"And I love you, Beek-man," answered Truda in return just as simply as he had spoken. "You know that. I would gladly give my life for yours, and I shall follow very soon. You will wait for me?"
"Let him talk with his God, if he will, in these last moments," answered Kobo.
"When Truda is yours you can make her forget what she had learned."
"But I will never belong to Hano," cried Truda.
With a quick movement she broke loose from the women who held her on the outskirts of the crowd. She leaped up the wall of the amphitheatre that wound around a little distance away from the rest, and there she stood poised.
"Truda," cried Beekman, who was placed where he could see her every movement, "what would you do?"
"Stop," cried the girl in the language of the island, as Hano started for her, followed by the others coming up with the staves. "Let no one come near me. Hano and Kobo, stand forth."
Such was her imperious emphasis that her command was at once obeyed. The two addressed separated themselves from the crowd, which halted, but Hano again started for the girl.
"If you come nearer, I shall leap over," she said quickly. "Stand where you are, Hano."
He stopped in the face of this threat and stood as if rooted to the spot.
"Beek-man has broken the taboo," said the girl in the deep silence. "Perhaps you do right to punish him--"
"O Truda," groaned Beekman under his breath, but if the girl heard, she made no sign.
"He came from the deep. You may return him there, but he came alive, and you must return him alive."
"You must send him down through the place where the water falls. You must unbind him. You must give him what he brought, the sharp thing that cuts and the bright thing that strikes. You must give him food."
"We can wall it up with stones," said Kobo.
"Will you give this man life?" cried Hano.
"If you do not," continued Truda, "if you do not swear by the god to do as I say--"
"I will throw myself over the cliff before your eyes."
"O Truda!" exclaimed Beekman again, but in a different way, for now he understood.
Now the most determined character of them all was Hano. There was an assurance in the girl’s words that carried conviction to his mind, at least. If she threw herself over the cliff, she would be hopelessly lost to him, and the fact that he could wreak vengeance on Beekman would not bring her back.