After occupying the new village, Orthis and I were separated, he being assigned a hut close to Ga-va-go, while I was placed in another section of the village. If I could have been said to have been on good terms with any of the terrible creatures of the tribe, it was with the woman who had taught me the language of the Va-gas, and it was from her that I learned why Orthis was treated with such marked distinction by Ga-va-go, whom, it seemed, he had promised to lead to the land of our origin, where, he had assured the savage¹ chieftain, he would find flesh in abundance.  
Nah-ee-lah was confined in still another part of the village, and I only saw her occasionally, for it was evident that Ga-va-go wished to keep the prisoners separated. Upon one occasion when I met her at the shore of the lake I asked her why it was that they had not slain² and eaten her, and she told me that when Ga-va-go had discovered her identity, and that her father was a Jemadar, a ruler of a great city, he had sent messengers with an offer to return Nah-ee-lah for a ransom³ of one hundred young women of the city of Laythe.
 
“Do you think your father will send the ransom?” I asked.
 
“I do not know,” she replied. “I do not see how they are going to get a message to him, for ordinarily, my race kills the Va-gas on sight. They may succeed, however, but even so, it is possible that my father will not send the ransom. I would not wish him to. The daughters of my father’s people are as dear to them, as am I to him. It would be wrong to give a hundred of the daughters of Laythe in return for one, even though she be the daughter of the Jemadar.”
 
We had drunk, and were returning toward our huts when, wishing to prolong our conversation and to be with this pleasant companion while I might, I suggested that we walk farther into the woods and gather fruit. Nah-ee-lah signified her willingness, and together we strolled out of the village into the denser⁴ woods at its rear, where we found a particularly delicious fruit growing in abundance. I gathered some and offered it to her, but she refused, thanking me, saying that she had but just eaten.
 
“Do they bring the fruit to you,” I asked, “or do you have to come and gather it yourself?”
 
“What fruit I get I gather,” she replied, “but they bring me flesh. It is of that which I have just eaten, and so I do not care for fruit now.”
 
“Flesh!” I exclaimed. “What kind of flesh?”
 
“The flesh of the Va-gas, of course,” she replied. “What other flesh might a U-ga eat?”
 
I fear that I ill-concealed my surprise and disgust at the thought that the beautiful Nah-ee-lah ate of the flesh of the Va-gas.
 
“You, too, eat of the flesh of these creatures?” I demanded.
 
“Why not?” she asked. “You eat flesh, do you not, in your own country. You have told me that you raise beasts solely⁵ for their flesh.”
 
“Yes,” I replied, “that is true, but we eat only the flesh of lower orders; we do not eat the flesh of humans.”
 
“You mean that you do not eat the flesh of your own species,” she said.
 
“Yes,” I replied, “that is what I mean.”
 
“Neither do I,” she said. “The Va-gas are not of the same species as the U-ga. They are a lower order, just as are the creatures whose flesh you eat in your own country. You have told me of beef, and of mutton, and of pork, which you have described as creatures that run about on four legs, like the Va-gas. What is the difference, then, between the eating of the flesh of pork and beef or mutton, and the eating of Va-gas, who are low creatures also?”
 
“But they have human faces!” I cried, “and a spoken language.”
 
“You had better learn to eat them,” she said, “otherwise you will eat no flesh in Va-nah.”
 
The more I thought about it the more reason I saw in her point of view. She was right. She was no more transgressing⁶ any natural law in eating the flesh of the Va-gas than do we, eating the flesh of cattle. To her the Va-gas were less than cattle. They were dangerous and hated enemies. The more I analyzed⁷ the thing, the more it seemed to me that we humans of the earth were more surely transgressing a natural law by devouring⁸ our domestic animals, many of which we learned to love, than were the U-ga of Va-nah in devouring the flesh of their four-footed foes¹⁰, the Va-gas. Upon our earthly farms we raise calves¹¹ and sheep and little pigs, and oftentimes we become greatly attached to individuals and they to us. We gain their confidence, and they have implicit¹² trust in us, and yet, when they are of the right age, we slay¹³ and devour⁹ them. Presently it did not seem either wrong or unnatural¹⁴ that Nah-ee-lah should eat the flesh of the Va-gas, but as for myself, I could never do it, nor ever did.
 
We had left the forest, and were returning to the village to our huts when, near the large hut occupied by Ga-va-go, we came suddenly upon Orthis. At the sight of us together he scowled¹⁵.
 
“If I were you,” he said to me, “I would not associate with her too much. It may arouse the displeasure of Ga-va-go.”
 
It was the first time that Orthis had spoken to me since we had occupied this village. I did not like his tone or his manner.
 
“You will please to mind your own business, Orthis,” I said to him, and continued on with Nah-ee-lah. I saw the man’s eyes narrow malignantly¹⁶, and then he turned, and entered the hut of Ga-va-go, the chief of the No-vans.
 
Every time I went to the river, I had to pass in the vicinity of Nah-ee-lah’s hut. It was a little out of my way, but I always made the slight detour¹⁷ in the hope of meeting her, though I had never entered her hut nor called for her, since she had never invited me and realizing her position, I did not wish to intrude¹⁸. I was of course ignorant of the social customs of her people, and feared offending her accidentally.
 
It chanced that the next time that I walked down to the lake shore, following our stroll in the woods, I made my usual detour that I might pass by the hut of Nah-ee-lah. As I came near I heard voices, one of which I recognized as that of Nah-ee-lah, and the other, a man’s voice. The girl’s tones were angry and imperious.
 
“Leave my presence, creature!” were the first words that I could distinguish, and then the man’s voice.
 
“Come,” he said, ingratiatingly. “Let us be friends. Come to my hut, and you will be safe, for Ga-va-go is my friend.” The voice was the voice of Orthis.
 
“Go!” she ordered him again. “I would as soon lie with Ga-va-go as with you.”
 
“Know then,” cried Orthis, angrily, “that you will go, whether you wish it or not, for Ga-va-go has given you to me. Come!” and then he must have seized her, for I heard her cry out, “How dare you lay hands upon me, Nah-ee-lah, princess of Laythe!”
 
I was close beside the entrance to the hut now, and I did not wait to hear any more, but thrusting the hanging aside entered. There they were, in the center of the single room, Orthis struggling to drag the girl toward the opening while she resisted and struck at him. Orthis’ back was toward me and he did not know that there was another in the hut until I had stepped up behind him and grasping him roughly by the shoulder, had jerked him from the girl and swung him about facing me.
 
“You cad,” I said, “get out of here before I kick you out, and don’t ever let me hear of you molesting¹⁹ this girl again.” His eyes narrowed, and he looked at me with an ugly light in them. “Since boyhood, you have cheated me out of all that I wished. You ruined my life on Earth, but now, conditions are reversed. The tables are turned. Believe me, then, when I tell you that if you interfere²⁰ with me you sign your own death warrant. It is only by my favor that you live at all. If I gave the word Ga-va-go would destroy you at once. Go then to your hut and stop your meddling²¹ in the affairs of others—a habit that you developed in a most flagrant degree on Earth, but which will avail you nothing here within the Moon. The woman is mine. Ga-va-go has given her to me. Even if her father should fail to send the ransom her life shall be spared as long as I desire her. Your interference then can only result in your death, and do her no good, for provided you are successful in keeping me from her, you would be but condemning²² her to death in the event that her father does not send the ransom, and Ga-va-go has told me that there is little likelihood of that, since it is scarcely possible that his messengers will be able to deliver Ga-va-go’s demands to Sagroth.”
 
“You have heard him,” I said, turning to the girl. “What are your wishes in the matter. Perhaps he speaks the truth.”
 
“I have no doubt but that he speaks the truth,” she replied, “but know, strangers, that the honor of a princess of Laythe is dearer than her life.”
 
“Very well, Orthis,” I said to the man. “You have heard her. Now get out.”
 
He was almost white with anger, and for a moment I thought that he was going to attack me, but he was ever a coward, and contenting himself with giving me a venomous look, he walked from the hut without another word.
 
I turned to Nah-ee-lah, after the hanging had dropped behind Orthis. “It is too bad,” I said, “that with all your suffering at the hands of the Va-gas, you should also be annoyed by one who is practically of your own species.”
 
“Your kindness more than compensates,” she replied graciously. “You are a brave man, and I am afraid that you are going to suffer for your protection of me. This man is powerful. He has made wonderful promises to Ga-va-go. He is going to teach him how to use the strange weapons that you brought from your own world. The woman who brings me my meat told me of all this, and that the tribe is much excited by the promises that your friend has made to Ga-va-go. He will teach them to make the weapons, such as you slew²³ their ............