T. S. Stribling

“ Lassiter continued his attentive attitude and the girl continued.
“YOU see, during the day, the sun climbs over the heavens on a great cord, such as you see in the web. By night it slides down behind Motobatl and sails under this lake and comes out in the teocalla. Now if my brothers and sisters in the sun are hungry, our sacrifice will vanish as the sun passes under the lake; but if they are not hungry, it will remain and the priests will eat it because it is holy meat.” ”

“ The fitness of the girl's faith gave Lassiter a queer but intense satisfaction. It seemed as decorative mentally, as, physically, were the curves of her body or her fluent step. Nunes and his irritation faded from the promoter's mind.
They followed the sandy beach with the vicuna making little runs past them and being drawn up short by the cord. A small headland of stone broke the swing of the sand and projected out into the lake three or four hundred yards ahead of them. A stony, irregular path led from one of the entrances of the teocalla down to this head land. ”

“ To say something he asked—
“Do they all live with you, señora?”
“Only one is here in Motobatl, primo.”
The agent dropped his small talk and became alert. “Where do the others live?”
“My others—my thirteen—” the hag glanced at Gogoma, then raised her eyes to the glitter of light high up in the baobab top—“why my fourteen little ones are in the sun, primo.”
“The sun,” repeated Lassiter blankly.
“Si, primo, my fourteen niñas (babies) are in the sun.”
This queer statement left the promoter out of the small change of conversation. He couldn't get his mind back to trifles. ”

“ A little later the girl took her platter and jars to go home. Balthasar sprang up and relieved her of all her burdens and went with her.
Lassiter watched them walk away with clear-cut distaste. It seemed odd that the girl did not see through the absurdity of Balthasar's tales and the grossness of his flattery. He attributed to the girl his own sensitiveness. In fact, a man always sees a reflection of his own qualities in any woman he admires. A man's love is about two-thirds self-esteem.
The satisfying dinner and the hush of noon sent the promoter back to his cubicle and into his hammock. ”

“ The American picked up the lamb with a queer sensation, at this, the first religious rite he had ever performed in his life. The pet vicuna lay in his arms and began nuzzling at his poncho after the fashion of lambs. ”

“ The old crone quacked in laughter, came closer with that familiarity a sense of kinship lends, seized his arm and drew it about her waist.
“Behold us, Gogoma,” she paraded in ironic gaiety, “brother and sister from a line of brave men and beautiful señoras! ”

“ He meant to think out the endless conundrums his situation imposed upon him.—Where were Prymoxl's fourteen children?—Had Gogoma or any of his men climbed up on the cliff to slay their mules?—All of this suggested there was a secret road out of Motobatl.—He was vaguely ashamed of having stopped Birdsong in his effort to proselyte Tilita.—He yawned.—If there were no escape from Motobatl, such a girl as Tilita would greatly ameliorate the——
Overhead stretched the green gloom of the paddlewood, through which penetrated a ray or two of noon-tide fulgor. He stared hazily up into the green caverns. ”

“ VI IT REQUIRED ten, perhaps twelve, minutes for Gogoma's information that no man had ever escaped from Motobatl really to register on Lassiter. A sort of shocked questioning formed in the New Yorker's mind. He felt he had not heard distinctly.
“No man ever got out?” ”