who he gave us to understand was the Queen of the Amahagger, and learn
her wishes.

I asked him how long he proposed to be away, and he said that by
travelling hard he might be back on the fifth day, but there were many
miles of marsh to cross before he came to where _She_ was. He then said
that every arrangement would be made for our comfort during his absence,
and that, as he personally had taken a fancy to us, he sincerely trusted
that the answer he should bring from _She_ would be one favourable to
the continuation of our existence, but at the same time he did not wish
to conceal from us that he thought this doubtful, as every stranger
who had ever come into the country during his grandmother's life, his
mother's life, and his own life, had been put to death without mercy,
and in a way he would not harrow our feelings by describing; and this
had been done by the order of _She_ herself, at least he supposed that
it was by her order. At any rate, she never interfered to save them.

"Why," I said, "but how can that be? You are an old man, and the time
you talk of must reach back three men's lives. How therefore could _She_
have ordered the death of anybody at the beginning of the life of your
grandmother, seeing that herself she would not have been born?"

Again he smiled--that same faint, peculiar smile, and with a deep bow
departed, without making any answer; nor did we see him again for five
days.

When we had gone we discussed the situation, which filled me with
alarm. I did not at all like the accounts of this mysterious Queen,
"_She-who-must-be-obeyed_," or more shortly _She_, who apparently
ordered the execution of any unfortunate stranger in a fashion so