"We have found our way into the spider's nest," muttered Zinti, who grew
afraid; "but say, lady, how shall we find our way out of it?"

"Lead on and leave that to me," she answered. "Where I, a woman, can go,
surely you who are a man can go also."

"I trust to your magic to protect us--therefore I come," said Zinti,
"though if we are seen our death is sure."

On they crept across the glen, till presently they heard the sound of
the small waterfall and saw it glimmering faintly through the gloom and
drizzling rain. To their left ran the stream, and on the banks of it
stood something large and round.

"There stands the new hut where Swallow is," whispered Zinti.

Now Sihamba thought for a moment and said:

"Zinti, I must find out what passes in that hut. Listen: do you lie hid
among the rocks under the bank of the stream, and if you hear me hoot
like an owl, then come to me, but not before."

"I obey," answered Zinti, and crept down among the reeds, where he
crouched for a long time up to his knees in water, shivering with cold
and fear.



CHAPTER XVIII