“Who governs you?” asked the vicomte. “Of course your prince, and the housekeeper told us, three of your oldest men. But is there nothing else?”
“Oh, now and again, some people come from far away, and ask some questions, and get some taxes, they call them. They have need of money, those who send. I know not. They come and they go. We welcome them, and we bid them godspeed.”
“But if two of you should disagree?”
“Then each tells his story to the Three, and they decide. And if they cannot decide, they write to Dylar, whose messenger comes.”
“But if some one accuse you, have you no one to see that no damaging truth, or no lie, is proven against you? Have you no one to speak for you?”
“Why should another tell my story for me? And is it not the truth which all wish to have proven? Are we children? or bees? See, now: if I prove a lie to-day, and gain a pound of silk by it, or a gallon of oil like honey distilled, then the spirits of peace in the air about me are disgusted with the evil scent of my vice, and they fly away, and evil spirits, who love an evil deed, come near; and of three pounds of silk they weave a chain that binds my thoughts all down to that sin I have committed, or of three gallons of bad oil they kindle a lamp in my heart that burns: and the only way to have peace is to go to him I have robbed, and say: ‘I lied; and here are three pounds of silk for the one:’ or, ‘I lied; and here are three gallons of pure oil for one.’ Moreover, the King, when I do evil, is no longer my king; but the Dark One rules over me. What have I gained, though the silk or the oil were like Basil’s gold?”
“Who is Basil?” asked the German, smiling. “And what was Basil’s gold?”
“Basil was a Dylar, one of the first. It is said that he was as wise as Solomon, and could understand the language of all growing things; that he knew what the curl of a leaf meant, or the sob of the wind. He came and went. There are wild stories, that he was borne over chasms. I know not. But he gave his people a message from the earth that he read in a grain of virgin gold.”
The German was shaken by a strong tremor. “The message! The message!” he exclaimed.
The old woman smiled at his eagerness. “Listen!” she said. “‘Dig for your gold, my children, says Earth, your Mother. Deep in your hearts it lies hidden.’”