At the approach of the group, human forms had appeared on the flat roofs and peered down upon the prisoners with curious eyes.  As soon as the captives entered the square, the number of spectators increased; they came out from the interior, from lower stories, down from the upper tier, men, women, and children.  They descended into the square, and the whole population of the village, about four hundred souls, gathered around the strangers and their guard.  All the able-bodied men were not among them.  A dozen videttes were distributed on the flat roofs, and nearly fifty warriors, hastily armed and equipped, had scattered at some distance from the buildings along the hills throughout the basin, to intercept a possible flight, as well as to guard approaches in case the two prisoners should be merely advance scouts of a larger body of enemies.  Of all this Hayoue and Zashue knew nothing, of course; but they noticed that the throng about them was not friendly, that an ominous silence prevailed.  Hardly a whisper was heard; a few women only gesticulated wildly.

The Tanos dropped the hands of their captives, but they remained around them still.  For a long while they were left to stand; nobody brought them food, nobody offered them water to allay their thirst.  The whispering grew louder; it sounded like murmured threats.

At last the hands of the strangers were again seized and they were led across the square to the northeastern corner.  The throng opened in front of them as they advanced, closing in behind, and all following like children after a procession.  Some ran along the walls, eager to be near and on hand when the strangers came up.  Their curiosity was soon gratified, for the square was small.  At the foot of one of the notched beams another halt was made.  Two of the guards climbed up and exchanged a few words with an Indian sitting on the roof.  Then Hayoue was signalled to follow.  A Tano came behind him; after him Zashue, and then two armed men.  The crowd had meanwhile closed up against the wall, pressing eye and ear against the air-holes, out of which the firelight shone.  Nobody attempted to climb the roof, but all remained below, a moving, wrangling crowd of people illuminated by the placid light of the moon.

Another delay occurred on the roof.  The wanderers heard loud talking beneath their feet, and concluded that the council sat in a room below, and that they would be led before that august body.  There was some consolation in this fact, for it showed at least that they would not be slaughtered at once.  But how should they defend themselves?  Nobody understood their language, any more than they understood that of the Tanos!  The situation seemed desperate.  Hayoue, as well as Zashue, felt helpless; but they had to submit to the inevitable.  After all, death would put an end to everything; it is beautiful at Shipapu,—­there is constant dancing and singing; the girls are always young and the women never too old.