“Oh my! Major, family vault child’s
play to this hole, just like——”
here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut
it short with a single glance.
“Sit here in front of me,” she said to
Alan, “and you, Jeekie, sit at your lord’s
side, and be silent till I bid you speak.”
Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw
the cloth or veil she carried over her head, and in
some way that they did not see, suddenly extinguished
the lamp.
Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death,
and in utter silence, the silence of the dead.
No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan it seemed as
though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes
of Little Bonsa, and of all the other eyes set in
the masks of those departed men who once had been
the husbands of the bloodstained priestess of the
Asiki, till one by one, as she wearied of them, they
were bewitched to madness and to doom. In that
utter quiet he thought even that he could hear them
stir within their winding sheets, or it may have been
that the Asika had risen and moved among them on some
errand of her own. Far away something fell to
the floor, a very light object, such as flake of rock
or a scale of gold. Yet the noise of it struck
his nerves loud as a clap of thunder, and those of
Jeekie also, for he felt him start at his side and
heard the sudden hammerlike beat of his heart.
What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he
wondered. Well, it was easy to guess. Doubtless
she had brought them here to scare and impress them.
Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would
speak to them, and they would be asked to believe
it a message from the spirit world, or a spirit itself
might be arranged—what could be easier in
their mood and these surroundings?
Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled
voice. From the tone of it she appeared to be
engaged in argument or supplication in some strange
tongue. At any rate Alan could not understand
a word of what she said. The argument, or prayer,
went on for a long while, with pauses as though for
answers. Then suddenly it ceased and once more
they were plunged into that unfathomable silence.
WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN
It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
He dreamed that it was late autumn in England.
Leaves drifted down from the trees beneath the breath
of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated along the
road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against
a pile of stones that had been laid ready for its
repair. He knew the road well enough; he even
knew the elm tree beneath which he seemed to stand
on the crest of a hill. It was that which ran
from Mr. Champers-Haswell’s splendid house,
The Court, to the church; he could see them both, the
house to the right, the church to the left, and his
eyesight seemed to have improved, since he was able
to observe that at either place there was bustle and
preparation as though for some big ceremony.
