So when
they came to a passage up the rocks, he halted his forty men, and
through Karduk demanded if the way were clear.
Negore looked at it shortly and carelessly. It was a vast slide
that broke the straight wall of a cliff, and was overrun with brush
and creeping plants, where a score of tribes could have lain well
hidden.
He shook his head. "Nay, there be nothing there," he said. "The
way is clear."
Again Ivan spoke to Karduk, and Karduk said:
"Know, strange brother, if thy talk be not straight, and if thy
people block the way and fall upon Ivan and his men, that thou
shalt die, and at once."
"My talk is straight," Negore said. "The way is clear."
Still Ivan doubted, and ordered two of his Slavonian hunters to go
up alone. Two other men he ordered to the side of Negore. They
placed their guns against his breast and waited. All waited. And
Negore knew, should one arrow fly, or one spear be flung, that his
death would come upon him. The two Slavonian hunters toiled upward
till they grew small and smaller, and when they reached the top and
waved their hats that all was well, they were like black specks
against the sky.
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