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With four hundred men I can defend the pass against four thousand. To-morrow I'll take you over to see the defences. They're great, Tennys." She dampened his enthusiasm somewhat. "Won't it be an awful joke if the enemy doesn't come?" "Joke! It will be a calamity! I'd be tempted to organize a fleet and go over after them. By the way, I have something fine for you."
Then she leaned forward and strained her eyes as if expecting to see the slender little bottoms of her feet in the tell-tale sand. At that moment the brown band divided into squads, a half dozen coming toward the mountain, the others remaining with the boats. "They are after us, Tennys. I have no weapon but this club, but I will use it as long as I can stand. I'll protect you to the last.
She was nervous, half-crazed, yet true nobility shone above all like a gem of purest ray. "Don't force me to go, Tennys," he pleaded, as she left him to go to her room. "Go now, Hugh go if you love me," she said, turning her miserable face from him. "But what is to become of you of me?" he protested. "We must think only of her. Go! and bring her to see me here!
"By George, they look at us as if they never had seen white people before," said Hugh. With stately tread he approached the now trembling, shrinking natives, holding his left hand aloft to signify graciousness. Lady Tennys walked beside him, a smile playing on her exceedingly pale face. "My good friends, be not afraid," said he. The brown men looked at each other in deeper wonder than before.
"Begin your missionary work with me, Tennys. I am worse than the savages," he said, not in answer to her question. Silently and greedily they ate of the delicious fruit, and found new sensations in the taste of more than one strange viand of nature. A calm restfulness settled down upon their tired bodies, and all the world seemed joyfully at peace with them.
In her eyes there were tears as she uttered these words, tears of courage and pride. "Would that I could have you by my side all through this fight. There is an inspiration in your very gentleness that could make me do prodigious deeds of valor. But, good-by, Tennys! I'll be back for lunch to-morrow!" he cried as he dashed away.
"Yes. My father knew him well. Odd, isn't it? My friends call me Lady Tennys. By the way, you have not told Grace what I told you last night on deck, have you?" she asked. "I should say not. Does she suspect that you know her secret and mine?" he asked in return. "She does not dream that I know. Ah, I believe I am beginning to learn what love is. I worship your sweetheart, Hugh Ridgeway."
He held his hand to his throbbing heart as he turned his gaze toward the door through which she was to come. Inside the great temple the people of Nedra were singing and chanting with anticipant joy; outside the world was smiling benignly. All Nedra gathered about the circle of earth in which Tennys Huntingford was to cast herself at the feet of her husband and lord for all time.
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