anxious to have these silly little pieces of metal.'
David Innes smiled. He was thinking of how typical it was of woman that even this little cave girl had no sense of the value of money, before she even knew what money was, or what it was for. 'You had better let Ope and Furp have their silly little pieces of metal,' he said. 'I think you will live longer if you do; for these little pieces of metal men will commit murder.'
'It is all very strange,' said O-aa. 'I do not understand it, but I do not dare ask questions because a Noada is supposed to know everything.'
'And I suppose that Pu is supposed to know more than a Noada,' remarked David, with a wry smile.
'Of course,' said O-aa. 'As I know everything that there is to be known, you must know everything that there is to be known, and a great deal that there isn't to be known.'
'There is one thing that I don't know, but that I would like to know very much,' he said; 'and that is where Dian is, and whether she is still alive. After that I would like to know how we are going to get out of here and get back to Sari. You would like to get back, wouldn't you, O-aa?'
'It makes no difference to me now,' she said, sadly. 'Since Hodon the Fleet One was killed by Blug I do not care where I am.'
'But Hodon was not killed by Blug,' said David. 'It was Blug who was killed.'
'And I ran away thinking that Hodon was dead and that I would have to mate with Blug,' exclaimed O-aa. 'Oh, why didn't I wait and see! Tell me, where is Hodon?'
'Before I left Sari he asked for a ship and some men that he might go out upon the Lural Az and search for you; for he received the message that you sent to him in the event that he was not dead.'
'And he will never find me,' said O-aa, 'and he will be lost on that terrible ocean.'
After a while the people came back and brought offerings for Pu. David Innes saw the little pieces of metal and he smiled—crude little coins, crudely minted. For these the high priest and the king would drag the goddess from her pedestal; and doubtless kill her into the bargain. Unquestionably, these men of the Bronze Age were advancing toward a higher civilization.
O-aa took a handful of the coins and threw them to the people, who scrambled, screaming, upon the floor of the temple, fighting for them. Ope the high priest and Furp the go-sha looked on with sullen scowls, but O-aa felt safer now because she had Pu right there at her side.
After the people had left the temple Ope and Furp remained; and Ope, suddenly emboldened by his anger at the loss of so many pieces of metal, said to David, 'How is it that you are so much older than the Noada?' O-aa was momentarily horrified, for she recalled that, she had once told Ope and Furp that she was the mother of Pu. She had also told them that Pu did everything she told him to do. To be a successful liar one must be quick to cover up; so, before David could answer, O-aa answered for him.
'You should know, Ope, being my high priest, that a Noada may look any age she wishes. It pleases me not to look older than my son.'
David Innes was astounded by the effrontery of the girl. Metaphorically, he took his hat off to her. These people, he thought, would look far before they could find a better goddess than O-aa.
Ope, the high priest, tried another tack. 'Will Pu, who knows all, be kind enough to tell our Noada that she should not throw away the pieces of bronze that the people bring here as offerings?'
David thought that since he was supposed to know all, it would be best to pretend that he did.
'The Noada was quite right,' said David. 'She has done this to teach you not to exact so much from the people. I have known for a long time that your priests were demanding more from them than they could afford to give; and that is one reason why I came from Karana to talk with you; and with Furp, who also exacts more in taxes than he should.'
Ope and Furp looked most unhappy; but Furp spoke up and said, 'I must pay my warriors and keep the city in repair; and Ope must pay the priests and keep up the temple.'
'You are telling Pu the things that he already knows,' said David. 'Hereafter you will exact less taxes and fewer offerings; demanding only what you require for the proper maintenance of the city and the temple.'
Ope was a simple fellow, who believed against his will that this was indeed Pu the god; and he was afraid; but Furp was a skeptic, as well as something of an atheist; at least, he bordered on atheism. But, with Ope, he bowed to the will of Pu; at least temporarily, and with mental reservation.
'There are many things that trouble my mind,' said Ope to David, 'Perhaps you will explain them to me. We have always been taught that there was Pu; and that he had one daughter, who was our Noada. But now I am not only told that Pu is the son of our Noada, but that she had three fathers, eleven brothers, and four sisters, all of the latter being Noadas.'
Even O-aa flushed at the recital of this bare-faced lie which she had told Ope in order to impress him with her knowledge of conditions in Karana. For a moment she was lost, and could think of nothing to say. She only wondered what reply David Innes would make.
'It is all very simple,' he said, 'when you understand it. As my high priest, Ope, you must know that Pu is all-powerful.'
Ope nodded. 'Yes, of course, I know that,' he said importantly.
'Then you will understand why it is that Pu can be either the son or the father of your Noada. We can change about as we wish; and the Noada can, have as many brothers, or as many sisters, or as many fathers, as I wish her to have. Is that clear to you?'
'Perfectly clear,' said Ope. But it was not clear to Furp; and when he left the temple he started to implant in the minds of many a suspicion that the man who had come down out of the skies was not Pu at all, nor was the woman a true Noada. Furp planted the seed and was willing to wait and let it germinate, as he knew it would.
III
IT HAPPENED that when Hodon the Fleet One reached the coast of Amoz, to set sail upon the Lural Az in search of O-aa, that Raj, the Mezop who had commanded the Sari, was there; and Hodon asked Raj to come with him and take command of the little ship in which he and his warriors were about to embark.
The Mezops were a seafaring people, and Hodon was fortunate in obtaining the services of one to command his ship; and it was also additionally fortunate that it was Raj, because Raj knew exactly where the Sari had been abandoned; and he also knew the winds and the ocean currents. Knowing these, and where they would ordinarily have carried the Sari, Raj set his course for the mouth of the nameless strait. After many sleeps they reached it; but they had to stand off for several more sleeps because of a terrific storm, which because of the seamanship of Raj, they weathered.
When the storm, abated the wind and the currents swept the little ship into the mouth of the nameless strait, swept it close past the coast of the Xexot country, and the spot where the wreck of the Sari had lain until the storm they had just weathered had broken her up and removed all vestiges of the clue of the whereabouts of O-aa that it had previously constituted, and which would have led them immediately to the city of Tanga-tanga.
David Innes and O-aa sat upon the dais in the temple of Pu , ignorant of the fact that their friends were passing so near them.
IV
DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL and Gamba, paddling through the nameless strait toward the Korsar Az, did not see the great balloon that passed in the air high behind them. Only a few thousand yards separated Dian the Beautiful and David at that moment; and it was a cruel fate that had prevented them from knowing how close they had been to a reunion; for David could have brought the balloon down on the shore, and Dian could have returned to it.
Dian had seen to it that the canoe was stocked with food and water before they embarked upon their perilous journey. They took turns sleeping as they let the current carry them along. Time and again they were attacked by fearful creatures of the deep, for this strange thing upon the surface of the water attracted many to
