attire, and was stained from head to foot with the contents of the jug, and then rubbed his hair with the liquid from the smaller vessel. Then he put on the peasant's clothes.
"You will pass well, now," Cuitcatl said, heading him out in the moonlight, so that he could obtain a good view of him. "It is only your height that is against you. Still, some men are taller than others; though I never saw one as tall as you, and you will certainly be stared at.
"Is there anything else in the way of arms you would like, beside the ax and spear?"
"I shall make myself a bow and arrows, when we get fairly away," Roger said.
"I did not know you could use them."
"I could not use such little things as those your people carry; but we still use the bow in England, and every boy is obliged, by law, to practice with it. With such a bow as I should make, I could send an arrow three times as far as those puny weapons of yours, and could keep my foes at a distance; whereas, otherwise, they could shoot me down as they chose."
"They will not shoot you down," Cuitcatl said. "You may be quite sure that the orders will be to take you alive, and this will give you a great advantage, if you are attacked. But I must be going up now to the palace again, to show myself, for a time, among our friends. Just as the moon sets I will be here."
"Will you thank the queen and princess for their kindness," Roger said, "and say that, much as I should like to say goodbye to them, I would not that they should run any risks by coming to see me?"
"They will come," Cuitcatl said, "unless I am greatly mistaken. The princess would come, even if her uncle Montezuma were, himself, watching her."