“Away, I tell thee, to thy white-painted ship, and trouble me no more,”
and he slapped the stock of his musket, and his white teeth gleamed
savagely through his bearded face.
So the two missionaries went back, and the _Morning Star_ filled away
again and sailed slowly away to the westward.
*****
That night as the three girls lay on the mats beside the dying embers
of the fire, they talked of the strange white men whom Sralik had driven
away.
Ninia the widow listened to them from her corner of the house, and then
she said musingly--
“I, too, have heard of this God Christ; for when Haré, thy father, lay
in my arms with the blood pouring from his wound and death looked out
from his eyes, he called upon His name.”
Young Ninia and her sister drew closer and listened. Never until now had
they heard their mother speak of their white father's death. They only
knew that some unknown enemy had thrust a knife into his side as he lay
asleep, and Ninia the widow had, with terror in her eyes, forbidden them
to talk of it even amongst themselves. Only she herself knew that Sralik
had caused his death. But to-night she talked.
“Tell us more, my mother,” said girl Ninia, going over to her, and
putting her cheek against her mother's troubled face and caressing her
in the darkness.
“Aye, I can tell thee now, my children, for Sralik's anger is dead
now.... It was at the dawn, just when the first note of the blue pigeon
is heard, that I heard a step in the house--'twas the death-men of
Sralik--and then a loud cry, and Haré, thy father, awoke to die. The
knife had bitten deep and he took my hands in his and groaned.
“'Farewell,' he said, 'O mother of my children, I die!' Then he cried,
'And Thou, O Christ, look down on and forgive me; Christ the Son of
God.'
“With my hand pressed to his side, I said: 'Who is it that thou callest
upon, my husband? Is it the white man's God?'
“'Aye,' he said, 'this Christ is He whom I have so long denied. He is
the Son of the God whose anger I fear to meet now that my soul goes out
into darkness.'
“'Fear not,' I said, weeping, 'I, Ninia, will make offerings to this
white God and His Son Christ, so that their anger may be softened
against thy spirit when it wanders in ghost-land.'
“So he groaned and was dead. And for six or more moons did I put
offerings to the white God upon thy father's grave as I had promised.
No offerings made I to our own gods, for he despised them even as he
despised his own. But yet do I think his _jelin_ (spirit) is at rest in
ghost-land; else had it come to me in the night and touched me on the
forehead as I slept.”