“Haste, sahib!  The Mother is infuriated at the long waiting, and I go to make sacrifice to appease her. Haste, for it is not good for man if she stamps with both her holy feet.  Come, and struggle not!  Nay, look not at me in such fashion lest I lay the stress of my will upon you.”

He looked so frail, that for an instant the white man had been tempted to fling himself upon him, and find deliverance for himself and his beloved by choking the wizened neck, or cracking the old pate against the stones.

But one is rather at a disadvantage when thoughts are liable to be read, and plans disclosed before they are even matured; and he walked submissively towards the ring in the wall, and seated himself abjectedly upon the floor, just as a handful of plaster inserted itself between his neck and the open collar of his shirt, and the back of his head bumped the wall.

“Something like a slight——­”

“Haste, sahib!  I must away to placate Kali, the Goddess of Destruction.  There is not long now to wait for the great sacrifice for which she has waited all these weary years; and then, and only then, shall the plague, and the pestilence, and the famine be ended, and the people of India return to their old-time happiness.”

He never once removed his eyes from those of the man beneath him, and Cuxson sighed with relief, well content that the glaring eyes should not move beyond his face.

Having knotted the thongs tightly, the old man straightened himself, and smiled up at the silvery heavens in the ecstasy of his worship.

“Such sacrifice, O Mother, as thou hast longed for, and which has long been forbidden thee through the might of the white man who rules us.  The temple is strewn with flowers, and the flames of hundreds of lights shine in thy fish-shaped eyes, thou daughter of the eternal snows.”  He looked down suddenly to Cuxson, and bending, whispered in his ear.  “The white woman approaches, O feringhee, even she who has caused this land to travail in agony all these years.  And you shall see her, she shall come to you and know you not, and you shall hear her voice upraised in worship as she lies upon the altar at her Mother’s feet while you are bound to the ring in the wall.  She has done well in worship, even in sacrifice, but it is in her rich warm blood that Kali the Terrible would lave her hands.  Struggle not, for behold, although I have lifted my will from you that you should be tormented even as my race has been tormented by a woman of your land, yet will the ring and the hide hold you fast.”

Like some huge bird of prey he ran swiftly back across the flags and disappeared behind the mass of stones, and Cuxson, not daring to move for fear of tightening the thongs, sat almost numb with anxiety as he wondered if his luck would hold at the crucial moment.

Except for the crash of the frightened animals as they fought their way through the undergrowth, there was no sound whatever in the place, but as the moon took her seat above the exact centre of where once had been the temple roof, he moved, and leant forward as far as the two feet of raw hide would allow him, and from between his clenched teeth there came one word: