"What does this mean?" said Raiden. "Why do you run away so quickly? Have you anything to conceal?"
"You must let us see what it is," said Nata, with his good-natured laugh.
All the sailors had waked; they collected in one hut. The two men were brought before the Prince. Each wore on his head a mushroom-shaped hat, which hid half his face; on the shoulders of each was a rude cloak of unbraided straw, which made him look like a thatched roof. They dripped with rain.
"Who are you?" asked Nagato.
They looked at the Prince with a bewildered, simple air; one of them stammered out something unintelligible.
"Speak more distinctly," said Nagato. "Who are you?"
Then the two cried together: "Peasants."
Loo, who was sitting on the ground, chin in hand, watching them, burst out laughing.
"Peasants!" said he; "monkeys you'd better say. Your assumed simplicity ill conceals your malice."
"Why did you try to run away?" said the Prince.