He walked out of the
Council-room, and the others sat still, looking
at the ground.
??????Billy Fish,??™ says I to the Chief of Bashkai,
???what??™s the difficulty here? A straight
answer to a true friend.??™ ???You know,??™ says
Billy Fish. ???How should a man tell you
who know everything? How can daughters
of men marry gods or devils? It??™s not
proper.??™
???I remembered something like that in the
Bible; but if, after seeing us as long as they
had, they still believed we were gods it
wasn??™t for me to undeceive them.
??????A god can do anything,??™ says I. ???If
the King is fond of a girl he??™ll not let her
die.??™ ???She??™ll have to,??™ said Billy Fish.
???There are all sorts of gods and devils in
these mountains, and now and again a girl
marries one of them and isn??™t seen any more.
Besides, you two know the Mark cut in the
stone. Only the gods know that. We
thought you were men till you showed the
sign of the Master.??™
??????I wished then that we had explained
about the loss of the genuine secrets of a
Master-Mason at the first go-off; but I said
nothing. All that night there was a blowing
of horns in a little dark temple half-way
down the hill, and I heard a girl crying fit
to die. One of the priests told us that she
was being prepared to marry the King.
??????I??™ll have no nonsense of that kind,??™
says Dan. ???I don??™t want to interfere with
your customs, but I??™ll take my own wife.
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