“Now where have they gone?” said Leonard—“to climb the cliff by another path and cut us off?”
“I think not, Deliverer,” answered Olfan, “for I know of no such path. I think that they have gone to bring heavy beams by means of which they will batter down the ice wall.”
“Still there is such a path, King,” said one of the captains, “for I myself have often climbed it when I was young, searching for snow-flowers to bring to her whom I courted in those days.”
“Can you find it now, friend?” asked Olfan eagerly.
“I do not forget a road that I have trod,” said the captain, “but it is one not easy to follow.”
“See now, Shepherdess,” said Olfan after thinking awhile, “shall we take this man for a guide and return down the cliff to the city, for there, unless fate is against us, we may find friends among the soldiers and fight out this battle with the priests.”
“No, no,” answered Juanna almost passionately, “I would rather die than go back to that dreadful place to be murdered at last. Do you go if you will, Olfan, and leave us to take our chance.”
“That I cannot do, Queen, for I am sworn to a certain service,” he said proudly. “But hearken, my friend; follow this path of which you speak, if you can do so in the darkness, and find help. Then return swiftly to this spot where I and your two comrades will hold the priests at bay. Perchance you will not find us living, but this I charge you, if we are dead give it out that the gods have left the land because they were so evilly dealt with, and rouse up the people to fall upon the priests and make an end of them once and for ever, for thus only shall they win peace and safety.”
Making no reply, the man shook Olfan and the other two captains by the hand, saluted Juanna, and vanished into the darkness. Then they all sat down in front of the mouth of the tunnel to wait and watch, and very glad were they of the goat-skin cloaks which had belonged to the priests, for as the night drew towards the dawn, the cold became so bitter that they could scarcely bear it, but were obliged to rise and stamp to and fro to keep their wet feet from freezing.
“Leonard,” said Juanna, “you do not know what passed after Nam trapped you,” and she told him all the tale.