"She laughed when I cursed her! Then she asked me what I had seen."

"What did you say?"

"To test her I said I had seen her lover, and would know him again
by his smell in the dark!"

"What did she say to that?'

"She laughed again. I tell you the woman has no shame! Then she
said if I would tell that tale to Kagig as soon as I see him she
would reward me with leave to live for one whole week and an extra
hour in which to pray to the devil----meaning, I suppose, that she
intends to kill me otherwise. Then she wheeled her stallion--the
brute was trying to tear out the muscles of my thigh all that time
--and rode away--and I followed--and here I am!"

"How much truth is there in your assertion that you saw her lover?"
Will demanded.

"None. I but said it to test her."

"Why in thunder should she want it believed?"

"God knows, who made gipsies!"

At that moment the advance-guard rode into an open meadow, crossed
by a shallow, singing stream at which Kagig ordered a halt to water
horses. So we closed up with him, and he repeated to us what he