[_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