"And if I set you free, whither would
you go? You could tumble down yonder gorge, but only the birds can climb
its heights."
"To the Fire-mountain, where we have business."
Rassen stared at him.
"Is it I who am mad, or are you, who wish to visit the Fire-mountain?
Yet that is nothing to me, save that I do not believe you. But if so
you might return again and bring others with you. Perchance, having
its lady, you wish this land also by right of conquest. It has foes up
yonder."
"It is not so," answered Leo earnestly. "As one man to another, I tell
you it is not so. _I_ ask no smile of your wife and no acre of your
soil. Be wise and help us to be gone, and live on undisturbed in such
fashion as may please you."
The Khan stood still awhile, swinging his long arms vacantly, till
something seemed to come into his mind that moved him to merriment, for
he burst into one of his hideous laughs.
"I am thinking," he said, "what Atene would say if she woke up to find
her sweet bird flown. She would search for you and be angry with me."
"It seems that she cannot be angrier than she is," I answered. "Give us
a night's start and let her search never so closely, she shall not find
us."
"You forget, Wanderer, that she and her old Rat have arts. Those who
knew where to meet you might know where to seek you. And yet, and yet,
it would be rare to see her rage.
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