"Hell's imps, let the kid stick around if she wants! We'll keep it clean. What's this all about, anyway? I don't get it. Where's this 'Place of the Gods,' and who are Taamuz and Teddy and—?"
"Teddy!" The name leaped from Steve Duane's tongue. He, too, had been vainly trying to decipher the girl's words. Lafferty's altered pronunciation gave him the clue he needed. "Teddy ... Thomas ... Abraham! Mother—this 'Place of the Gods' of which you speak! Is it in Dakota? South Dakota?"
The Mother Maatha answered perplexedly, "Verily, the Place of the Gods is in 'Kota, O Eternal One. But it lies to the north of here, not south. Across the plains of Zurri and 'Braska territories, beyond the Big Water—"
"I thought so!" shouted Steve. "I knew I was right! Chuck, this is terrific! You wouldn't believe—"
"Believe what?" demanded Lafferty. "Thunderation, I don't even understand! Give out! What's it all about?"
"Why, don't you see? The 'gods' these women worship are—"
But not at that moment was Chuck to be let in on his discovery. For there came another interruption, this time in the shape of a warrior messenger.
"They come, O Mother! They come again!"
Alarm dawned swiftly in the old woman's eyes. In an instant she was on her feet.
"Who comes, my daughter? Not the—the Daans?"