[_All stir uneasily except Slag, who sits motionless in the doorway._

OOGNO

Do they believe us, master?

SLAG (_half turning his head_)

Someone comes.

[_Slag resumes his position._

AGMAR (_putting away his meat_)

We shall soon know now.

[_All take up the att.i.tude. Enter One, loquitur._

ONE

Master, I want the G.o.d that does not eat.

AGMAR

I am he.

ONE

Master, my child was bitten in the throat by a death-adder at noon.

Spare him, master; he still breathes, but slowly.

AGMAR

Is he indeed your child?

ONE

He is surely my child, master.

AGMAR

Was it your wont to thwart him in his play, while he was strong and well?

ONE

I never thwarted him, master.

AGMAR

Whose child is Death?

ONE

Death is the child of the G.o.ds.

AGMAR

Do you that never thwarted your child in his play ask this of the G.o.ds?

ONE (_with some horror, perceiving Agmar's meaning_)

Master!

AGMAR

Weep not. For all the houses that men have builded are the play-fields of this child of the G.o.ds.

[_The Man goes away in silence, not weeping._

OOGNO (_taking Thahn by the wrist_)

Is this indeed a man?

AGMAR

A man, a man, and until just now a hungry one.

CURTAIN

THE THIRD ACT

_Same room._

_A few days have elapsed._

_Seven thrones shaped like mountain-crags stand along the back of the stage. On these the beggars are lounging. The Thief is absent._

MLAN

Never had beggars such a time.

OOGNO

Ah, the fruits and tender lamb!

THAHN