back to the face of the Wieroo god, now working in anger.

"Quick!" screamed the thing. "The secret!"

"Will you give me and the girl our freedom?" insisted Bradley.

For an instant the thing hesitated, and then it grumbled "Yes."
At the same instant Bradley saw two hides upon the wall directly
back of the dais separate and a face appear in the opening.
No change of expression upon the Englishman's countenance betrayed
that he had seen aught to surprise him, though surprised he was
for the face in the aperture was that of the girl he had but just
left hidden beneath the hides in another chamber. A white and
shapely arm now pushed past the face into the room, and in the
hand, tightly clutched, was the curved blade, smeared with blood,
that Bradley had dropped beneath the hides at the moment he had
been discovered and drawn from his concealment.

"Listen, then," said Bradley in a low voice to the Wieroo.
"You shall know the secret of cos-ata-lu as well as do
I; but none other may hear it. Lean close--I will whisper
it into your ear."

He moved forward and stepped upon the dais. The creature raised
its sword ready to strike at the first indication of treachery,
and Bradley stooped beneath the blade and put his ear close to
the gruesome face. As he did so, he rested his weight upon his
hands, one upon either side of the Wieroo's body, his right hand
upon the hilt of the spare sword lying at the left of Him Who
Speaks for Luata.