Rising from where he sat among the shadows to the rear, Ru strode forward until the firelight was full upon him.
"I will speak to the river-god," he began, while scores of serious little eyes, burning with a new eagerness, were fixed intently upon his slender form. "If you will do all that I tell you, I will find out how to take you across the river. But if you will not do as I tell you, the river-god will devour you! You remember what he did to Kimo the Hairy Mammoth, do you not, my people?"
Grumbled exclamations of fear and horror signified that the people had not forgotten.
"I am the only one that can speak to the river-god," Ru continued, severely. "I know a magic that will save you. But if I use that magic, what will you do for me?"
Ru paused; a hard glitter came into his eyes. "If I use that magic, what will you do for me?" he repeated, with the manner of one that strikes a shrewd bargain.
"What do you want us to do for you?" growled Grumgra, his thick lips twisting into a snarl. "There is nothing we can give. Would you have us throw you the meat we have not?"
"It is not meat I ask!" flung back Ru. "It is something I like better than meat!"
Scores of eyes were fixed upon him in uncomprehending amazement, while earnestly he continued: "For a long, long time, my people, you have not treated me as a brother should be treated. You have said bad things against me, and struck me with sticks and stones, and burned me with fire; and there has been evil laughter in your eyes when you did not understand the things I did. And deep within me there has been a great pain; but you could not see it or know it was there. If I help you, should you not try to take that pain away? Should you not show me that you will treat me as a brother?"
"How can we show you?" grumbled the chieftain, fumbling with his club impatiently. "You ask that which no man can do!"
"I ask that which every man can do!" insisted Ru. "Always you have called me by a name which does not belong to me, and which I do not like. Take that name away, and call me by my right name—and I will ask the river-god to do great things for you. If not—" Here Ru paused, as if to indicate that, unless his request were granted, the gods would avenge him.