“Cease, I pray lady, cease,” said Oros, stirred for once out of his imperturbable calm.  “She is the Minister, none other, and with her goes the Power.”

“Then it goes not against Atene, Khania of Kaloon,” she answered, “or so I think.  Power, forsooth!  Let her show her power.  If she has any it is not her own, but that of the Witch of the Mountain, who feigns to be a spirit, and by her sorceries has drawn away my guests”—­and she pointed to us—­“thus bringing my husband to his death.”

“Niece, be silent!” said the old Shaman, whose wrinkled face was white with terror, whilst Oros held up his hands as though in supplication to some unseen Strength, saying—­“O thou that hearest and seest, be merciful, I beseech thee, and forgive this woman her madness, lest the blood of a guest should stain the hands of thy servants, and the ancient honour of our worship be brought low in the eyes of men.”

Thus he prayed, but although his hands were uplifted, it seemed to me that his eyes were fixed upon our guide, as ours were.  While he spoke, I saw her hand raised, as she had raised it when she slew or rather sentenced the witchdoctor.  Then she seemed to reflect, and stayed it in mid air, so that it pointed at the Khania.  She did not move, she made no sound, only she pointed, and, the angry words died upon Atene’s lips, the fury left her eyes, and the colour her face.  Yes, she grew white and silent as the corpse upon the bier behind her.  Then, cowed by that invisible power, she struck her horse so fiercely that it bounded by us onward towards the village, at which the funeral company were to rest awhile.

As the Shaman Simbri followed the Khania, the priest Oros caught his horse’s bridle and said to him—­“Magician, we have met before, for instance, when your lady’s father was brought to his funeral.  Warn her, then, you that know something of the truth and of her power to speak more gently of the ruler of this land.  Say to her, from me, that had she not been the ambassadress of death, and, therefore, inviolate, surely ere now she would have shared her husband’s bier.  Farewell, tomorrow we will speak again,” and, loosing the Shaman’s bridle, Oros passed on.

Soon we had left the melancholy procession behind us and, issuing from the gorge, turned up the Mountain slope towards the edge of the bright snows that lay not far above.  It was as we came out of this darksome valley, where the overhanging pine trees almost eclipsed the light, that suddenly we missed our guide.

“Has she gone back to—­to reason with the Khania?” I asked of Oros.

“Nay!” he answered, with a slight smile, “I think that she has gone forward to give warning that the Hesea’s guests draw near.”

“Indeed,” I answered, staring hard at the bare slope of mountain, up which not a mouse could have passed without being seen.  “I understand—­she has gone forward,” and the matter dropped.  But what I did not understand was—­how she had gone.  As the Mountain was honeycombed with caves and galleries, I suppose, however, that she entered one of them.