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old priestess."
"Maybe so," replied Green. "But they must hold religious services of some sort here. There's a big pile of human skulls on the other side of the cave mouth, and also a stake covered with bloodstains.
"We can do two things. Go on down the other side of this hill, jump off onto the plain and take our chances there. Or else hide inside the cave and hope that because it's taboo nobody will explore it to look for us."
"It seems to me that's the first place they'd look into," said Aga.
"Not if we don't wake the old woman. Then if the savages come along later and ask her if anybody's come by they'd get no for an answer."
"What about the cats?"
Green shrugged his shoulders. "We'd have to take that chance. Perhaps, if once we get by them and into the cave, they may quiet down."
He was referring to their caterwauling, which was beginning to sound dreadful.
"No," said Aga, "that noise will be a signal to the islanders. They'll know something's up."
"Well," replied Green, "I don't know what you intend doing, but I'm going into that cave. I'm too tired to run any further."
"So are we," affirmed the other women. "We've reached the end of our strength."
There was a silence, and into that silence came a voice, a man's.
It whispered, "Please do not be startled. Be quiet. It is I...."
Miran stepped out of the shadows behind them, holding his finger to his lips, his one eye round and pale in the moonlight. He was a ragged captain, not at all the elegantly uniformed commander of the Bird of Fortune and the wealthy-appearing patriarch of the Clan Effenycan. But he carried in his other hand a canvas bag. Green, seeing it, knew that Miran had managed somehow not only to escape with his skin but had also carried off a treasure in jewels.
"Behold," he announced, waving the bag, "all is not lost."
Green thought that he was referring to the jewels. However, Miran had turned and beckoned to someone in the darkness behind
