He
walked out of the Council-room, and the others sat still, looking at the
ground.
"'Billy Fish,' says I to the Chief of Bashkai, 'what's the difficulty here? A
straight answer to a true friend.'
"'You know,' says Billy Fish. 'How should a man tell you who knows everything?
How can daughters of men marry Gods or Devils? It's not proper.'
"I remembered something like that in the Bible; but, if after seeing us as
long as they had, they still believed we were Gods, it wasn't for me to
undeceive them.
"'A God can do anything,' says I. 'If the King is fond of a girl he'll not let
her die.' 'She'll have to,' said Billy Fish. 'There are all sorts of Gods and
Devils in these mountains, and now and again a girl marries one of them and
isn't seen any more. Besides, you two know the Mark cut in the stone. Only the
Gods know that. We thought you were men till you showed the sign of the
Master.'
"I wished then that we had explained about the loss of the genuine secrets of
a Master Mason at the first go-off; but I said nothing. All that night there
was a blowing of horns in a little dark temple half-way down the hill, and I
heard the girl crying fit to die. One of the priests told us that she was
being prepared to marry the King.
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