On the other side of the mound the sounds which had reached the listeners’ ears as a wail now swelled upon the young man as a well-known hymn in which he had many times joined. A feeling of joy, almost amounting to triumph, filled his heart as he stood there listening. While he listened he observed several indistinct forms glide past him and enter the cave. He crept after them.
A strange sight met his eyes. The cave was so large and high that the single torch which burned in it merely lighted up a portion of the wall against which it was fixed. Even in the immediate neighbourhood of the torch things were more or less indistinct, while all else was shrouded in darkness profound. Here more than a hundred dusky figures were assembled—those furthest from the light melting, as it were, into the darkness, and leaving the imagination to people illimitable space with similar beings.
Soa slipped in, and sat down on a jutting rock near the entrance just as the hymn was closing. Few people observed him. Immediately after, an old man who sat nearest the light rose to pray. Beside him stood our friend Ravonino. On the other side sat a young man with a remarkably intelligent countenance.
With intense earnestness and great simplicity the old man prayed, in the name of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit might bless their meeting and deliver them from the power of their enemies. He also prayed with much emphasis that their enemies might be turned into Christian friends—at which petition a loud “Amen” arose from the worshippers.
“Now Totosy will speak,” said the old man, after a brief pause, turning to the young man with the intelligent countenance. “Let the Word be brought forth.”
“Stop!” cried a man, rising in the midst of the crowd, “it may not be safe to bring out the Word just now.”
“Why not, my son?” asked the old man. “Are not all here to-night our friends?”
“I think not,” returned the man. “As I came along I saw one of the Queen’s spies, who is well-known to me. He was walking with the nephew of our deadly foe Rainiharo, and Soa himself sits there!”
He turned as he spoke, and pointed straight at Soa, who rose at once and advanced to the front.
“My friends,” he said, in a gentle voice, “the last speaker is right. I am here, and I was led here by one of the Queen’s spies. But the spy is not here. He awaits me outside. Let two of your young men guard the entrance of the cave so that our conference may not be overheard.”