THE VETtBTCT 
 OF THE GODS 
 
 KOMAT? GHOSH 
 
'BERKELEY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 NIVEttEirr OF 
 CALIPOANIA 
 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 HORACE W. CARPENTIER 
 
HerMrt af tl?* 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY 
 THE PEARSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Published February 
 
ver 
 
 Brbiratrh 
 
 no <o 
 Sty* "<gr*ai King" or tit* 
 
 6w <o 
 (Srrat King, ICiiti^nf SCinija, S>nprFinr JSulrr 
 
 That some day he may restore in his own person the 
 
 glory of Akbar and Prithiraj and Vik- 
 
 rama, and gather around his 
 
 throne " The Nine Gems 
 
 of Ind." 
 
 476 
 
CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 \halayat 1 
 
 I IN THE GARDEN or THE PALACE 3 
 
 II ON THE TOWER OF VICTORY 30 
 
 III THE WELL OF TEN THOUSAND SIGHS 59 
 
 IV THE AWAKENING OF THE DEAD 74 
 V TONGUES OF FIRE 96 
 
 VI THE MAGIC SPELL 142 
 
 VII IN THE GRIP OF THUGS 163 
 
 VIII THE TEMPLE OF THE MANIK 196 
 
 IX THE SERPENT'S TOOTH 227 
 
 X THE POISONED CUP 245 
 
 XI THE VERDICT OF PARAMESHWAR 264 
 
 Epilogue 307 
 
SIlluHtrattnttfi 
 
 FRONTISPIECE 
 
 FACING PAOI 
 
 " HE WAS SEEN TO STAND . . . AND BAL- 
 ANCE HIMSELF WITH DISTENDED ARMS " 40 
 
 " THE GURU THRUST IT FORWARD FACE TO 
 
 FACE WITH THE KING " 86 
 
 " HOLDING IT ALOFT BY THE TAIL ... HE 
 
 APPROACHED ONE OF THE GUARDS*' 110 
 
 " NARAYAN LAL CAUGHT UP THE SERPENT 
 
 IN HIS RIGHT HAND BY THE TAIL " 240 
 
 " SHE CUT FRANTICALLY AT THE CORDS 
 
 THAT BOUND NARAYAN LAL " 286 
 
Great King lay sick upon his 
 crystal couch; his hand beat weary 
 time upon the silken sheets ; a soft- 
 handed slave held a goblet of cool 
 sherbet; another a dish of scented pan; another 
 a tray of delicate sweetmeats. And another, 
 standing at the head of the couch, wafted a 
 fan of fragrant kuskus to soothe his fevered 
 brow. 
 
 But the Great King was sick unto death. 
 
 A hundred beautiful handmaids had sung to 
 him from behind pin j ra-lattice with esthraj, 
 saringi and sethar. A hundred lordlings had 
 come to him and upon their knees had praised 
 the virtues of his four-score ancestors, saying 
 that he was the Son of the Gods. A hundred 
 sages had gathered around him and quoted the 
 sacred Vedas, saying that the Son of the Gods 
 was also the Son of immortality and could never 
 die. 
 
But the Great King was sick unto death. 
 
 Then, at the hour of night, the royal physi- 
 cian bethought him of a wondrous cure. There 
 dwelt by the palace-gate a white-haired man 
 a skilful weaver of pearls of words and an en- 
 chanter of the mind. He sent for the Story- 
 teller to beguile the Great King in his weary 
 hours. The Great King was sick unto death, 
 his heart full of thoughts of death. Perchance 
 the Story-teller might send new hope into his 
 heart. 
 
 " Tell me, O Wise One," asked the King from 
 his pillow, " the most wonderful tale thou 
 knowest of human peril. The nine rows of 
 pearls around my neck shall be thy reward." 
 
 " To hear is to obey, O Light of the Uni- 
 verse ! " replied the Story-teller, bowing his 
 head even to the fringe of the golden quilt. 
 Then seating himself upon the carpet, he began 
 this tale. I, the faithful chronicler of the 
 Great King, listening from the other side of the 
 couch, have written it here in such words as you 
 may understand, O best beloved readers ! 
 
IN THE GARDEN OF THE PALACE 
 
 NOW, O Splendour of the Earth, 
 that when thy slave was but a youth, 
 there dwelt on the thrice-blessed land 
 that lies between the sacred waters of 
 the Jumna and the Gangese, a king who had an 
 only child, a daughter, who was unto him as the 
 apple of his eye. 
 
 The Princess Devala was a wondrous beauty ; 
 a houri of paradise, a peri of Indra's court. At 
 her birth the Goddesses Parvathi, Sarasathi, 
 and Lakshmi had endowed her with their celes- 
 tial gifts. Her eyes were like black diamonds, 
 her lips like red rubies; her face shone like 
 creamy gold, and her hair like a raven's wing. 
 
 The king swore by the ashes of his fore- 
 fathers that no prince was yet born worthy to 
 mate with her. So he kept her in her maiden- 
 hood till past her seventeenth year. She played 
 
If* Hrriiiri af ify? <g0&0 
 
 with her maids in the champak groves and lotus 
 beds that surrounded the garden-house of the 
 palace. But no face of man had she seen 
 save her father's. 
 
 Then the king, going forth one evening to 
 gaze upon the setting sun, stood by a pool 
 adjoining his daughter's apartments. His 
 bosom was smooth as the water at his feet. But 
 suddenly it became a raging sea. Chancing to 
 look upon the pool somewhat on one side he saw 
 the reflection of a scene something that went 
 like a sword to his heart, something that dried 
 up the blood in his face. 
 
 He looked up and saw. There stood the 
 Princess Devala at her unbarred window 
 alone unveiled. There was a smile upon her 
 lips and a love-light in her eyes. 
 
 Beneath the window stood a young man, his 
 face uplifted, his hands upon his breast. Eyes 
 calling to eyes, heart yearning for heart. 
 Enough ! 
 
 The cry of anguish that broke from the king 
 made the princess turn. She threw up her 
 4 
 
SFlje leriUI 0f ilj? (80 & a 
 
 hands suddenly, as if to avert some impending 
 doom then fell back fainting. 
 
 The young man came and knelt by the king. 
 He thrust out his neck and awaited the blow. 
 But the king still played with the hilt of his 
 sword. 
 
 " Strike, O King ! " cried out the youth in 
 the agony of suspense. " Why dost thou not 
 strike?" 
 
 " Fear not, O miserable one ! " spoke the king, 
 in a level voice. " The earth will soon drink thy 
 blood ! But it is not meet that my untarnished 
 blade should spill it." 
 
 He clapped his hands, and a dozen guards 
 appeared. 
 
 " Draw thy tulwar," he bade the foremost, 
 " and sever that head." 
 
 The menial swung his heavy tulwar, held it 
 aloft a moment then suddenly dropped the 
 point to the ground. 
 
 " I cannot ! " he muttered between his teeth. 
 " This man hath a charm ! " 
 
 The king silently motioned to the second 
 5 
 
Elf* TEUrMri nf ttjt <0J>a 
 
 guard. But he likewise could not strike, crying 
 out : " This man is protected by a spirit ! " 
 
 And so the third and the fourth, and all the 
 rest unto the twelfth. Some mystic force held 
 their arms so they averred. Perchance it was 
 merely that they had recognised the man. 
 
 He was Narayan Lai, the juggler of the 
 king ; his father, the great Hira Lai of Benares, 
 had been the Court juggler before him. Thus 
 perchance by his arts had he effected the meet- 
 ing with the princess, which no other man 
 could ; and thus also, perhaps, had he now 
 infused some subtle fear into the hearts of his 
 executioners. 
 
 " Give me thy sword," the king bade the 
 nearest guard ; " myself will deal the blow." 
 
 But the youth raised his head and said to the 
 king: 
 
 " Strike with thine own blade, King ! I 
 am of Kshattric blood ! " 
 
 " It is false ! Thou art the son, the un- 
 worthy son, of Hira Lai, my bondsman." 
 
 "The reputed son, O King! A Rajput 
 6 
 
SIf? Uerfciri nf tttt <Sn&0 
 
 father gave me life ! " He flung back his head, 
 and looked his master full in the face. Even a 
 king could not spill Rajput blood in ignominy. 
 
 " But I nursed thee at my bosom, fed thee 
 with my smiles, and clothed thee with my 
 favours. And thou are a traitor most per- 
 jured. Thou hast brought shame upon my 
 beard." 
 
 This was his first allusion to the crime of the 
 youth that the by-standers could divine. 
 
 " The full moon may shine upon an earth- 
 worm, O King ! " 
 
 " But the earth-worm may not cry out to the 
 full moon ! " 
 
 He was not an earth-worm. He called him- 
 self that to measure his lot by that of the 
 princess. 
 
 " The Kshattrics are of royal caste, O 
 King ! " The words rang out like a heron's cry. 
 They were full of a sudden pride that no shame 
 could subdue. 
 
 This was his last hope. It was a challenge 
 upon whose issue depended more than life. The 
 7 
 
laws of caste were above royal caprice. They 
 were the hall-mark of fate, the destiny of the 
 gods. 
 
 The king stood aghast in speechless wrath, 
 as if a thunder-bolt from the blue had fallen 
 upon him. 
 
 " Prove it, thou presumptuous dog ! Prove 
 thy Kshattric blood ! " 
 
 " That is my prayer." 
 
 The young man paused awhile to give time 
 for the shot to rankle. The king himself had 
 cried for proof. His word was passed. Proof 
 he would have. 
 
 " Put me to the ordeal," spoke the youth, 
 arising from his knees and standing face to 
 face; " it is a Rajput's right. If I die, I have 
 lied. If I escape unscathed, I am innocent of 
 thy charge. And may Parameshwar 1 decide 
 between me and my king." 
 
 " So be it. Not once, but six times, shalt thou 
 face death and taste of its agony. Thy blood 
 
 *God of the Universe. Under this title the Hindus 
 really profess but one Supreme Being. 
 
 8 
 
Jfe Herfciri 0f tlje (8060 
 
 be upon thy head. Upon the Tower of Victory 
 shalt thou meet thy fate. I have spoken." 
 
 " And my reward, if not once, but six times, 
 I am victor over death? " It was a bold bid 
 that only a doomed man would have dared to 
 make. 
 
 " Thy Kshattric blood will find its own re- 
 ward," answered the king, with a smile of un- 
 fathomable bitterness, as he went into the 
 palace. 
 
 Was this a tantalising hope to dangle before 
 his glazing eyes as he lay gasping out his last 
 breath? Did the king mean these words? He 
 clutched at the hope with a frantic grasp 
 
 But the guards fell upon him, and binding 
 him with many chains, carried him within the 
 palace walls. Yet, when passing a dark corri- 
 dor, a small treble voice called out after them 
 no man knew from where: 
 
 " Fear not ! Wait watch hope ! " 
 
 That night, as they sat by the palace gate, 
 one guard asked of another : 
 
 " Brother, whose voice was that? " 
 9 
 
Sly? ISrr&tri nf ilf* C&0&0 
 
 " A boy's, surely," answered the other, 
 knowing nothing of the prisoner's crime. 
 
 " Pardon, good sirs, it was a woman's ! " 
 whispered a man as he passed by the gate. 
 
 They looked at him keenly. His head was 
 shaven, but for a tuft at the crown. His naked 
 breast and arms were scarred with self-inflicted 
 wounds, and upon his forehead was painted in 
 vermilion the broad trident of Vishnu. Per- 
 chance he had heard from the other guards the 
 tale of the king's wrath. 
 
 They recognised him. Seventeen years be- 
 fore had he suddenly come amongst them the 
 same year that Hira Lai, of Benares, had 
 entered the king's service. No man knew who 
 he was, who his father, or his father's father. 
 They called him Rama Krishna, for he was a 
 devotee of Vishnu that was incarnated as 
 Krishna and Rama. 
 
 He was wont to mingle with the poor and 
 outcast, and eat of a beggar's gift. Yet some- 
 times in the midst of a half-spoken word they 
 had noted the voice of a man born to command, 
 10 
 
lf? UerMrl 0f lly* (Softs 
 
 and in his eye had seen the piercing gaze before 
 which the greatest in the land had quailed with 
 fear. But now he was the devotee, the teacher 
 of the people. 
 
 He held a withered forefinger to his over- 
 hanging eyebrow, and smiled grimly at the 
 two. 
 
 " They are all alike, good sirs. Women ever 
 preferred a handsome face to a wise head. This 
 one will surely be heard again." 
 
 Then before they could ask him to unravel 
 his mysterious words, he vanished into the 
 dark. 
 
 " A pundit and a philosopher," spoke the 
 first guard. " We may see him yet at the 
 ordeal." 
 
 " Ay unto the sixth ! " answered back a 
 deep guttural voice from the darkness of 
 night. 
 
 Within curtained walls there was the sound of 
 weeping and wailing by night, and the silence 
 of the grave by day. From within palace walls 
 11 
 
all peace was fled, all joy, all happiness. Deep 
 sorrow reigned in the heart of the king the 
 heart of the father. For seventeen years had 
 he loved and cherished this child of his latter 
 days ; had concentrated upon her the last frenzy 
 of an old and barren and widowed heart. For 
 seventeen years had he dreamt of the coming of 
 a prince worthy to mate with his daughter and 
 perpetuate his ancient race; a prince that was 
 destined to become a king among kings, a hero 
 among a galaxy of heroes. . . . And in- 
 stead he had found his daughter's heart given 
 to a menial at his door for verily he could not 
 be a prince to one that seemed to him to have 
 violated every law of gratitude and of loyalty, 
 of sanctuary itself, to gain her heart. 
 
 The soul of the king was steeped in the 
 waters of bitterness. The heart of the father 
 was bereft of its only love. 
 
 And within the inner palace the soul of the 
 princess was pining with love with filial love 
 that had been to her a lifelong heritage and a 
 moral law; was pining with unrequited love, 
 
because the answering love was now denied her 
 by her father. 
 
 But the heart of the maiden, as woman, not 
 as princess with all the passion of womanhood, 
 its yearnings, its subtlest joys was all aglow 
 with another love, a new-born love; a love 
 greater far than filial love. 
 
 She too had dreamt dreams. For three long 
 years since the dawn of her womanhood the 
 years that had seemed to her the sweetest part 
 of her life she too had rocked herself to sleep 
 each night, dreaming of a hero that would dare 
 all things for the love of her ; would imperil his 
 life, would fight the world in arms yea, brave 
 the anger of the gods themselves for the 
 love of her. Thus in that hour her heart was 
 full of joy. For she had found her hero at 
 last! 
 
 Would he fulfil her promise the promise 
 that she had vowed within her own heart? 
 Would he dare these things, to prove his love 
 or die in the strife? (Less than that she would 
 not have; more than that was beyond human 
 13 
 
ambition.) She doubted not he would; doubted 
 not that if ever man could prove his love for 
 woman, heaven and earth notwithstanding, her 
 beloved would. And thus in her own heart she 
 vowed to aid him, succour him, comfort him 
 or die with him. 
 
 She sat by the palace window at early dawn 
 the next day. All night she had lain awake, 
 praying for light. She felt in her inmost soul 
 that her lover was innocent of guilt. Who he 
 was by the right of his birth she knew not yet 
 felt with dumb instinct that there was something 
 within him, something that had revealed itself 
 outwardly in response to her love, that must 
 needs be of royal heritage. Was he but a 
 juggler to the world? Verily to her he was a 
 prince. Was he not a prince? Who but a 
 prince would have sought death when he had 
 seen the hopelessness of his love and death 
 from the hand of the king himself? 
 
 Thus believing, she prayed for light ; prayed 
 to Sarasathi to illumine her path that she might 
 walk in the way of her loves, the old love and 
 14 
 
lf? Urrbiri of ilje <&0&a 
 
 the new; prayed for guidance that she might 
 keep her father's love, yet retain the greater 
 love that was now begotten in her heart. 
 
 She sat by the window wrapt in thought. 
 The unwonted silence of the palace grew upon 
 her consciousness. Something had struck her 
 heart from the first with dumb apprehension, a 
 vague premonition of coming sorrow then had 
 grown to shape as the silence had continued 
 and her hungry ears had still pined for the 
 sound that for years past had heralded the 
 coming of her father. Now she realised with 
 a shock: he would not come to her! 
 
 For the first time the father had denied 
 his face to the daughter. The conflict had 
 indeed begun ! 
 
 Suddenly the curtains at the further end 
 parted. In mingled fear and hope she turned. 
 Then the hope died away from her eyes. It was 
 not her father, but the mistress of the house- 
 hold; she that had power over all who served 
 the princess. A woman of dignity, for she was 
 the wife of a warrior high in command, and the 
 15 
 
Sift* U^rfcirt 0f ily* (Sn&a 
 
 mother of five others that had proved their 
 valour on the field of battle. 
 
 She stood at the curtain gazing before her. 
 Contending emotions were battling within her. 
 She had her duty to fulfil to the king, cost 
 what it might. Yet, for years past she had 
 served the princess with the deepest affection. 
 Now for the first time in her life she was bid- 
 den to guard her and watch her; to be her 
 gaoler ! 
 
 She bowed to the princess, with hands pressed 
 to her brow. Then standing erect, she spoke. 
 
 " Sahiba, I await thy pleasure thy com- 
 mand." And there was a sudden huskiness in 
 her voice at the old familiar phrase. 
 
 " My father ! " The words were scarce ut- 
 tered with the lips; rather, it was an unspoken 
 cry that needed no utterance. 
 
 But the other shook her head sadly. " He 
 sends his peace and greetings. He regrets that 
 urgent affairs of State at the dewan-i-kas 
 (hall of audience) require his presence this 
 day." 
 
 16 
 
This day? Too well the maiden knew how 
 long that day would last! Should she see her 
 father again, till till 
 
 " Sahiba, the garden-house is closed. But 
 
 these apartments " She hesitated. How 
 
 could she convey the cruel message? 
 
 "Yes? Do not fear. My father's wish is 
 my wish." The calm dignity of the maiden 
 helped the matron. 
 
 " These apartments are at thy command." 
 Which meant that henceforth the princess 
 should be a prisoner within them ! 
 
 "How long?" 
 
 " Unto the end ! " And the matron turned 
 away her face lest perchance she should betray 
 .her trust. 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "Thy destiny, Sahiba. What is written 
 upon thy brow from thy birth." 
 
 Her destiny? What was that? For three 
 
 long years had she prayed to Lakshmi to reveal 
 
 to her that destiny ; for three long years since 
 
 the dawn of her womanhood had she prayed 
 
 17 
 
the benign goddess to tell her what joy, what 
 glory, awaited her on this earth. At her birth 
 had she not been promised a life of perpetual 
 happiness with her heart's beloved? . . . But 
 instead what was in store for her? What was 
 to be the end of all her hopes and fears? . . . 
 Was it to be death? Death for her love? 
 Death for having dared to love? . . . But lo, 
 that also would be Fate. It would, at least, be 
 death with her loved one. (She made that vow 
 within her heart in that moment.) Then so let 
 it be. Mingling their hearts' blood together, 
 they would die. What finer death could she 
 have than that? . . . 
 
 " Sahiba, thy command ! " 
 
 " This message : * The daughter of a belted 
 queen sends homage to her king, obedience to 
 her father. But her inmost heart she retains 
 for her own.' I have spoken." 
 
 The matron bowed. But at the curtain she 
 paused and hesitated. A strange softness came 
 into her eyes. Had she not herself loved in her 
 own youth? 
 
 18 
 
lf* Uerfciri nf il|* (Snfcs 
 
 " Sahiba, it is my duty to place someone with 
 thee ceaselessly to serve thee." (She could 
 not find it in her heart to say " to watch thee.") 
 " But it shall be Leila ; for of all the household 
 she loves thee best. . . . And if Parameshwar 
 chooses her to be the instrument of thy destiny, 
 then I shall bow to the will of Parameshwar 
 my duty to my king notwithstanding." She 
 added that as she departed. For there was a 
 hidden meaning in her words that was at once 
 full of hope and comfort; perhaps also some 
 daring suggestion that the princess should 
 fight her battle with such weapons as Parame- 
 shwar sent her. 
 
 A while after there was a flash of drapery 
 at the parted curtain and the swift-coming 
 shadow reached the princess and lay prostrate 
 at her feet. There was a strangled cry that was 
 not spoken words. For the handmaid was but 
 seventeen herself, and her heart was soft. 
 
 " Do not weep. Dost thou love me, Leila ? 
 Then do not weep. All things will come right ; 
 shall come right." As a princess she could not 
 19 
 
ly? Krrfcirt nf tlje <0&a 
 
 mention her sorrow to her handmaid the love 
 that had caused that sorrow; for princesses 
 may neither love nor speak of love. But seeing 
 that this simple maiden had guessed her secret, 
 and now gave her the sympathy of her tears, 
 she accepted that homage. Likewise she ac- 
 cepted the offer of aid that it tacitly implied. 
 
 " And now robe me in my best." She almost 
 said, " As for a bridal." 
 
 Then the handmaid robed her. It was a sari 
 of the loveliest Dacca brocade embroidered with 
 alternate stars and moons in gold and silver, and 
 draped lightly with Dacca's " evening-dew " a 
 white transparent gauze as fine as gossamer 
 lines. 
 
 Over the head and shoulders of the princess 
 she placed a soft delicate shawl, fastening one 
 end to the waist on the left side, and letting the 
 other end hang loose over the right arm. And 
 upon her brow she placed the "frost-flowers" 
 of Cuttack a star of diamonds and rubies, 
 with forty fringes of alternate diamonds and 
 pearls that hung down to her eyelashes. And 
 20 
 
around her neck she placed nine rows of pearls, 
 and around her right wrist a Rampur bracelet 
 from which nine diverging rows of pearls radi- 
 ated, to converge again upon the necklace ; 
 so that with each movement of her right arm 
 a thousand pearls floated in the air. 
 
 "But why so early, O Heaven-born?" There 
 was wonder in the handmaid's voice; for verily 
 the Princess Devala had never been thus adorned 
 till the hour of sunset. And then was it not 
 to receive her father, the king? 
 
 "To remind me every hour that I am the 
 daughter of a belted queen." 
 
 Then the handmaid understood. The Princess 
 Devala drew her blood from a noble ancestress 
 that had done battle for her lover with sword 
 and lance yea, astride his corpse. From that 
 hour the Princess Devala had vowed within her 
 heart a twofold vow: to obey her father and 
 yet to do battle for her lover. 
 
 That night the princess stood at her window 
 to think, to hope, to pray for light and guid- 
 ance. Within these prison walls she must play 
 
her part ; if needs be, prove the blood of a belted 
 queen within her veins. 
 
 Beneath her lay the city wall; beyond it the 
 fields. A hundred cubits to the left, facing 
 westward, was the Tower of Victory. Yes, upon 
 it her lover must meet his fate! How, she 
 knew not yet. What could the nature of the 
 trial be? Lo, she was only a maiden, wrapped 
 up in silks and pearls. Would that she were a 
 man ! Then indeed would she discover the secret 
 of her father's heart and the nature of the peril 
 that awaited her beloved and thus perchance 
 warn him of it. Being only a maiden, she could 
 but pray for guidance. 
 
 Suddenly, when the stillness of night was 
 creeping over the earth, she saw a faint glim- 
 mering light far away to the right. What 
 omen was this? What omen of hope? 
 
 The light vanished. It was but a flash. 
 
 Her heart sank within her. Was it but a 
 coinage of her brain, or rather the manifesta- 
 tion of some benevolent power working of her 
 hope? . . . Thus, O Morning Star of Life 
 
SII}? Vtritirt nf tlfe (60fca 
 
 (said the Story-teller unto the Great King) 
 doth the human heart clutch at a will-o'-the- 
 wisp in the hour of its darkness. . . . 
 
 But the next night, at the self-same hour, she 
 saw the light again. She thought she saw it. 
 She sat still, in fear and hope. 
 
 Two hundred cubits to the right were the 
 ruins of an ancient palace. Upon it she had 
 seen the light. Was it the spirit of the dead 
 that had once dwelt therein sending her a mes- 
 sage from beyond the borderland? 
 
 And upon the third night and the fourth and 
 the fifth she saw the self-same light. 
 
 But upon the sixth, turning her eyes to the 
 pillar on the left, she saw the glimmer at its 
 base. And a while after, upon its pinnacle. 
 
 With a blanched face she rose upon the 
 morn. 
 
 "Dost thou love me, Leila? Dost thou love 
 me more than all things ? " 
 
 And for an answer the poor girl clung to her 
 hand, bathing it in tears. 
 
 "Then go forth into the city and find the 
 
If* TJrr&trt of ll?e a&0 
 
 wisest man that dwelleth there. To him put 
 this riddle : ' Is the light human or divine ? ' ' 
 And the handmaid went forth and searched 
 the city. At eve she returned with this mes- 
 sage written upon a palm-leaf: 
 
 "Both human and divine. Five times upon 
 the ruins; the sixth upon the pillar first at its 
 base, then upon the pinnacle. Thus five times 
 shall there be suspense; then triumph; but 
 triumph beginning with despair. For the base 
 comes before the pinnacle. RAMA KRISHNA." 
 
 Then the Princess Devala knew that in Rama 
 Krishna she had a friend perchance the chosen 
 instrument of the gods. A new light was 
 dawning within her heart, even like unto the 
 light that had shone without; for the one was 
 but a symbol of the other. With new-born hope 
 in her heart she turned to rest, awaiting the 
 morrow. For the morrow was the day of trial. 
 ... She knew not that even now the hand of 
 Fate was creeping up to her beloved ! 
 
 At the third watch that night a veiled _f orm 
 24 
 
SFIj* Uerfciri af tlje (Sxifca 
 
 stole up to the guard at the palace dungeon. A 
 mere youth, though of good birth, he was yet 
 the captain of the palace guards. At this the 
 critical hour of the night preceding the day of 
 trial, he had deemed it his duty to his king to 
 guard the dungeon in person. Twice had he 
 opened the door at regular intervals to see that 
 his prisoner still slept within. And now even 
 as he had opened it for the third time, the veiled 
 from reached his side. 
 
 She held out to him a tray upon which was 
 a dish of delicate sweetmeats and a goblet of 
 cool sherbet. But Harnam Das smiled grimly. 
 Though young in years, he was old in wisdom: 
 he knew that palace sweetmeats had power to 
 send one to sleep. 
 
 " I have made these with my own hands. Eat 
 and drink," she whispered softly. 
 
 And at the sound of the voice the guard 
 started, clutching at his breath feeling the 
 blood surge thick through his throbbing heart. 
 Long had he nursed a secret love in his heart, 
 but had never dared to reveal it to raise his 
 25 
 
eyes to her that was the favourite maiden of the 
 palace, the sweetest, the loveliest of them all 
 that served the princess. . . . And now the 
 maiden herself stood before him! 
 
 He took the tray from her, and laid it upon 
 a tripod beside him. He lifted the goblet, 
 and held it to her lips, saying. " Sweeten it 
 first." 
 
 Without a word Leila raised her veil and 
 sipped the sherbet ; and after her the youth 
 drank it down as if it were the nectar of the 
 gods. 
 
 Then thus encouraged he brought his hand to 
 her hand, and drew her gently to him. With a 
 sigh she yielded herself up to him a sigh of 
 mingled fear and hope, of love and peace and 
 contentment; for she returned his love. Yet 
 must she do her duty to her mistress neverthe- 
 less spare her lover the betrayal of his duty to 
 his master. 
 
 She raised her other hand from beneath the 
 folds of her sari, and coiled it round him. Then 
 lifting her head she kissed him suddenly thus 
 26 
 
drowning a soft thud behind that in the ecstasy 
 of the moment he could not hear. 
 
 The crumpled palm-leaf shot from her hand 
 through the open door and fell upon the breast 
 of the sleeper within. She saw him awake, gaze 
 at the message, seize it. Then even as she saw 
 it safe in Narayan Lai's belt, she suddenly 
 released the enraptured guard from her embrace 
 and glided away into the corridor beyond. 
 
 The guard awoke from his transient dream, 
 and, suddenly conscious of his duty, turned 
 round to the door and peered at his prisoner ; but 
 seeing him still locked in slumber, he softly 
 closed the door thanking the gods that he had 
 not failed in his trust even in his dalliance with 
 his heart's beloved. 
 
 That instant, even as he heard the bolt close 
 upon the door, the sleeper raised his head, took 
 out the message from his belt and held it to the 
 glimmering light of the little oil chirag in the 
 corner of his cell. Thus it ran : 
 
 " The instrument of the gods awaits thee. In 
 27 
 
the hour of trial await him. Upon the pinnacle 
 lies death; beneath the sand life. Watch and 
 hope." 
 
 And Leila, who for the love of her mistress 
 had delivered this message at the peril of her 
 life, fled through the corridor with a panting 
 heart. But even as she was about to reach the 
 inner palace (the harem) she heard a cat-like 
 tread. Something glistened before her; van- 
 ished. In sudden terror she recoiled; found 
 shelter behind a pillar. Long she waited, hold- 
 ing her breath. The footsteps had died away. 
 Still she waited. 
 
 The silence of the night now grew around her. 
 Then she emerged from the shelter of the pillar. 
 The harem door lay ten cubits afar; one deep 
 breath, and she would be behind the curtain- 
 undetected, her mission fulfilled. 
 
 That instant a muffled form leapt out from a 
 side passage ; seized her fiercely. 
 
 "Now I have thee!" he hissed between his 
 teeth. With bleary blood-shot eyes he peered 
 28 
 
UerfcUi 0f tlf* (Sn&a 
 
 into hers, and bringing his thick hemp-sodden 
 lips to her mouth, fastened them upon it like a 
 vampire sucking the sweetness of her tender 
 flesh. 
 
 A strangled cry, a stifled shriek her right 
 hand shot from her bosom. There was a flash 
 of white, and the jewelled stiletto came straight 
 for her captor's face missed his eye, but 
 pierced his ear; passed beyond, and was trans- 
 fixed upon the sandal pillar. 
 
 With a muttered curse he put up his hands. 
 In the momentary respite she slipped away from 
 him, and fled into the harem like a frightened 
 deer. 
 
 Binding up his ear with the end of his turban, 
 the man stuck the stiletto in his belt. "My 
 pretty bird, once again hast thou escaped me; 
 but the next time I shall have my fill. Then I 
 shall cast thee from me, and gloat over thee and 
 thy lover ay, over thy mistress and her lover 
 in their ignoble doom." 
 
 It was the challenge of a demon to the mes- 
 sage of hope of the instrument of the gods. 
 29 
 
Chapter 
 
 ON THE TOWER OF VICTORY 
 
 'NOW, O Seat of Wisdom, that the 
 Tower of Victory, which was to be 
 the scene of Narayan Lai's trial, had 
 been erected a thousand years before 
 by a conqueror to commemorate his victory over 
 the ancestor of the king. It was an eye-sore to 
 him. Wither it with his breath he would if he 
 could ; pull it down bodily he dared not. For a 
 public monument is hedged in by a tradition 
 that has the force of religion. 
 
 No human hand could destroy it. But the 
 will of a higher power could. The king resolved 
 to test that will. Narayan Lai would be its 
 medium. 
 
 Now this stone pillar, tall and narrow, was no 
 longer vertical. An earthquake had shaken it 
 30 
 
SI;* Urratrt af tlj e (5 n i 
 
 out of the perpendicular, till its summit, one 
 hundred cubits (150 feet) high, leaned six 
 cubits to one side. Since its circular base was 
 only four cubits in diameter, this divergence 
 should have been more than sufficient to cast 
 down the pillar; but the unknown portion un- 
 der the earth lowered the centre of gravity 
 somewhat, and thus brought it within sup- 
 port. 
 
 How deep this was no one knew. Hence to 
 what height a man might safely ascend with- 
 out his added weight, gaining in leverage each 
 foot he climbed, just throwing the centre of 
 gravity out of support and overcoming the lev- 
 erage of the weights of earth upon the base and 
 thereby casting down the whole pillar was a 
 matter of momentous speculation. 
 
 It was a fit theme for the trial. 
 
 As Narayan Lai climbed higher and higher 
 the centre of gravity would draw inch by inch 
 nearer the edge of the base till that fatal line 
 were reached. Then the tower would fall, which 
 the king much desired. It would also kill Nara- 
 31 
 
tf* leriirt of ilf* (Sails 
 
 yan Lai, which the king equally desired. The 
 will of the gods would be made manifest in both 
 matters. 
 
 It was only at the moment of trial that the 
 king publicly declared its nature. . . . But, O 
 Seat of Wisdom (said the Story-teller unto the 
 Great King) to a pundit and a philosopher the 
 nature of the trial was already known. For 
 had not Narayan Lai's master declared that 
 " on the Tower of Victory " he should meet his 
 fate? . . . 
 
 Thus a vast multitude, having heard vague 
 rumours from the twelve guards that had wit- 
 nessed the scene in the garden, gathered around 
 the pillar; around, yet a hundred cubits afar. 
 Men all, no women; it was anathema for a 
 woman to see the taking of human life. 
 
 It was a surging sea of heads, quivering 
 in a ceaseless tremor; white-turbaned, grey-tur- 
 baned, yellow-turbaned ; the plougher from the 
 fields, the lordling from his wines, the pundit 
 from his musty scrolls. For they scarcely be- 
 lieved that this man would die without a gal- 
 
lant bid for life. About his crime they knew 
 little, and cared less. That was between him 
 and his judge. 
 
 "It is said that he had cast eyes upon the 
 beautiful princess," muttered a one-eyed man 
 with a hideous leer and the signs of much 
 opium-smoking upon his bloodless face. " But 
 methinks more had come to pass between the 
 two which none would care to reveal." 
 
 His hearers scouted the base insinuation. 
 
 " Else why this royal rage to take his life ? " 
 argued the tempter. 
 
 " But this man said he was of Kshattric 
 blood," questioned another. " Then how came 
 he to be the reputed son of Hira Lai of 
 Benares?" 
 
 Then a snow-bearded oracle, who had heard 
 much but said little, gave tongue to his thoughts. 
 
 " Listen, O brothers, and I will tell you the 
 law. It is written that no man can be a king 
 unless he be a Kshattric, but every Kshattric 
 need not be a king. 
 
 " Now, I have heard, or have read from the 
 
If* TJrr&irt of ilje (Softs 
 
 stars, or the gods themselves have revealed it to 
 me it matters not which that five-and-twenty 
 years ago Hira Lai of Benares found a babe 
 floating in a wicker basket on the bosom of the 
 Ganges." 
 
 A sudden hush fell upon the throng, while 
 each eager eye scanned the speaker's face to 
 read this solemn portent. 
 
 " In that basket was a chaplet of pearls, a 
 piece of sandal wood and the sacred thread of 
 the twice-born. The thread he bestowed upon 
 the child on the anniversary of that day, and 
 with the sandal wood he anointed his brow. 
 The chaplet of pearls he gave to the king on the 
 birth of the princess to be kept for her wed- 
 ding-day." 
 
 "An omen! an omen!" whispered an awe- 
 stricken voice. "Marvellous are the ways of 
 Parameshwar! Let us see how the omen re- 
 veals itself." 
 
 The multitude turned their eyes to the pillar 
 at whose base stood the prisoner; from him to 
 the king sitting upon a raised dai's two hundred 
 
Elje Olfrbtri of t Ij e (Sobs 
 
 cubits northward, behind which lay like a fallen 
 giant the ruins of the old palace where once 
 had dwelt the conqueror that had built the 
 tower. 
 
 The young man bowed to the king, his hands 
 crossed over his breast ; yet in his eye there was 
 a lustre that was not all shame. And a faint 
 smile broke upon his lips as he raised his head 
 from the ground. Then, as the guards released 
 him and walked away on either side, he sprang 
 to the first balcony and swung himself to it with 
 his long, lithe arms. 
 
 Every seven feet was a circular balcony that 
 could be entered by the narrow winding stair- 
 case within the tower. But the prisoner must 
 climb from tier to tier from the outside with 
 his bare hands. He must be in sight till he 
 reached the last tier. If he did that, and 
 returned safe to earth, his first trial would be 
 over. 
 
 And now he stood upon the first balcony, 
 and bowed anew to the king. A sudden silence 
 fell upon the vast multitude as it dawned upon 
 35 
 
SII|e Ueritirt nf life (Sa&a 
 
 them that indeed the trial had begun. They 
 realised for the first time that a man's life was 
 literally hanging by a thread. 
 
 It was scarce an hour before sunset, and the 
 pillar stood out in bold relief against the 
 heavens. It leaned to the westward, so that in 
 falling it might have blotted out the sun. The 
 man's white tunic and white turban shone in the 
 reflected glory of the levelled rays that bathed 
 him in a celestial halo. His whole countenance 
 was transformed in the mystic light. He stood 
 there dominating the populace. He seemed less 
 a doomed convict than a prophet and a judge. 
 
 A dim consciousness awoke in the multitude 
 that this man had the aid of a power given to no 
 man in their generation. They remembered the 
 fame of Hira Lai of Bernares, his reputed 
 father, and felt that his mantle had indeed 
 fallen upon this young man who had been sent 
 down the Ganges, no man knew whence. But 
 all men knew that the Ganges flowed from heaven 
 itself. 
 
 This was, indeed, the hour of his triumph. 
 36 
 
Stlf* Herfcirl af it}* <80&0 
 
 So the multitude felt, and would have been 
 cruelly grieved to see him fail and die. That 
 would have seemed the failure of omnipotence 
 itself. 
 
 " Brothers 1 " whispered a man with a catch 
 in his breath, "last night I was returning late 
 to town even as the guards were closing the 
 gate. Near the tower a strange fear had crept 
 over me; it was silent desolation everywhere. 
 Suddenly, as I drew abreast of the tower, I 
 heard a deep rumbling sound in the very 
 bowels of the earth. Sounded to me like the 
 mutterings of the dead ! I fled to the city-gate, 
 pursued by a thousand terrors." 
 
 " A manifestation ! " It was a low deep mur- 
 mur that broke from the throng. For there 
 were some there that had heard of a wondrous 
 legend: that when that tower was built there 
 was a deep cavern beneath its foundations ; and 
 that its builder, who lived in the ancient palace 
 on the north, was wont to immure in that cavern 
 those members of his own family whom he sus- 
 pected of aiming at the throne. Verily, it was 
 37 
 
the spirit of the dead manifesting itself as a 
 warning unto all men! 
 
 Thus with mingled fear and wonder they 
 watched the youth as he climbed up higher and 
 higher. They saw him pause at each tier, 
 and bow anew to the king. But he was silent 
 and never a sound escaped his lips. Those near 
 enough, or blest with keen vision, vowed that 
 they saw him smile as he bowed; but they also 
 vowed that the smile was as that of a bride- 
 groom going to meet his bride. 
 
 And the king was also silent. Between the 
 two a conflict seemed to rage that the multitude 
 could not shape into utterance, yet felt with 
 dumb instinct. 
 
 Struck by some sudden inspiration Narayan 
 Lai made the circuit of a balcony. He stopped 
 at the east and bowed to the people there; he 
 stopped at the south and bowed to the people 
 there. He came to the west and bowed to the 
 setting sun. 
 
 The sun leapt from a fleeing cloud and smiled 
 upon him. So they will aver to this day, and 
 
Sir* VtrftUt nf tlje (gn&s 
 
 tell it to their children, and children's children, 
 for an ancient prophecy. 
 
 But when seventy cubits from the ground, he 
 was seen to stand upright upon the balustrade 
 and balance himself with distended arms. And 
 he faced the king where he sat upon his 
 throne. 
 
 "Ho, brother! see what comes out of his 
 mouth!" exclaimed a spectator on the north. 
 
 "It is like a cobweb, and he like a spider," 
 answered another. 
 
 For it was a thin ethereal line issuing from his 
 mouth, white against the blue transparent sky. 
 It was so slender that it seemed more like the 
 gossamer lines that float in the mind's eye, than 
 a material, tangible substance. It was there a 
 moment; gone the next; back again the third. 
 It was here, there everywhere nowhere. 
 
 " It is a thread, a silken thread. It points to 
 the king," exclaimed a third, shading his eyes 
 for a longer vision. 
 
 It had grown thicker. It seemed real enough 
 now. It floated in the air in a graceful curve 
 39 
 
SFlfe lUrfcirt nf tlfe (gnfta 
 
 that lengthened every instant, the end sailing 
 northwards towards the king. 
 
 Yet there was no breeze. Not a leaf stirred 
 in the stillness of the air. 
 
 "No, brothers, it is not a thread. It is a 
 cord!" 
 
 Truly, it was as thick as a cord. A moment 
 ago it had been a thread ; one rubbed one's eyes 
 to look again and found it a cord. 
 
 " It is not white. It is a dark grey." 
 
 True also ; the white gossamer had grown into 
 a grey cord. And now it reached full half the 
 distance that lay between the tower and the dai's. 
 
 "But see, it is not from his mouth. It is 
 from his right hand." 
 
 "From his left!" 
 
 " No, around his turban ! " 
 
 But before they could decide from where, 
 Narayan Lai had begun to climb again. He 
 was now seven tiers from the top six five 
 
 "See that!" cried out a man, reeling upon 
 his neighbour as if he felt the earth shake be- 
 neath his feet. 
 
 40 
 
HE WAS SEEN TO STAND .... AND BALANCE HIMSELF 
 WITH DISTENDED ARMS " 
 
"What? Where?" 
 
 But the look of sudden horror that came to 
 the speaker's eyes answered the words. 
 
 The pillar was gently swaying in the air, the 
 slender top writing its last message upon the 
 heavens. 
 
 It might have been a passing cloud above that 
 gave the sense of motion. But no cloud returns 
 the way it came. And the pillar-top was 
 retracing its lines against the sky. 
 
 The multitude forgot to breathe. Strong 
 men clutched at their hearts, and shook in their 
 nether limbs. A moan here, a deep gurgle there 
 and some fell senseless in their brethren's 
 arms. Others stood like dazed children, and saw 
 visions. All were hushed in speechless horror. 
 
 " Come down ! Come down ! " a piercing cry 
 broke the stillness. 
 
 " Come down ! " shrieked a hundred trembling 
 men. 
 
 " Come down ! " a cry of ten thousand stricken 
 hearts rent the sky. 
 
 With his hands upon the third tier, Narayan 
 41 
 
lj? Vtrbfrt 0f tlje (Sn&a 
 
 Lai was seen to waver. He cast his eyes upon 
 the distant throne to know his fate. But a 
 rigid relentless form sat upon it. No softness 
 was in his eyes, no smile upon his lips. No 
 signal of mercy in his arms. 
 
 " No ! Higher yet higher ! Beloved, thy 
 task is not yet over. Higher higher!" 
 
 It was a shriek, but a shriek of frenzied 
 triumph full of endless hope and infinite faith 
 that no fear could quench. Faint, and yet dis- 
 tinct ; near, and yet afar. Standing with their 
 backs to the royal palace, it seemed to the multi- 
 tude to come from the clouds above. 
 
 At the palace window, just beneath the top- 
 most turret of the citadel, a small purple veil 
 lined with diamonds and pearls floated in the air 
 in the levelled rays of the setting sun. Unseen 
 by the multitude that had eyes only for that 
 tragic form upon the tower, it hung against 
 the window-sill a silent message of love, of 
 sympathy, of encouragement. A beacon-light 
 to guide him to his destiny. 
 
 Narayan Lai saw it and with a panting 
 42 
 
heart nerved himself for the last ascent. If die 
 he must, he would die with his beloved's eyes 
 upon him. If rather he was destined to conquer 
 death, she would witness his triumph. 
 
 The multitude caught at the hope. One small 
 feeble voice, strengthened by some surging emo- 
 tion to be heard so clear, had come to their 
 rescue. A while ago they had inwardly sworn 
 their faith in this man's destiny. Now they 
 were saved from its betrayal by one small feeble 
 voice. 
 
 " Higher, Narayan Lai ! " 
 
 " Unto the summit, O Man of Fate ! " 
 
 In a moment the fickle multitude had forgot- 
 ten their own perfidy. They now shouted to 
 Narayan Lai to fetch them the stars from the 
 heavens. 
 
 In their new-born enthusiasm they recked not 
 that the pillar now shook in a larger curve. All 
 else was forgotten but that toiling form so near 
 its triumph or death. 
 
 " Look again, brothers ! " gasped a voice. 
 " It is not a cord. It is a rope ! " 
 43 
 
ffe Uerfclrt of ilje (gn&a 
 
 " It has grown thicker. It comes nearer the 
 king!" 
 
 " I see nothing," muttered another. " You 
 dream, my friends." 
 
 They took sides, that vacillating crowd. Some 
 swore by their fathers' beards that it was a rope 
 that it hung over the king's dai's, ten cubits 
 above. The end, they confessed, they could not 
 distinguish. It seemed lost in a kind of haze 
 or mist. 
 
 Others stoutly denied that there was any- 
 thing. It might, perchance, be a line of cloud 
 or smoke far up in the air that they mistook for 
 a rope so near. 
 
 All eyes were turned towards the end of the 
 rope real or imaginary. They felt a vague, 
 indefinable sensation, as nevrous people do before 
 a thunderstorm. There seemed to be something 
 in the air, heavy and unbreathable ; something 
 that deadened the brain and weakened the 
 power of volition; some subtle emanation from 
 a presence other than their own. 
 
 " Where is he? " It was a sudden cry from 
 44 
 
someone that chanced to turn his eyes towards 
 the pillars. 
 
 When we witness a balloon ascending the sky 
 we see it last like a black spot hanging from the 
 vault of heaven. It rises higher, and the black 
 spot becomes a speck. Then we rub our eyes, 
 and we guess where we last saw it. We aver 
 it is still there ; some of us swear they still see it. 
 The next instant even they are doubtful if it be 
 not a mere remembrance of the retina. 
 
 Narayan Lai had disappeared from their ken 
 like such a speck. The last three tiers of the 
 tower were now wrapped in a mist real or 
 imaginary, none could tell. 
 
 Suddenly the mist seemed to clear at the 
 summit ; the pointed pinnacle appeared in sight. 
 
 "Back! Back, all! The tower falls!" 
 yelled a thousand maddened men. 
 
 The pinnacle swept in a rush to the west. 
 
 
 
 . . . But it swung back again to the east. 
 
 " Shabash, Narayan ! " a brazen throat 
 shouted to the heavens. " He has reached the 
 top ! See him see him ! " 
 45 
 
The frenzied multitude took up the cry. 
 Some danced, some raved! some fell fainting to 
 the ground. 
 
 A shapeless bundle of white emerged for an 
 instant above the mist. It might have been a 
 turbaned head or only a ball of cloud. It 
 swung with the pinnacle. 
 
 To the east the pinnacle rushed . . . not so 
 far as it should have gone . . . reared back 
 suddenly to the zenith. . . . Plunged to the 
 west like a mad horse leaping into a yawning 
 chasm. Hung a moment at the limit of its last 
 sweep passed it. ... 
 
 The gigantic column cut through the roof of 
 the sky . . . caught up the sinking sun . . . 
 eclipsed it. ... 
 
 A fearful blow smote the earth, and rocked 
 its crest like a shell upon the bosom of the deep. 
 
 The falling tower bounded anew from the shock, 
 
 
 then lay prone like some huge leviathan killed 
 
 by a mortal thrust. 
 
 A cloud of fine dust arose on either side, and 
 spread in a screen around the sun. As if at the 
 46 
 
SI;* Ber&irt of tljr (gnfca 
 
 touch of a magic wand the fiery orb shot out its 
 rays in bands of red and orange and purple. 
 It was a radiant god embracing the earth in ten 
 thousand arms. 
 
 A human groan gave utterance to the pent-up 
 fear. 
 
 "Merciful Bhugwan he is dead! Crushed 
 beneath the tower!" 
 
 The human sea swayed purposeless a moment, 
 then plunged in a frantic rush towards the head 
 of the column. Suddenly they were checked 
 by a shout. 
 
 "The King! The King!" 
 
 Circling round, they swept in a whirlwind to 
 the dai's. 
 
 Tall, towering, pale and emaciated, that aged 
 figure stood erect in silence. His eyes glistened 
 with an unearthly light the light that men 
 sometimes see in dark places. His breast heaved 
 with some unseen emotion that struggled within 
 and refused to be stifled. 
 
 Twice he raised his right hand, and twice he 
 flung it down by his side, muttering unheard 
 47 
 
words between his lips. The third time the 
 hand seemed held aloft by some unknown power 
 the left followed it the two descended to- 
 gether, slowly, gently, till they met before him, 
 palms downwards. 
 
 A white-clad form was seen to bend before 
 him. It knelt at his feet, caught up the out- 
 stretched hands in its own, and pressed them to 
 its lips. 
 
 " Behold the face of thy slave, O King! The 
 will of Parameshwar is done ! " 
 
 Then the people around saw his uplifted face 
 in the last rays of the setting sun. 
 
 It was Narayan Lai. . . . 
 
 As men walking in their sleep the multitude 
 dispersed. 
 
 " But whence came he there ? " asked one of 
 another. They were the two guards that sat at 
 the palace gate on the night of Narayan Lai's 
 crime. 
 
 " He must have come down the tower by the 
 steps inside," answered the other. 
 
 " Then how fell the tower if he came down 
 48 
 
Stlj? Herfcirt nf l\\t <&nba 
 
 before it fell ? " persisted the questioner. " Me- 
 thinks he came down by the rope." 
 
 "The rope the rope!" cried out the 
 bystanders. 
 
 But there was no rope to be seen now. 
 
 " There never was any rope," swore a thought- 
 less one. 
 
 " Pardon, friends, there was in your minds. 
 You were all like sleeping children, seeing ropes 
 and hearing harps in the air. You were dream- 
 ing dreams, my friends. If there was no rope, 
 there was no tower, no king, no Narayan Lai. 
 You saw them all, yet saw nothing. Leastwise, 
 there was the tower, and there was Narayan Lai ; 
 and you dreamt many things besides. Go home, 
 good people, and pray the gods to give you 
 understanding." 
 
 The figure vanished in the crowd. They 
 recognised the broad trident of Vishnu on his 
 brow, and the scars of self-inflicted wounds. It 
 was Rama Krishna, the pundit. 
 
 But at the midnight hour a group of men were 
 gathered together in a den at the ouskirts of 
 49 
 
the town. They were ganja (hemp) smokers, 
 and the lowest idlers of the bazaar save one. 
 He, in his sober moments, might have seemed to 
 be a man of higher rank, with power in his eyes 
 and pride in his gait. But sodden with hemp, 
 he was just one of them: his bloodshot eyes 
 blinking in the glimmering light, his sensuous 
 lips drooping downwards in impotent rage at 
 some secret discomfiture, his turban tilted slant- 
 ingly over his head so that one side of it hung 
 heavy over his ear. 
 
 When the fumes of the drug had heightened 
 their fancy and loosened their tongues, the hemp- 
 smokers unfolded a drunken tale. 
 
 " Brothers," said one, gazing into the curling 
 smoke above his head even as one gazes into the 
 ink pool to find out hidden things, " that Rama 
 Krishna is no pundit, but a magician. Three 
 nights ago when I was returning to town, I saw 
 the glimmering light upon the ruins of the old 
 palace. No living man would have ventured 
 to approach the spirits in their manifesta- 
 tion. 
 
 50 
 
I;? Uerfcirt 0f life (Softs 
 
 " But Rama Krishna so dared. For, standing 
 still beneath a tree in much fear, I saw the light 
 die away, and a while after I heard footsteps 
 coming straight from the ruins ! This man 
 passed me by. It was Rama Krishna ! " 
 
 A sneering laugh answered him. " No magi- 
 cian, but a conspirator! It was no spirit, but 
 Rama Krishna himself that made the light 
 with a lantern. He was there for his own trait- 
 orous purpose ; and he showed the light to scare 
 away all prying men." 
 
 They turned on the speaker. They knew him 
 to have been once a scribe in the bazaar and to 
 have read many books. 
 
 "How dost thou know?" 
 
 " Have ye never heard of the chronicles," 
 went on the scribe, " which say that there was a 
 subterraneous tunnel between the old palace and 
 the cavern beneath the tower along which the 
 conqueror who built the tower would carry away 
 his victims and immure them in the cavern? 
 Indeed, many centuries ago when the old palace 
 was destroyed in a siege, the entrance to the 
 51 
 
gallery was covered up by the ruins, and its very 
 existence forgotten by the people. 
 
 " But Rama Krishna, being a man of learn- 
 ing," continued the scribe with some pride in his 
 own knowledge, " had read the chronicles, and 
 knew about the buried tunnel. For some secret 
 motive he has the cause of Narayan Lai at heart ; 
 perchance his own past history is in some mys- 
 terious manner connected with that of the youth ; 
 how, I may yet learn. 
 
 "Thus, as soon as he heard from the guards 
 of the king's resolve to try the youth upon the 
 Tower of Victory, he understood the nature of 
 the ordeal. In the time intervening between 
 the king's resolve and the actual trial, he had 
 secretly visited the ruins by night, dug up the 
 entrance to the gallery, and entered the vault. 
 There he had prepared a communication between 
 the roof of the vault and the foot of the stair- 
 case in the tower ; and, placing a board over the 
 opening, he had carefully covered it over with 
 loose sand. 
 
 "The rest was simple enough. When near 
 
the very top of the tower, Narayan Lai seemed 
 to liave disappeared from the spectators' gaze 
 in one of those sudden mists that often form at 
 the hour of sunset; he had really entered the 
 staircase inside. Meanwhile his friend beneath 
 had boldly opened out the communication to 
 the vault. To reach it was the work of a minute. 
 
 "The foundations, already sunken by the 
 leaning of the tower, had been further under- 
 mined by Narayan Lai's friend. And whilst 
 the multitude gaped at the haze over the pin- 
 nacle, mistaking a ball of cloud for a turbaned 
 head, the two men beneath worked frantically 
 with crowbars and levers. As the tower bent 
 to the west, they ran into the gallery north- 
 wards for shelter; as it groaned to the east, 
 they ran out and overthrew a few more stones. 
 
 " Thus the oscillations grew wider and wider. 
 When at last the tower came crashing upon the 
 earth, they fled into the tunnel, and escaped to 
 the ruins of the old palace at the back of the 
 king's dais. And whilst yet the multitude were 
 intent upon the affairs in front, they emerged 
 53 
 
Slj? lUr&iri nf fly* (gufcrf 
 
 from the ruins and mingled with the throng. 
 Thus fell the tower, my brothers." 
 
 "But how dost thou know?" they asked him 
 again, believing naught of what he had said. 
 
 For an answer the scribe brought out from 
 his bosom a crumpled palm-leaf upon which 
 were written these strange words: 
 
 " The instrument of the gods awaits thee. 
 In the hour of trial await him. Upon the pin- 
 nacle lies death; beneath the sand life. Watch 
 and hope." 
 
 " I visited the vault this night, and found the 
 message there. As the two men worked in fren- 
 zied haste at the foundations of the tower, this 
 fell out from one of them which, I cannot tell." 
 
 But they eyed him in open suspicion. " Thou 
 art a scribe and couldst have written it 
 thyself!" Then the scribe put his lips to the 
 hookah, and held his peace till one by one they 
 left him. 
 
 But one remained he that wore his turban 
 over his ear. " Brother, 7 believe thee," he 
 54 
 
whispered into his ear. " And in proof shall 
 buy the message of thee with this gold." 
 
 And going out forthwith, he straightened out 
 the palm-leaf and read it anew. Then he took 
 out a jewelled stiletto from under his cloak, 
 wrapped the leaf around it, and placed the two 
 in his girdle. 
 
 "One more chain have I around thee, my 
 pretty bird," he muttered between his teeth. 
 " Thou shalt yet meet thy doom. Dost thou 
 serve thy mistress and her lover? Then their 
 fate shall be thine after I have feasted myself 
 on thee ! . . . Curse him! For seventeen years 
 have I watched him, not realising that the cub 
 knew of the father that had begotten him; else 
 I had struck him down a dozen times. Now the 
 cub is full-grown and claims to be the lion's 
 whelp! . . . But five more trials has he. If 
 he escapes the gods that rule his destiny, he 
 shall not the demons ! " 
 
 For, if in Rama Krishna Narayan Lai had a 
 hidden friend, in this man he had a secret enemy 
 a relentless foe who sought the life of the 
 55 
 
youth since the moment he had so daringly put 
 forth his claim to royal birth. If he escaped 
 his master's wrath and passed triumphant 
 through the perilous ordeals, he was yet in 
 danger from this hidden foe this assassin's 
 dagger or his poison cup. 
 
 "But tell me," the Great King asked of 
 Story-teller, "how thinkest thou Narayan Lai 
 escaped the peril of the tower ? " 
 
 The Story-teller bowed his head to the ground. 
 
 " By the will of Parameshwar, O Light of the 
 Universe!" he murmured. 
 
 And I, the faithful chronicler of the Great 
 King listening from the other side of the couch, 
 can bear testimony to the truth of the Story- 
 teller's words, O best beloved readers. It was 
 indeed some supernatural agency that enabled 
 Narayan to escape this peril. Perhaps he was 
 given some occult power by which he altered the 
 vision of the multitude making them magnify 
 into a rope a slender thread that he had sent out 
 from his mouth; and, as Rama Krishna said, 
 56 
 
If? Uer&iri nf tl|* (gnfca 
 
 the multitude imagined many things besides, 
 Do you not know, O best beloved, that a marvel- 
 lous wonder-worker like Narayan has power to 
 make us see and hear and feel without eyes, 
 without ears, without senses in our minds alone? 
 Have you not heard of the other great won- 
 der-worker who cast up a rope in the air? The 
 rope went up unwinding its coils till it suddenly 
 came to a stop with a jerk, its end lost in a kind 
 of mist! Then the juggler's son, a small boy, 
 climbed up the rope, till he too vanished in the 
 mist! But the juggler repeatedly tugged at 
 the rope, muttering mystic words ; and the boy's 
 arm came down, the other arm, the legs, the 
 headless trunk, the head itself encircled with the 
 end of the rope. Then the juggler put the 
 pieces together, and the boy came back to life! 
 And, O best beloved, if you have not heard of 
 this marvel, perhaps you have of the one placed 
 on record in a State paper by a Chief of the 
 Company Bahadur. 1 This great man saw a 
 
 1 Lord Cornwallis, Governor-General of British India 
 under the East India Company. 
 
 57 
 
lj? Vtrftirt af llj? <&*&* 
 
 juggler cast up a chain in the air, and an 
 elephant climb up by it lost from sight! Thus 
 in like manner, O beloved, could Narayan Lai 
 deceive the vision of the spectators. 
 
 But lest you ask me: why did not Narayan 
 Lai flee and escape altogether, instead of pre- 
 senting himself to his master and thus courting 
 further perils? I say unto you, O best beloved, 
 that thereby Narayan would have proclaimed his 
 guilt beyond a doubt and sealed the fate of 
 the princess. The princess was upon her trial, 
 no less than Narayan Lai. Thus he submitted 
 himself to a new ordeal far more perilous than 
 this, O best beloved. 
 
 " Tell it to me," commanded the Great King. 
 
 "With my lips, O Delight of the World," 
 replied the Story-teller. 
 
 And thus he continued: 
 
 58 
 
THE WELL OF TEN THOUSAND SIGHS 
 
 'NOW, O Son of the Morning Star, 
 that the Well of Ten Thousand 
 Sighs had been dry since the days 
 when thy fourteenth ancestor was 
 yet in the bosom of Brahma. So also was it 
 dry at the time of Narayan Lai's second trial. 
 It was a large excavation near the edge of the 
 jungle, twenty cubits in depth, and five in diame- 
 ter. The wall inside was lined with solid stones, 
 and the bed covered with a layer of dried leaves. 
 There was a legend that once two men were 
 in love with the some woman; the rejected one 
 caught the other unfairly, killed him, and threw 
 his body into the dry well. 
 
 The woman came to the well and wept many 
 tears over it for nine days. Then the gods, 
 pleased with her devotion, worked a miracle. 
 59 
 
tje Uerfciri af ttye (8060 
 
 On the evening of the ninth day a cry was 
 heard from the bottom of the well, as from a man 
 suddenly awakened from sleep. 
 
 The dead one had come back to life! The 
 tears of the woman had fallen upon his wounds 
 and healed them; her many sighs had breathed 
 new life into his body. That was the legend ; 
 hence the name of the well. There are many 
 such legends in the land. 
 
 The multitude came to the well bubbling with 
 expectation. That Narayan Lai should fail at 
 the second trial they deemed impossible; and 
 yet its exact nature they could not guess. The 
 king kept his secret till the last moment; he 
 intended to fit the ordeal to the traditions of 
 the well. The only clue to his design lay, 
 literally, upon the mouth of the well. A solid 
 roof of stone now covered it over all but a 
 small space at the centre, two cubits square. A 
 rope-ladder was visible over the opening, the 
 end fastened to a post at the side of the well. A 
 group of masons stood by, with trowels in hand 
 and stones and mortar at their feet. 
 60 
 
l?e TBUrftirt nf tlj0 (Safca 
 
 " Narayan Lai," spoke the king from a raised 
 dai's before the well, " thou didst last face death 
 in the air above. My judgment is, thou shalt 
 face death again in the bowels of the earth." 
 
 A low murmur broke from the gathering 
 crowd, but whether of approbation or the 
 reverse the actors in the drama knew not. But 
 a sudden groan from the background revealed 
 the presence of someone there who realised the 
 fearful import of these words. 
 
 " Thou shalt descend into this well, as thou 
 art now without food, without appliances of 
 any kind. The mouth of the well shall be 
 covered up, so that not a particle of air may get 
 in or come out." 
 
 He paused awhile to note the effect of his 
 words. 
 
 How long? how long? That was the one cry 
 in every throat that struggled to give utterance, 
 yet dared not. 
 
 " For nine days shalt thou be within," calmly 
 concluded the king. " On the evening of the 
 ninth day the well shall be opened, and what 
 61 
 
I;* JTer&irt af il|* (60^0 
 
 remains of thee shall be brought to light again. 
 I have spoken." 
 
 Narayan Lai gasped for breath at these cruel 
 words as if already he beat the poisoned air 
 with his impotent hands, twenty cubits beneath 
 the earth. Already he tore with his fingers at 
 the solid walls in frenzied madness; already he 
 felt his swollen veins bursting from his throb- 
 bing temples ; already 
 
 So thought the stupefied multitude. Narayan 
 Lai himself wasted no time in vain regrets. 
 He had but a few minutes to decide upon his 
 method of escape if any. 
 
 Even when he had determined upon it one 
 appalling in daring, of fearful peril in execu- 
 tion he did not feel confident of ultimate suc- 
 cess. No man but his reputed father had tried 
 that method and had not succumbed; even he 
 but once in his life. 
 
 Narayan Lai would do likewise now in that 
 
 lay his only hope. He had learnt all that his 
 
 great master could teach him ; but this matter 
 
 was not one of mere teaching. It was primarily 
 
 62 
 
lje Uerfciri af tlje (Sofca 
 
 dependent upon the personal fitness of the 
 human subject himself. 
 
 He prayed the gods to grant him this fitness. 
 On the one hand was certain death, an agonis- 
 ing death. On the other an equally certain 
 death, if the method failed; a bare chance of 
 escape, if it succeeded. He resolved to accept 
 that chance. 
 
 " Thy words, O Heaven-born, are the words 
 of wisdom. Let it be as thou hast commanded. 
 But I beg a single favour." 
 
 He hesitated a moment before naming it. If 
 his real purpose were betrayed, there was no 
 hope for him. 
 
 " In the temple of Kali there is a band of 
 holy men ; ascetics, saunyasis, and byragis. I 
 am a novice in their brotherhood to my shame 
 unavowedly as yet." 
 
 There was a cry of wonder from the multi- 
 tude around. The saunyasis and byragis be- 
 longed to the severest religious order. They 
 were reputed to possess preternatural powers 
 that were given to no fleshly men. 
 63 
 
If? Herbiri nf ttfe (ga&a 
 
 " It is a rule of the order," he continued in a 
 slow and measured tone, as if feeling his way 
 doubtingly, " that when one of the brethren, 
 even if only a novice, is about to die, the rest 
 must come to minister to his last wants if they 
 be so permitted. I beg that they now be asked 
 to come to minister to me." 
 
 Then noting the look of incredulity upon the 
 king's face, he hastily added: 
 
 " If thou dost fear any trickery, let me go 
 down to the well first; then let five of the 
 brethren come and follow me. There let them 
 attend to my wants for such length of time as 
 thou dost allow. They will come up again one 
 by one before thee, leaving me beneath or what 
 remains of me." 
 
 This he seemed to add as an after-thought. 
 Perhaps it meant more than anyone there sus- 
 pected. 
 
 " Then seal up the well, and leave me to my 
 fate. That is my prayer." 
 
 There was a ring of finality, of resignation, 
 of renunciation, in the last words that some- 
 
 64 
 
If? Uerhirt nf llf? (gaits 
 
 how conveyed to his hearers that he deemed this 
 no simple ordeal that he knew his fate to lie 
 upon the knees of the gods. If needs be, he 
 was preparing to meet his doom. 
 
 The king waved his hand in assent. The last 
 prayer of a dying man could not be unheeded, 
 even by a king. And the religious ordinances 
 of India are above royal whims. 
 
 A hot- footed messenger hastened to the city 
 at hand, to bring the brethren from the temple 
 of Kali. 
 
 Narayan Lai stood motionless awhile by the 
 wellside, with hands crossed over his breast. His 
 lips moved swiftly in words that no man heard ; 
 yet all vaguely guessed that they were at once 
 a passionate appeal and a last farewell. 
 
 Then lifting his hands aloft, he swept them 
 across the horizon in a universal embrace and 
 springing to the ladder, quickly vanished from 
 sight. A groan of apprehension burst from the 
 populace of pity, of censure, of rebellion. A 
 cloud of despair hung over the scene like a black 
 pall. 
 
 65 
 
lf? $?r&trl of if;? (gflfca 
 
 The clang of metal broke the spell. A tall 
 gaunt figure emerged from the crowd. His 
 whitened beard swept from his naked breast, 
 his matted locks hung down to his shoulders, 
 unkempt, unwashed. A saffron-dyed loin cloth 
 was all he wore. A brasier of incense burned 
 with a bluish flame in his left hand, a pair of 
 tongs clanked in his right. 
 
 He was the guru, the high priest, of the saun- 
 yasis. 
 
 Behind him came four others, all alike in 
 garb and mien. Even their passionless faces 
 betokened the same rigid discipline that had de- 
 stroyed all self and individuality in each, and 
 the same subtle internal force that worked in 
 each to subdue the body. 
 
 The high priest bowed to the king silently. 
 Swiftly, silently, he went down the well. His 
 brethren followed; silent spectres all, encircled 
 in the pale smoke that hung in the air like a 
 fantastic will-o'-the-wisp. 
 
 " Hr-r-r-ram! Hr-r-r-ram! Hr^r-r-ram! " 
 A faint monotone was heard from the well. A 
 
&If* Vrrftirt af tlf* dnha 
 
 cloud of incense floated up to its mouth. Some 
 strange ritual was being enacted beneath. 
 
 " Om! Om! Om! " It was a deep guttural 
 voice that suddenly burst forth in a fury of 
 fanaticism louder, louder, louder. 
 
 " Praise to thee, Bhugwati! 
 Divine Chamanda, dwelling among graves, 
 Bearing a skull, borne on a car, 
 Drawn by spirits, Mother of black nights! " 
 
 A vague indefinable thrill swept over the 
 hearts of the multitude. They remembered the 
 power of Kali, the dread goddess who ruled the 
 last destiny of man with absolute sway so that 
 other deities stood back impotent. And these 
 were her favoured votaries calling upon her in 
 supplication, in exultation, in ecstasy. 
 
 " Be propitious! Be propitious! 
 Quickly accomplish our desires. 
 By thy necklace of beads and its serpent brood 
 Quit this mortal clay, Mother of Death! 
 Hr-r-r-ram! Hr-r-r-ram! Hr-r-r-ram! " 
 67 
 
Slf? Vtrftirt 0f tlje (6060 
 
 A chorus of voices beneath took up that 
 frenzied cry, " Hr-r-r-ram! Hr-r-r-ram! Hr- 
 r-r-ram! " Then suddenly all was silent as the 
 city of the dead. 
 
 One by one returned to earth the saunyasis, 
 the high priest at their head. With burning 
 brasiers and clanking tongs they filed past the 
 king that he might see their faces and count 
 their number and left the scene. 
 
 Then the masons placed two stout boards, 
 that together filled up the opening and a foot 
 beyond on every side. The join of the boards 
 they covered with shellac ; and the king, coming 
 down from his dais, made the impress of his 
 signet-ring over it in three places the middle 
 and the ends. The boards could not be lifted 
 again without breaking the seals. 
 
 Covering the seals and the whole join of the 
 boards with a hollow hemi-cylinder of brass, 
 the masons quickly built up a wall over the well 
 three cubits high. A dozen guards took up their 
 post around it, to keep watch by turns. 
 
 "And you shall answer with your heads," 
 68 
 
Xtr&Ut af tlf? (Snba 
 
 warned the king as he rose to go, " if so much as 
 a scratch is made upon that wall." 
 
 It was the seventh night after the entomb- 
 ment ; a night of inky darkness, moonless, star- 
 less ; for a black cloud hung over the sky. An 
 intermittent gust of wind served but to carry 
 the weird echoes of the neighbouring jungle. 
 
 The jungle seemed all alive at that hour. The 
 distant baying of the grey-wolf mingled with 
 the dismal laugh of the hyena. The faint cry 
 of the nilghau floated on the breeze. Occa- 
 sionally a deep ominous sound, like rolling 
 thunder in the far distance, arose above the 
 rest. Then all other beasts hid their heads on 
 the bosom of the earth and were silent. 
 
 Four men sat by a fire beneath the peepul- 
 tree that hung its furthest branch over the 
 well. They sat cowering together, as if the air 
 was cold and chilly which it was not. Their 
 lances lay in their hands, but their eyes cast 
 fugitive glances at fitful shadows among the 
 trees. 
 
 69 
 
tje Herfcirt nf tlf* (Safca 
 
 " Brothers ! " whispered one under his breath, 
 gazing vacantly into the impenetrable darkness, 
 " I thought I heard a sound a rustle ! " 
 
 The others peered beneath their brows, 
 handling their lances nervously. For full seven 
 breaths they waited, with heads bent low over 
 the ground then sighed back in relief. 
 
 " I am afraid, my brothers," spoke again the 
 first guard ; " afraid of the unseen, the un- 
 human, the unearthly." And he shivered in 
 terror as his restless eyes fell upon the well. 
 
 They felt that something was happening 
 there, of which they had no understanding; 
 something mysterious, intangible, inexplicable. 
 Narayan Lai must surely be dead by this time 
 his body denied the funeral obsequies. His soul 
 could find no rest till then. 
 
 No rest ! Floating in the air around above 
 beneath ! 
 
 Suddenly a dim whiteness stood on the other 
 side of the well ; a faint, ethereal cloud seen for 
 the fraction of a second in the reflected light. 
 
 " Radha Kissen! RadTia Kissen! " cried out 
 70 
 
Sfije Uer&iri af tlf* (gafca 
 
 the guards in invocation. For this was no 
 earthly foe. 
 
 " Go in peace, O Fearful One ! We are poor 
 men, the servants of thy servant ! " 
 
 But the nebulous vision had vanished from 
 sight ; sunk into the earth. Yet an answer 
 came from the opposite side, a breaking twig, 
 a soft footfall 
 
 " Stand back, or I transfix thee ! " cried 
 aloud one of the guards, springing from the 
 ground. This at least was a material foe. 
 
 But scarce the words had escaped his lips, 
 when a tall figure stood in their midst. His 
 head was shaven, his naked breast and arms 
 scarred with self-inflicted wounds. He smiled 
 gravely as he noted their gaze of terror. 
 
 " Let me sit by this fire awhile, my friends. I 
 have walked far to-night." 
 
 It was the pundit, the philosopher. They 
 knew his habits and his midnight vigils. 
 
 " Tell us something about that," they 
 whispered with bated breath, casting furtive 
 glances at the well. 
 
 71 
 
fje Vtriiirt 0f ttje (Snfca 
 
 " That is easily told." He spoke in a low 
 husky voice that sent a thrill into their hearts. 
 " According to the books the air in that well 
 would begin to be poisonous in an hour; at the 
 end of a day the man in it would lose conscious- 
 ness even as a drowning man does the third 
 time he sinks. Then soon after he would die. 
 Narayan Lai must long be dead now." 
 
 He filled their minds with much thought that 
 was not there before. He spoke of disen- 
 tombed spirits haunting the scenes of their 
 earthly tragedies ; of grim spectres returning 
 to earth to finish the work they had left undone. 
 
 Suddenly a strange sound caught their ear 
 a sigh, a sob. It came louder, in a paroxysm 
 of grief. 
 
 The white cloud appeared again, quivered 
 for a moment beyond the well, then quickly 
 vanished in the gloom. 
 
 " The Woman of the Well ! " gasped someone 
 in blank terror. 
 
 They sat cowering by the fire. They 
 clutched at their hearts and caught their breath 
 72 
 
for fear of arousing the vision anew. Long 
 they waited. 
 
 Then gradually they felt the sounds of the 
 night die away. The wind above died away, 
 and the jungle relapsed into silence. All earth 
 slept. 
 
 But the pundit, the philosopher, had vanished 
 likewise. When or how, they knew not. 
 
 Then the fear of the king's command came into 
 their hearts. Four crouching figures, holding 
 firebrands to illumine their path, crept to the 
 well. 
 
 " Here, O brothers, here ! " whispered one, 
 pointing to the back of the wall built over the 
 well. 
 
 It was wet, the space of a man's hand. 
 
 " The falling dew ! " exclaimed another. But 
 the space all around was dry. 
 
 "Tears! A woman's tears!" answered a 
 deep resonant voice from the darkness of night. 
 
THE AWAKENING OF THE DEAD 
 
 multitude gathered at the well on 
 the evening of the ninth day of 
 Narayan Lai's entombment. His 
 master sat upon the dai's, cold and 
 silent and austere. He sat as judge, not merely 
 as king. 
 
 The populace may have wondered what 
 Narayan Lai's crime could have been that he 
 should have deserved so cruel a fate. But in 
 the king's heart there was now one only desire: 
 to know the truth. Doubt like a cankerworm 
 had been eating into his vitals since that day he 
 had discovered Narayan in the garden. The 
 youth's obvious crime of making secret love to 
 the princess might alone have merited instant 
 death. But now a subtler doubt tortured the 
 soul of the king. . . . Verily, the Princess 
 74 
 
Sltje Her&iri nf tlf? <S0&a 
 
 Devala also was upon her trial ; and if Narayan 
 Lai failed, her fate also was sealed! 
 
 Then like a soothing rain came to his parched 
 heart the hope that perchance the youth was not 
 guilty of the blacker crime: that indeed he was 
 of Kshattric blood! The joyful revulsion of 
 feeling begotten by that possibility surged 
 through his heart. He who would have slain 
 the youth with his own hand that fatal day now 
 prayed the gods to prove his innocence. Ever 
 and anon he looked at the sun hanging over the 
 tree-tops ; it seemed to hang there for ever, and 
 never to sink. 
 
 Yet he waited the full allotted time; for the 
 verdict of the gods must be made manifest 
 though the heavens should fall. He almost 
 held his breath as the last ray of the sun 
 quivered over the jungle. Not till it had van- 
 ished from sight did he raise his hand for the 
 appointed signal. 
 
 Swiftly the masons fell upon the wall. Stone 
 after stone was loosened on every side and cast 
 to earth, till the boards appeared. 
 75 
 
If? Herfcirl 0f itfe (gnfta 
 
 With a strange calmness that belied his 
 hastening breath, the king came down from 
 the dai's. 
 
 The seals were unbroken. 
 
 With a vague indefinable emotion half joy, 
 half fear he resumed his seat; joy that the 
 youth was there to meet his trial, fear that the 
 judgment should pronounce his guilt. The 
 boards were raised and flung aside. 
 
 A dim white vapour issued from the opened 
 well and mingled with the air. 
 
 A stifled groan was heard from someone in 
 the crowd. 
 
 "His spirit!" 
 
 The multitude shivered in sudden fright. In 
 that supreme moment of suspense it swayed at 
 the mercy of each passing thought. 
 
 " The smoke from the incense," explained a 
 sage from the background. 
 
 But the masons quickly lowered a rope-ladder 
 
 into the well. Four strong men descended, the 
 
 strongest first. As the last head disappeared 
 
 the populace ceased to breathe. Each counted 
 
 76 
 
his throbbing pulse for the twentieth time 
 then felt it die away in a spasm. 
 
 A sudden cry arose from the bottom of the 
 well like a distant echo, a mere inarticulate 
 gurgle. 
 
 "He is not there! He has escaped!" called 
 aloud a voice from the throng. 
 
 But again the cry arose from the well. 
 
 " Throw down a blanket and a cord." 
 
 Five minutes after, the tightening ladder told 
 the world that they were ascending. Perchance 
 the post outside, to which it was fastened, 
 groaned more with some added weight. Per- 
 chance that was but the fancy begotten of doubt 
 and fear. But they were long in coming, and 
 seemed never to come. 
 
 The first man appeared, bending down; the 
 second. A long bundle came, pushed up from 
 beneath by the others. 
 
 The bundle they silently laid at the feet of 
 the king. But none dared to open it. It was 
 rigid and inert. 
 
 " Open it ! " bade the king in a husky whisper. 
 77 
 
lf? Berfcirl nf tlje (Sn&s 
 
 Slowly they unrolled the blanket. 
 
 As a sullen sea that stands suspended a 
 moment, then hisses to foam over the breakers, 
 the human throng relaxed from its tension with 
 a sudden gasp. 
 
 "He is dead!" 
 
 "Dead!" 
 
 Then all bowed down their heads, and none 
 found words to speak. 
 
 Narayan Lai lay there; his eyes closed; his 
 jaws set; his hands pressed to his body on 
 either side, flat and distended. His limbs were 
 cold. Yet no sign of pain was upon his face. The 
 awful agony of suffocation was not there. The 
 slow torture of poisoned air and bursting veins 
 was not there. Rather, his countenance was 
 calm and serene, as of one in a peaceful sleep. 
 
 " His brethren killed him first," spoke some 
 wise man in the crowd, "and saved him from 
 pain." 
 
 " No, O foolish one ! His brethren are here 
 to belie thy words!" It was a deep sepulchral 
 voice from the midst of the throng. 
 78 
 
b? Utrftirt 0f tfte nba 
 
 With clanking tongs the high priest of the 
 temple of Kali stepped forth to the dai's and 
 bowed to the king. His four brethren stood by 
 him, two on either side. Five burning brasiers 
 sent up five thin lines of blue smoke curling to 
 the heavens. 
 
 " If he be dead, O Son of Justice, I claim his 
 body for its proper rites. But I and my 
 brethren will see first if he be truly dead." 
 
 The high priest bent low over the still figure. 
 He seemed to search for some mystic sign that 
 no man could divine. And yet he never touched 
 the body. 
 
 Arising, he carried the body in the blanket 
 seven cubits from the dais, and paused a 
 moment beside it. His left hand he stretched 
 forth till the brasier of incense was on a level 
 with his head ; with his right he rapidly circled 
 the tongs three times over the blue flames, his 
 lips moving in inaudible prayer. Then with a 
 clank he brought them down to his side, and 
 began to walk with measured tread around the 
 body ; his brethren following. 
 79 
 
Their lips broke forth in song, a weird mono- 
 tone. Each cast a handful of incense from his 
 girdle into the brasier. Five columns of smoke 
 ascended the sky, curling round and round with 
 the motion. The cloud began to thicken. A 
 canopy of white hung over the circling men. 
 
 The shades of tropical night were falling 
 fast, and their dim shadows moved as dark 
 spectres against the darker landscapes. Louder 
 and louder grew the song. 
 
 " Om! Om! Om! 
 Thou that rulest the life of man, 
 Be propitious! be propitious! 
 Quickly accomplish our desires. 
 Enter here; enter, enter! 
 Tread, tread; dance, dance! 
 By thy necklace of beads and its serpent 
 
 brood. 
 
 Enter this mortal clay, Mother of Life! 
 Hr-r-r-ram! Hr-r-r-ram! Hr-r-r-ram!" 
 
 Thrice the high priest circumambulated the 
 rigid body, thrice he waved the eddying incense 
 80 
 
Vrrftiri of tlje (6nba 
 
 over his matted head, thrice he stopped and 
 kissed the clammy brow. 
 
 The motion grew more rapid. From Om to 
 Hr-r-r-ram they repeated the invocation, each 
 time faster and faster, quickening their step 
 with the song. 
 
 And now the cloud of incense filled the air. 
 The canopy of white descended and shut out 
 the body from view. Only a dim haze of mov- 
 ing forms could the spectators see. 
 
 Gradually the circle widened out; the space 
 of a man's length divided the priests from the 
 body. Yet so swift was the motion now and so 
 thick the cloud of incense, that the body was 
 but visible in fitful glimpses. Wilder, wilder 
 grew the song; it was one ceaseless torrent of 
 mingled words, or frenzied invocation. A 
 strange sensation crept over the multitude near- 
 est the priests a deep oppressive feeling of 
 something descending upon them, something 
 invisible yet ponderable ; as if they were being 
 gradually submerged in a fluid denser than the 
 surrounding air. 
 
 81 
 
Was this but a dream? Verily, the scene 
 before them seemed in some vague indefinable 
 manner to have become unreal, unnatural as if 
 the priests and the body were no longer actual 
 objects before their material eyes, but rather the 
 coinage of their brains. For they felt even as 
 the sleeper does when he is slowly awakening to 
 consciousness and hearing the real sounds around 
 him and yet confusing them with the sounds 
 of his dream. The odour of the incense filled 
 their nostrils and mounted to their brains; the 
 curling smoke cast a haze and obscured in out- 
 line, but magnified in size, the things they saw 
 beyond it. Yet all was uncertain : one moment 
 their consciousness assured them that they saw 
 and felt and heard in very truth ; the next that 
 this was but a picture on their minds. Thus 
 felt the multitude nearest the priests. 
 
 Suddenly the priests stood still. The brasiers 
 they placed on the ground between their feet. 
 With hands stretched forth, palms downwards, 
 they pointed at Narayan Lai's body the fingers 
 opened wide. Ten sloping hands pointed at the 
 82 
 
SUf* Uerfcirt af ilf* (gn&a 
 
 body, the arms held rigid and straight; the 
 high priest at Narayan's head, his brethren two 
 on either side. 
 
 Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the high priest 
 raised his hands, his arms still held rigid and 
 straight from the shoulders. Likewise his 
 brethren. So slow was the motion that the mul- 
 titude scarce knew that the hands had lifted 
 save that, gazing again, they saw that the slope 
 of the arms had altered ; a while ago the finger 
 tips were level with the waist, now they were 
 almost as high as the breast. And yet the 
 priests' outstretched arms still pointed at Nara- 
 yan LaVs body! 
 
 What marvel was this ? A second glance, and 
 the wondrous fact dawned upon the multitude. 
 The youth's inert form that had lain motionless 
 upon the ground was now suspended in the air, 
 a cubit above the earth ! Rigid as a wooden log, 
 it hung in the air as if buoyed up in some invisi- 
 ble fluid or held suspended by invisible lines of 
 force. For, below it, above it, and all around 
 it, the multitude could see naught but a dim 
 83 
 
haze of incense; yet between the priests' hands 
 and the floating body there was three cubits' 
 space and no material connection to bridge the 
 gulf. 
 
 The body swayed gently in the air, quivered 
 as if wavering in doubt, held still a moment 
 then began to sink, slowly, scarce perceptibly ; 
 not in spasmodic jerks, but with an even and 
 regular motion. But this the multitude saw, 
 and marvelled: the haze of incense that had 
 settled on the ground beneath the body whilst 
 it was in the air now began to disperse quickly 
 in countless wisps that licked the ground out- 
 wards all around, then shot up straight in the 
 air even as a gust of wind from above will 
 cause a fire to break up into a thousand tongues 
 of flame that will lick the ground all around, 
 then rise up straight beyond the reach of the 
 column of wind. . . . 
 
 And now the youth's lifeless form lay again 
 
 upon the ground, motionless and still. The 
 
 priests' wild weird song rose anew upon the 
 
 evening air. The cloud of incense curled up- 
 
 84 
 
wards from the brasiers in their uplifted hands. 
 Swifter and swifter grew the motion as they 
 circled round the prostrate form. 
 
 Suddenly a cry of wonder broke from the 
 multitude above the sound of ritual. 
 
 " The guru has vanished ! " 
 
 Four moving forms could just be counted 
 amidst the haze. 
 
 " I see him ! " cried some far-seeing, or imagi- 
 native, by-stander. " He is lying on the blanket 
 beside the body ! " 
 
 "He is breathing over the eyes and face!" 
 whispered another, blest with still better vision 
 or better fancy. 
 
 The multitude around took up the contest, 
 each seeing more than his neighbour. 
 
 "He is rubbing his hands over its face and 
 breast " 
 
 " From the face to the breast." 
 
 " He breathes anew upon the body." 
 
 "He is pressing down each eyeball with his 
 thumb." 
 
 " No ! He is opening the eyes ! " 
 85 
 
That instant a wild passionate cry broke from 
 the priests. 
 
 " Jail Kali Jail " 
 
 Four burning brasiers were dashed to earth, 
 sending up thick columns of smoke from where 
 they fell. With a shout of concentrated frenzy, 
 appeal, exultation, the four priests cast them- 
 selves upon the ground. 
 
 Shouting, shrieking, yelling, " Jail Kali Jail " 
 five men arose, lifting the prostrate form to its 
 feet. Together they hurried it forward towards 
 the dais encircling it all around, so that no 
 man saw if they carried it bodily or only helped 
 it to move. 
 
 At the foot of the dai's the four priests fell 
 back on either side, leaving the guru to support 
 the form. 
 
 "Behold, O Mirror of Truth, the man that 
 was dead!" 
 
 The guru thrust it forward face to face with 
 the king. 
 
 For a moment the figure lay helpless in his 
 arms then slowly the head lifted. The right 
 86 
 
"THE GURU THRUST IT FORWARD FACE TO FACE 
 WITH THE KING" 
 
lie Berfcirt of tfj? (Sofca 
 
 hand went up mechanically to the brow and 
 salaamed to the king. Then the head fell back 
 to the bosom and lay still. 
 
 The guru released his hold, and cried aloud: 
 
 " Speak, O brother ! Speak, that thou dost 
 live!" 
 
 The head of Narayan Lai went up anew, so 
 that the pressing throng now saw the face. It 
 was pale and haggard and emaciated, and lined 
 with deep furrows of a leaden hue. A thick 
 moisture sat upon the brow and ran down the 
 cheeks. 
 
 The face that had been a while ago calm and 
 serene as that of a slumbering child was now, in 
 the awakening, the face of a living corpse. 
 
 Slowly the eyes opened and dilated. Coldly, 
 sternly, they gazed upon the king. With a 
 sudden quiver the lips parted. 
 
 "Jai! KaliJai!" 
 
 It was a small whisper, as from one speaking 
 in sleep. 
 
 But the multitude around caught the words. 
 A shout like the roaring of the sea went up to 
 87 
 
the dark vault of heaven. Then a great fear 
 came upon them all, and they were silent. 
 
 " He was not dead, O Light of Justice, but 
 very nearly." It was the grave voice of the 
 high priest, full of a reproach that he cared not 
 to disguise. 
 
 " Nurse him well, ere thou dost try him again. 
 Else the gods will think this was no appeal to 
 their verdict, but the sport of a cruel tyrant!" 
 
 With these daring words he vanished with his 
 brethren into the enshrouding gloom. 
 
 Hastening home from that stupendous scene, 
 a timorous man clung to his neighbour. 
 
 " Surely, this was the work of the gods or 
 the devils ! " he murmured, gazing fearfully into 
 the night. 
 
 A mocking laugh behind answered him. A 
 tall gaunt figure drew alongside and peered into 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Thou dost see the hand of devils in this, O 
 thoughtless one? But I tell thee that Narayan 
 Lai slept." 
 
 88 
 
 
"But what sleep was this that was so near 
 death ? " asked the man, with a catch in his 
 voice. 
 
 " Hast thou never heard of men in other lands 
 falling asleep so well that their friends, thinking 
 them dead, have put them in wooden boxes and 
 placed them prematurely under the earth ? " 
 
 " But who put Narayan Lai in that dreadful 
 sleep that was like unto death?" 
 
 "Himself first, and then the guru. His will 
 and the guru's combining did this. Sleep well, 
 my friend, and see no devils in thy sleep." 
 
 And as he turned to go they recognised him. 
 He was the pundit, the philosopher. 
 
 " Truly, that man had returned from the 
 tomb ! " murmured the Great King. " But tell 
 me, O man of wisdom, what was the greatest 
 danger that Narayan Lai feared?" 
 
 The Story-teller kissed the fringe of the silken 
 sheet ere he answered : 
 
 " In the awakening, O Glory of the Heavens, 
 not in the sleeping. To put himself in yoge he 
 89 
 
If* Vtrftirt 0f tlje (gnfca 
 
 knew, and the high priest knew. But the knowl- 
 edge of the awakening is given to but few on 
 earth even amongst such men!" 
 
 " But tell me, how was he raised up in the 
 air?" 
 
 " By the power of the will, Heaven-born. 
 The guru's will in union with his brethren's did 
 this. It needed the will of all five, even as did 
 the awakening." 
 
 But perchance you will ask me, O best beloved 
 readers, to explain more fully this rising up of 
 Narayan Lai's body. Hearing the tale from 
 the other side of the royal couch, I, the faithful 
 chronicler of the Great King, have put on record 
 the full explanation of that wondrous scene, and 
 now set it forth to you in such Western terms as 
 you may understand, O best beloved. (For, 
 were I to speak in terms of true Eastern mysti- 
 cism, you would not understand me, O beloved!) 
 This is the explanation: 
 
 From every human body there is a certain 
 emanation ; a certain force that resides in the 
 body, and under favourable conditions can flow 
 90 
 
Uerfcirt nf tlf* (gnfta 
 
 out from it in a stream. This flow takes place 
 most rapidly and powerfully from the pointed 
 parts of the body ; for instance, the finger- 
 tips, the nose, etc. ; but best from the finger- 
 tips. 
 
 First, the proof that this emanation does 
 occur: Whatever may be the nature of the 
 emanation (which I shall consider presently, O 
 best beloved) in aspect it is luminous! Though 
 not visible to the human eye, it is yet visible to 
 a certain wonderful recording instrument the 
 photographic camera. You now know that 
 there are rays of light which may actually pass 
 through the human body and show us all the 
 bones within it; and yet these rays are not 
 visible to the human eye, but only to the 
 camera. 1 
 
 Then know, O best beloved, that the human 
 body itself gives out a certain luminous force, 
 which, though not visible to the eye, is yet 
 visible to the camera. And, O beloved, though 
 this wondrous fact has only just been discovered 
 1 The Rontgen rays. 
 
 91 
 
2H|* Urrfciri af tlj* (gafca 
 
 in the West with the aid of the camera, in India 
 it was known to sages a thousand years ago 
 without such aid ; there they knew of this human 
 emanation by other means. But in the West its 
 existence has only just been proved in the follow- 
 ing manner : 
 
 A human being, placed in an absolutely dark 
 room, can be photographed by his own light, 
 provided both the camera and the person remain 
 motionless, and the exposure be sufficiently long. 
 Faint though it be, the impression will be quite 
 perceptible ; and it will be clearest at the points 
 of the body for instance, the finger-tips, if the 
 hands of the person be outstretched during the 
 exposure; especially if the camera be in a line 
 with the fingers. 
 
 Why at the points? Why, you may ask, 
 should this emanation act the best at points? 
 Because all emanations, even those we already 
 know intimately (for instance, electricity) act 
 best at points. Lightning-rods are made pointed 
 in order that the electricity of the earth may 
 emanate through the point and be discharged 
 92 
 
Clj? Ueritri 0f i Ij e (60^0 
 
 into the clouds, thus relieving the electric ten- 
 sion between the earth and the clouds. 
 
 Secondly, the nature of the human emanation : 
 It is a form of personal magnetism. (I use this 
 phrase, O best beloved, because it is intelligible 
 to you. But in India it is known by a more 
 distinctive name. Even in Western language it 
 were possible to indicate a nearer approxima- 
 tion. 1 ) In some persons this force Or power is 
 far greater than in others ; in the guru it was 
 perhaps the greatest possible in man. Even 
 ordinary people possess it to some little extent : 
 any four or five persons may sit round a table, 
 place their finger-tips lightly upon it, and thus 
 cause the table to be lifted off the ground in a 
 few minutes. Then how much greater would be 
 that force possessed by such men as the guru 
 and his four brethren. 
 
 Now you will understand, O beloved, how it 
 was possible for the priests of Kali men who 
 had made these occult sciences their lifelong 
 
 1 Some unidentified emanation ultra to, but of the na- 
 ture of, the newly-discovered Blondlot-rays. 
 
 93 
 
Sllje HerMrt af tty? <&0&s 
 
 study to raise up Narayan Lai's body in the 
 air. Magnetised iron, a foot above the ground, 
 can raise up magnetised iron lying upon the 
 ground. Then why not the guru in union with 
 his four brethren the body of Narayan Lai? 
 
 Have you never taken an instant fancy to a 
 person you have just met for the first time or, 
 on the other hand, instant dislike? In the first 
 case have you not been attracted by that person, 
 you could not tell why and in the latter case 
 repelled? Then know, O beloved, that in the 
 one case it was the invisible emanation from 
 that person which reached out to you and at- 
 tracted you ; in the other, repelled. Where the 
 mutual sympathy is the greatest, the attraction 
 is the strongest. But how great must the sym- 
 pathy naturally be between the master and the 
 disciple! Thus marvel not that the attraction 
 also was very great between the guru and Nara- 
 yan Lai. 
 
 But perhaps you will ask me: why was it 
 necessary for the guru to test the power of this 
 attraction before restoring the youth to con- 
 94 
 
sciousness? Could he not have done so, with- 
 out this preliminary raising up of Narayan's 
 body? In answer I shall repeat the words of 
 the Story-teller : " The danger to Narayan Lai 
 lay in the awakening, not in the sleeping." 
 Verily, not till the guru felt sure that Nara- 
 yan's personal magnetism had returned to his 
 body could he venture to awaken him from his 
 long yoge (trance) ; for, during it, all the func- 
 tions of his body were suspended; likewise his 
 personal magnetism. And what greater cer- 
 tainty could the guru have of the return of that 
 force than the response given by Narayan's 
 body to his own? Verily, not till he saw the 
 youth's body rise up in the air did he know for 
 certain that his body was resuming its normal 
 functions that the time had indeed come to 
 awaken the sleeper, without fear of a relapse 
 into perpetual slumber, death ! Even as it was, 
 Narayan Lai only just escaped that peril! 
 
 Yet, manifold as was the peril, he had the 
 help of his brethren. In his next trial the spirit 
 of the dead must have befriended him. 
 95 
 
TONGUES OF FIRE 
 
 'NOW, O King of Kings, that the 
 doing of a perilous deed becomes 
 doubly perilous when the doer has no 
 warning of his task and is denied 
 every accessory in its accomplishment. How 
 much more, if his fears be first lulled to sleep by 
 a false security as to its true nature! Aye, if 
 added to the trial there be another peril, subtle, 
 n^sterious, and unforseen alike by him who is 
 tried and he who sets the trial! Of this un- 
 known peril first. 
 
 Know, O King, that seventeen years before 
 the opening of my tale the same year in 
 which Narayan LaPs reputed father had entered 
 his master's service, bringing with him as a mere 
 child the hero of this tale also, the same year 
 in which that mysterious pundit, Rama Krishna, 
 96 
 
BerMrt of tlf* (gotta 
 
 had likewise appeared on the scene a third 
 man had also followed in the footsteps of the 
 two former. . But these two knew nothing of 
 him ; never suspected his presence so near them. 
 Once indeed Narayan Lai's reputed father, Hira 
 Lai, had caught this stranger watching the 
 growing child with rapacious eyes ; but he had 
 deemed that to be mere vulgar curiosity, not 
 an indication of any evil purpose. And once 
 again, as a boy of twelve, Narayan was bath- 
 ing in the Ganges and had swum out beyond 
 his depth when suddenly he had cried out that 
 an alligator had caught him by the foot and 
 was dragging him down, and Hira Lai had just 
 been in time to rescue the boy. But looking at 
 the boy's ankle he had found, not the marks of 
 an alligator's teeth, but the broken end of a 
 looped wire ! Then suddenly he had remembered 
 that a boat had been moored nigh, and had 
 hastily quitted its moorings on the rescue of 
 the child, and glided downstream. 
 
 Yet Hira Lai had failed to connect these two 
 circumstances together, and suspect any evil 
 97 
 
OJlje Urr&tri nf t h r (Sobs 
 
 machination against the child. Nay, when a 
 strange man sought to enter the service of the 
 ruler of that land, and gradually rose high in 
 office in the royal household even then Hira 
 Lai, though seeing him often, failed to recog- 
 nise in him the stranger that had once cast evil 
 eyes upon the unguarded child. 
 
 And now, O Heaven-born, when the child was 
 grown up and on his trial before his master, 
 that stranger had become the Jemadar of the 
 Household. Of his joy, when he saw Narayan 
 Lai so near death, there was no limit. Verily, 
 if the youth were killed, his own task was at an 
 end! Could the youth escape? Surely not! 
 Four more trials had he; within them he must 
 die. 
 
 Thus the jemadar had resolved to render the 
 trials more arduous still. He had kept vigilant 
 watch upon Leila ; for he suspected her of being 
 her mistress's instrument in aiding the youth. 
 Also, he had hungered after her for purposes of 
 his own ; for Leila was a beautiful maiden. Of 
 her own lover, Harnam Das, the captain of the 
 98 
 
Ije ISUrbiri 0f t^t (Snin 
 
 palace guards, the jemadar feared nothing. He 
 would have the maiden in spite of him then 
 fling her away. For he still nursed his pierced 
 ear under his turban, and kept in his girdle the 
 jewelled stiletto that had made the wound. 
 
 But the night before Narayan Lai's next 
 trial, the very hour he was scheming the youth's 
 death, a call came to him from the outer world 
 the world he had left behind a full generation; 
 and yet the call was in furtherance of the very 
 purpose in his heart. He was gazing out of the 
 window of his apartment in the outer wing of 
 the palace, when a faint sound trickled into his 
 ear out of the stillness. It was short and sharp. 
 It came again, now long-drawn and more 
 intense. 
 
 It was the hooting of an owl. The usual 
 dismal cry of the night-bird, and yet not quite 
 like it. There was a persistence, insistence, in 
 the last note. 
 
 The jemadar started. Dimly, slowly, some- 
 thing awakened to life within him. For one 
 brief moment he paused, wavering in doubt. 
 99 
 
Ife Herfcirt af ilj* (Snfca 
 
 The sound reached his ear a third time and 
 memory came back to him like a lightning-flash. 
 
 He quitted the apartments, and stealthily 
 made his way towards the far end of the garden, 
 creeping along the shelter of the wall; for he 
 deemed it unwise to seek exit by the palace- 
 gates. Reaching the far end, he gathered 
 together an armful of stout creepers, twisted 
 them together into a long rope, found a tall 
 tree whose projecting bough hung over the wall, 
 and climbed up the trunk. Gaming the end of 
 the bough, he tied to it the rope, and descended 
 by it to the other side of the wall. 
 
 The owl's hoot he himself gave, once, twice, 
 thrice. From within the shelter of a ravine a 
 dark shadow came up to him in response. A 
 form muffled up in a long choga. 
 
 " The fiery trident ! " it gave the sign. 
 
 " And the axe of sacrifice ! " gave back the 
 jemadar the countersign. 
 
 The form threw off the choga. 
 
 " The Master sends thee this ! " He held out 
 to the jemadar the serpent-ring. 
 100 
 
later&irt 0f life (S0&0 
 
 And at the sight of the serpent on the little 
 trinket the jemadar's jaws set tight as a vice. 
 He salaamed with both hands, bowing to the 
 ground, saluting this little wisp of gold. For 
 he realised its significance. He must obey its 
 message even at the peril of his life. For 
 though he openly served one master, he was 
 secretly in the pay of another. A spy in this 
 court. A Thug; an assassin. 
 
 The messenger peered into his face with nar- 
 rowed eyelids. 
 
 " For seventeen years hast thou eaten in 
 secret the Master's salt, watching the cub. Now 
 the Master bids thee strike ! " 
 
 Thrice the jemadar kissed the serpent-ring 
 ere he answered. " To hear is to obey. For 
 seventeen years I have sought his life, without 
 the peril of my own ; for I deemed the cub igno- 
 rant of his birth, and thus the sacrifice of my own 
 life unnecessary. But now tell the Master: the 
 lion's whelp shall die if need be at the cost of 
 my life. In the trials he shall fall ; if not, then 
 in the very hour of his triumph!" And the 
 101 
 
jemadar steeled his heart to the deed he had so 
 long deferred. 
 
 " Nay, afterwards it were too late ; for if he 
 triumphs, his master will aid him to regain his 
 own. Thou must strike within the trials." 
 
 The jemadar bowed his head. " He is too 
 well guarded ; for his life is precious to his 
 master for the very purpose of the trials. 
 Nevertheless, he shall not live. I have 
 spoken ! " 
 
 " It is well," the messenger answered, eyeing 
 him narrowly. " And if thou dost want aid, 
 five of the brethren are at thy service! Dost 
 thou understand me? " 
 
 The jemadar understood. "It is written!" 
 he murmured. For the five Thugs would aid 
 him to slay his victim or slay him, if he flinched 
 in his task. They were spies upon a spy. 
 
 " They will be in the cavern beneath the 
 great banyan tree," the messenger continued, 
 " awaiting thy call. If thou shouldst want 
 them at the palace, give the sign of the owl; 
 there will be one at this wall to hear thee. If 
 102 
 
Clje Beriirt 0f lite <B o i 3 
 
 beyond the palace, even to the mountains, then 
 put up the sign of the flaming torch upon the 
 plateau." 
 
 Thus in that hour the false jemadar, the 
 Thug in disguise, vowed to take Narayan's life 
 within the trials ; otherwise his own life would 
 be forfeited. 
 
 But that very hour, whilst the jemadar was 
 absent from the palace, the gods in a sportive 
 mood seized the opportunity to send their aid 
 to his victim and, wondrous caprice of the 
 gods, through his other victim! Through the 
 very woman the jemadar sought to injure! 
 
 Crossing the courtyard with her silver pitcher 
 balanced deftly upon her head, and nearing the 
 crystal fountain by the outer gate, Leila saw 
 an aged mendicant begging alms from the 
 guards. A strange presentiment entered her 
 soul. A beggar's blessing had power to sway 
 the will of the gods. She called the mendicant 
 within the courtyard. 
 
 But receiving the bounty, and raising his 
 hand to bless her, he murmured, " Upon thy 
 103 
 
Sllfe ller&irt of tit? (601*0 
 
 head be Lakme's choicest gifts and upon his 
 head this ! " 
 
 Something dropped from his hand into the 
 folds of her sari. A small phial, no bigger 
 than a man's thumb. 
 
 A smothered cry and the beggar's warning 
 hand checked the maiden; for the guards were 
 nigh. With startled eyes she gazed into his; 
 read therein a perilous message. 
 
 " To-night ; else it were too late ! " 
 
 With these whispered words the mendicant 
 hobbled back to the gate and vanished into the 
 dark. 
 
 Then light came to her heart, and she under- 
 stood. For she realised that upon the morrow 
 Narayan Lai's life would again be in peril. This 
 night she must act. . . . 
 
 . And upon the morrow, an hour before sun- 
 set, without previous word or notice even as to 
 the day of the trial, Narayan Lai was taken 
 before his master in the audience-hall of the 
 palace. He was not permitted to bring any- 
 thing with him, save the clothes he wore white 
 104 
 
JJlje Vtritirt af ilf? (Snfta 
 
 trousers, white tunic, white turban. His feet 
 were bare. 
 
 The king sat in his robe of state upon the 
 ivory throne. Around the dai's sat the coun- 
 cillors; grey-bearded, grim-visaged warriors 
 that vaunted their scars of many battles ; clean- 
 shaven, yellow-robed pundits that brazened their 
 caste-marks of sandal wood upon their proud 
 foreheads. 
 
 Behinds the guards at the doorway thronged 
 the people, and in the courtyard beyond a 
 vaster multitude that, seeing nothing, yet 
 heard each murmuring word floating down the 
 human tide. 
 
 Narayan Lai stood before the throne with 
 arms folded over his breast. Around him was 
 an empty space twelve cubits in diameter. That 
 was his arena. 
 
 " Make us see and feel something that is not 
 before us now," spoke the king from his throne. 
 " But not all alike. Some of us to see one thing, 
 some another, others a third, and so on; all 
 different each time." And the king smiled 
 105 
 
grimly as he bethought him of the trap he had 
 laid. 
 
 In a vague glimmering light in his mind 
 Narayan Lai seemed to discern faintly that the 
 utmost of his professional skill was now de- 
 manded of him. To create out of nothing was 
 difficult enough ; to do so repeatedly and each 
 time a different thing was beyond human power. 
 And an indefinable presentiment came over him 
 that even this was only a prelude. What poten- 
 tial dangers lurked beyond, he but dimly 
 guessed. 
 
 Yet one resource was within his reach if he 
 did not belie his own powers. They wanted to 
 see things ; things not in existence. Seeing was 
 but a mental phenomenon. See they would 
 then; all that they desired. That at least he 
 could try and the gods grant him favour and 
 prey upon the visions of these lumps of clay. 
 . . . Would they see things? Verily they 
 should see and yet not see ! ... 
 
 He tore a piece from the end of his turban, 
 about the size of a handkerchief. From this he 
 106 
 
Sty? Ker&tri af ify* (Snfca 
 
 tore again a thin strip, rolled it lengthways be- 
 tween his fingers, and coiled it round and round 
 into the shape of a thick disc. Approaching the 
 councillor nearest him, a heavy old warrior with 
 huge side-whiskers twirled over his ears, he said 
 to him : 
 
 "Open thy right hand, good sir, and take 
 this cloth." 
 
 Narayan Lai placed the coil in the other's 
 open palm, and pressed it down hard upon it* 
 Next he closed the warrior's fingers over the coil, 
 and begged him to grip it tight. Then he with- 
 drew to the end of the space, twelve cubits away, 
 and addressed the councillor. 
 
 " I ask thee, sir, to think with me of the things 
 I mention. Close thine eyes. Imagine thyself 
 to be alone in a fortress. It is midnight, dark 
 and silent. Thou art watching by the wall, but 
 feeling tired. 
 
 " Suddenly a faint sound is heard : some- 
 thing moving along the top of the wall! It 
 comes nearer, creeping up by inches. What 
 lurking danger can it be, so slow, so subtle? To 
 107 
 
ljr UrrMri n f Hj e (Safca 
 
 what proportions would it increase, if un- 
 checked? Still creeping up, creeping up, right 
 before thee. . . . Put they hand on it catch 
 it hard! " 
 
 The old warrior snatched frantically at the 
 air but only gripped the coil tighter. His 
 hand trembled violently. He held the wrist with 
 the left hand to steady it ; but it still shook as in 
 an ague fit. The fingers began to be forced 
 outwards. His eyes were now wide open with 
 a vacant glassy stare. 
 
 " Hold it fast ! " cried out the juggler. 
 
 The warrior set his teeth and clenched his fist, 
 till the blood stood out in the veins; but the 
 fingers began to move up and down as if he 
 were playing upon an invisible violin. A vol- 
 canic force seemed to be working beneath. 
 
 " A jinn! " gasped the old man, throwing 
 open his swollen hand. A little brown thing 
 wriggled out and dropped to the floor. 
 
 It was a live lizard. 
 
 With tail erect and head raised, it began to 
 run along the floor to the foot of the dai's. But 
 108 
 
Slye IrrMrf nf t^t (6 i s 
 
 Narayan Lai sprang forward, and caught it in 
 his hand. 
 
 Holding it aloft by the tail, so that all could 
 see it a moment, he tied it up in the remaining 
 piece of cloth he had torn from his turban. With 
 this he approached one of the guards by the side 
 of the dai's. This man was a peasant by caste. 
 
 " Take this creature in thy hand, my friend," 
 he bade him. 
 
 The guard shook his head dubiously; but 
 noting his master's eye upon him, put out his 
 hand reluctantly. Narayan Lai placed the 
 bundle there, and requested him to hold it high 
 above his head ; then he retired to his own place, 
 twelve cubits away. 
 
 "I ask thee, friend, to think with me of the 
 things I mention," he repeated the formula. 
 " Close thine eyes. Imagine that a great famine 
 is raging in the land. Rice and wheat crops are 
 withered by the sun. Thou art hungry; thou 
 hast gone to bed supperless. 
 
 " Thou art dreaming. Something seems to 
 dangle above thy pillow. It comes nearer and 
 109 
 
nearer. Suddenly it falls within reach. . . . 
 Stretch -forth thy hand seize it quick! " 
 
 The sepoy held on to the cloth with a des- 
 perate clutch. Something hard lay in it, motion- 
 less and inert ; a while ago it was a soft wriggling 
 lizard. 
 
 "Open it, friend, and eat it!" bade the jug- 
 gler, with an encouraging smile. 
 
 Like a soulless automaton the sepoy opened 
 out the bundle. Something fell out to the floor. 
 
 It was a maize stalk a span in length, and 
 studded with glistening corn. 
 
 "Eat it," asked again the juggler. But the 
 sepoy would not. Maize made from lizard was 
 not toothsome. 
 
 " Then hand it over to the venerable councillor 
 before thee," requested Narayan Lai, still re- 
 taining his place twelve cubits away. 
 
 But the councillor was a high-caste Brahmin. 
 He turned away his head scornfully. 
 
 " Take it, good father," Narayan Lai begged, 
 " merely to hold in thy hand not to eat. Per- 
 haps the gods are about to reward thy piety." 
 110 
 
HOLDING IT ALOFT BY THE TAIL HE 
 
 APPROACHED ONE OF THE GUARDS " 
 
SIff* Vtrftirt of tlfe (Sails 
 
 This he added with a subtle smile that seemed to 
 convey a hope and a promise. Long afterwards 
 they realised that it might have equally implied 
 a threat and a warning. 
 
 With grave curiosity as to what the gods would 
 do for him so late in life, the Brahmin took the 
 maize. After all, it was lifeless. 
 
 "Lay it upon thy lap," the juggler said to 
 him, " and cover it over with the cloth. 
 
 " Now think with me of the things I mention. 
 Close thine eyes. Imagine thyself in the temple 
 of Sarasathi, the Goddess of Wisdom. Thou art 
 meditating before the sanctuary on the folly of 
 mankind and the wisdom of the elect. Gradu- 
 ally the merits of thy fourscore ancestors pass in 
 review in thy mind. 
 
 " Suddenly the goddess on the altar smiles 
 upon thee. She takes something from her bosom, 
 something bright and glittering in many parts, 
 and showers it down upon thee. It falls upon 
 thy lap. . . . Hold it, father! both hands lest 
 it fall! " 
 
 The Brahmin snatched at the cloth on his lap. 
 Ill 
 
If* JUrbiri 0f tlf* (gnfcn 
 
 With nervous hands he raised it, fumbling at 
 the folds. A shining coil, scintillating sparks 
 of fire all along its length, fell out upon his 
 knees. 
 
 "The mohan-mala, the garland of enchant- 
 ment ! " whispered the priest, with a catch in his 
 voice. 
 
 "Verily, it is," answered the juggler. "The 
 goddess has sent it to thee." 
 
 The Brahmin held it up to the light hesitat- 
 ingly. It was a gold chain wrought in alternate 
 flowers, lotus and champak; the crown of the 
 jeweller's art. 
 
 " Place it around thy neck, venerable father, 
 so that thou mayest become wiser than thy 
 generation." 
 
 As one in a dream, scarce believing what he 
 saw, the priest passed it over his head, whilst all 
 around gazed upon it with hungry eyes. 
 
 " Truly, this is marvellous," murmured to him 
 the simple-minded sepoy by his side. "Didst 
 thou note, father, that Narayan Lai stood all 
 the time twelve cubits away from the passing 
 
of the maize to thee, till the creation of the gar- 
 land?" 
 
 "Wonderful!" exclaimed a more fanciful 
 neighbour. "A chain of gold from a maize; a 
 maize from a lizard; a lizard from a piece of 
 cloth. Wherefore, the chain comes from the 
 cloth " 
 
 " To fools ! " 
 
 A loud laugh was heard from somewhere, a 
 derisive laugh ; cold and hard and cynical. 
 
 At the sound of the voice a strangled cry 
 broke from Narayan Lai's lips. Involuntarily 
 he turned his head towards the end of the hall. 
 Something seemed to knock at his heart. For the 
 first time the stern and haughty calmness he had 
 maintained so far, deserted him. He trembled 
 like a frightened child. 
 
 But ere they could discover whence the voice 
 had come, Narayan Lai's master intervened. . . . 
 
 Without a word, ignoring the wonder of the 
 
 multitude and their applause of the juggler's 
 
 skill, Narayan Lai's master motioned with his 
 
 hand to the attendants by his side. One of them 
 
 113 
 
Stir? ler&irt nf tlj? 01050 
 
 withdrew for a while into the adjacent chamber, 
 then re-appeared with a bundle wrapped up in 
 jute sacking. He knelt down before the king, 
 who broke with his hands the seal upon it the 
 seal of his own signet-ring. 
 
 The attendant opened the bundle before 
 Narayan Lai; it contained an armful of straw. 
 Placing it before the juggler, he withdrew. 
 
 " Breathe fire into it," bade the king, pointing 
 to the straw. 
 
 " That is impossible ! " muttered someone to 
 his neighbour. But the latter rebuked him, say- 
 ing: 
 
 " I have often seen him bring forth fire from 
 his mouth " 
 
 " That was when he knew beforehand what he 
 himself intended to perform," protested the first 
 speaker. " How can he do it forthwith, without 
 warning or preparation!" 
 
 But the king had meant more than that. 
 To create fire at another's command might in 
 itself be impossible. The king demanded still 
 more. 
 
 114. 
 
Sllf* $?riniri nf tlj* (gafcs 
 
 " Bare thy head and place the burning straw 
 upon it," he continued. " Then prove to us that 
 what had burnt upon thy head was a real fire." 
 For verily this was the trap he had laid for 
 Narayan Lai! 
 
 Mechanically, as one moving in his sleep, the 
 j uggler took off his turban, his thick glossy hair 
 falling down to his neck. He seemed hardly to 
 realise what was asked of him, so wrapt was he 
 in thought. For a moment he stood there, 
 turban in hand, gazing into vacancy. He looked 
 towards the king, but not at him ; rather at some 
 bygone scene that he was vainly striving to 
 recall to memory; something full of pleasure, 
 yet full of pain. A pleasant recollection, 
 mingled with deep sorrow sorrow that it was 
 passed for ever. 
 
 He knelt down upon the floor and mechanically 
 drew the heap of straw towards him, and gazed 
 into it as if it were alive and could speak but 
 found no answer there. 
 
 Like an automaton he handled the straw, 
 raising it to his face, smelling it, asking it mute 
 115 
 
ullje Urriirt of Hj? <B ii s 
 
 words with suppliant eyes. Rather, as one 
 whose body was there indeed, but whose mind 
 and heart were far away. 
 
 Then with a sudden sigh he caught up a hand- 
 ful of straw. Pressing it an instant upon his 
 bared head, he began to rub it briskly between 
 his palms. Faster and faster moved his hands, 
 straight up and down. Now and again he blew 
 upon the straw, a long steady breath. 
 
 The spectators craned their necks to watch. 
 A buzzing whisper went around to tell the world 
 what he was doing dilating upon this simple 
 action with fanciful embellishments. 
 
 "I have seen his father do it," murmured a 
 wizened old man, a Behari merchant by the shape 
 of his turban. " It was at the court of Benares 
 before he took service here." 
 
 His hearer, with eyes still upon the juggler, 
 screwed his mouth aside. " Thou knowest much, 
 stranger. What more didst thou see?" 
 
 "This very youth," calmly replied the other. 
 "He was a mere child then. His father placed 
 fire upon his head, and it did not burn. The 
 116 
 
king rewarded him much; so also a great 
 traveller from over the sea, whom the king was 
 entertaining." 
 
 The lips of the juggler began to move in in- 
 audible words, as if he spoke to some kindred 
 spirit hovering round. A strange lustre came 
 into his eyes. They were not upon the straw, 
 but straight ahead. It was an awakening gleam 
 as of one long asleep in darkness seeing 
 light. The lost memory was coming back to 
 his soul. 
 
 "Father!" 
 
 It was scarce a whisper that broke involun- 
 tarily from his lips; more like a distant echo. 
 His blazing eyes held communion with someone 
 that others could not see. The hands full of the 
 straw he stretched forth to clutch the vision 
 then recoiled open-mouthed. 
 
 With a sigh, almost a moan, he began to rub 
 the straw anew. But that instant there flashed 
 forth a light of joy in his eyes wild, frantic, 
 ecstatic. 
 
 He raised his head higher and higher, gazing 
 117 
 
Elf* KerlHri af ill* $n&0 
 
 at some approaching object. A smile quivered 
 upon his lips as the vision paused over his head. 
 He felt the presence of some master-mind over- 
 shadowing him, descending upon him like even- 
 ing dew. 
 
 " Mahatma" (great spirit), gasped someone 
 that realised the omen. But those near him 
 fleshly men, of the earth, earthy knew not 
 what he meant. 
 
 In frenzied haste Narayan Lai rubbed the 
 straw, breathing wild gusts of wind into it. 
 Faster and faster, to and fro, up and down, 
 spasmodically. 
 
 Suddenly he leapt to his feet, raised his quick- 
 ening hands over his head, offering a holocaust 
 to him that hovered there, brought them down 
 to his mouth, emptied his hot breath into the 
 straw in one loud blast, flung up his arms, and 
 hurled the straw to the ground. 
 
 There was an instant flash like the setting 
 sun reflected from the crest of a wave a 
 tongue of flame leaped to life from the falling 
 straw. 
 
 118 
 
Wilt lUr&iri nf ilf* (Snfta 
 
 "Fire!" shrieked a voice from somewhere, a 
 shriek of mingled fear and joy. 
 
 "Living fire!" whispered they that saw 
 hushing their voices in sudden awe as the im- 
 pending tragedy dawned upon them with a 
 shock. 
 
 But scarcely had the flames reached the floor 
 when Narayan Lai sprang forward, snatching 
 up a handful from the heap at his feet, and 
 gathered up the burning straw in his bare 
 hands. 
 
 " Draw thy sword, quick ! " he cried out to the 
 nearest guard. " Advance hold the naked 
 blade over my head." 
 
 He fell on his knees and placed the burning 
 straw upon his head. 
 
 "Hold the blade in the flames the middle 
 flat ! " he shrieked out like one possessed. 
 
 With one hand he kept the straw upon his 
 head; with the other he reached out and piled 
 on fresh lots from the bundle at his feet. 
 
 The hot cinders fell over his eyes and face, and 
 twinkled upon his shoulders. Little black holes 
 119 
 
uilje UrrMrt of ilic <6niis 
 
 began to form in his flimsy white tunic. A 
 flaming wisp fell from his brow, glanced off his 
 cheek, and found new life upon his breast. The 
 red line flared up there, meandered along the 
 collar-bone, then burnt itself out upon a braid- 
 ing. And all the while Narayan Lai fed the 
 flames upon his head. His eyes were blazing like 
 a madman's, glistening through a thick moisture 
 that was not tears. 
 
 A column of smoke went circling to the roof 
 of the hall, and finding no outlet, crept along 
 the walls. Soon a dim hazy mist began to 
 form. 
 
 The white-clad figure kneeling upon the floor 
 the red tongues of fire leaping up from his 
 head and licking the glittering steel the dazed, 
 stupefied sepoy standing motionless by the 
 flames all encircled in the wreathing smoke: 
 What a picture! 
 
 "Let me go! Let me go!" 
 
 It was a sudden shriek, a shriek of terror and 
 unholy fear. It came from the guard. 
 
 He was trembling in every limb, his eyes fixed 
 120 
 
lye $?ri>Ui nf tlf? (gait* 
 
 in blank horror before him, his brow and face 
 bathed in a heavy sweat that came not from the 
 flames, for his skin was cold and clammy. 
 
 " Let me go ! " he cried again, dropping the 
 flat of his sword upon the juggler's head. " See, 
 the flames the flames ! " 
 
 He pointed with his other hand to the red 
 tongues. But the tongues of fire swayed to 
 either side of the steel, licking it hungrily. The 
 multitude thought that he had suddenly gone 
 mad. 
 
 "No! The breath the breath! Can ye not 
 see him breathe upon the flames ? " 
 
 But Narayan Lai knelt motionless, like the 
 bronze statue in the temple of the Fire-god upon 
 which burnt the ceaseless embers. He seemed to 
 be in a trance; his eyes were closed, his lips 
 pursed tight. Only his hand moved mechani- 
 cally to reach the straw by his side. 
 
 "Not him but the other!" And the guard 
 pointed his shaking hand at the top of the 
 flames. But it was only smoke there. 
 
 " Stay there ! " bade the king in a cold stern 
 
M Uerfciri 0f lly* (Softs 
 
 voice. "Hold up the sword to the flames!" 
 Having eyes, he could not see; having ears, he 
 could not hear ; neither he nor the lumps of clay 
 around him. But the poor mad sepoy, that 
 held the sword and saw visions, was within 
 the flaming zone; to him the curling smoke 
 was indeed the materialised spirit of the 
 dead! 
 
 " But there is no flame ! " muttered a stranger 
 in the well of the hall. 
 
 They turned upon him with a savage glare. 
 Who dared blaspheme their god-given eyes? 
 
 It was a man dressed in a black chupkan 
 reaching down to his knees ; upon his head there 
 was no turban, but a long funnel-shaped hat. A 
 Parsi; a fire-worshipper. 
 
 " It is a large red flower, the many petals 
 waving in the wind ! " persisted the man. 
 
 " Art also mad ? There is no wind ! " 
 
 But that instant a cry was heard from some- 
 one in front. It was the last handful that Nara- 
 yan Lai was piling upon his head. He could 
 scarcely be seen in the dense smoke, only his faint 
 
outlines. The man before him stood like one 
 dazed. He clutched the hilt of the sword with 
 both hands, holding the blade horizontally before 
 him. 
 
 The dying embers flickered, glowed, flickered 
 again, then suddenly vanished in the smoke. A 
 heap of ashes fell in a shower around Narayan 
 Lai's face and shoulders. 
 
 That instant he leapt to his feet, a madman's 
 haunted look in his eyes snatched up the sword 
 from the soldier's grasp and sprang to the 
 front of the dai's. 
 
 The middle of the blade was painted red, four 
 fingers in width. 
 
 Twirling the sword above his head, he brought 
 down the point upon the marble floor. There 
 was a sharp clank ending in a dull thud. Again 
 he raised the sword, rapidly turning it in his 
 hand to the other side. The blade was bent in 
 the middle at the zone of red. 
 
 Down it came to the floor again. A heavy 
 thud a loud clatter and half the blade sprang 
 from the blow and smote upon the foot of the 
 
Sljr JUrMri of Hie ffiofts 
 
 dai's. Recoiling, it lay before the juggler. His 
 hand went forth and snatched it up. 
 
 " Behold the fire that was a real fire, O Sun of 
 Life!" 
 
 There stood Narayan Lai bowing before the 
 throne. In his left hand he held the pointed 
 half of the blade ; in his right was the hilt. 
 
 But the red zone had vanished from either 
 half. A grey band marked the place in each 
 where it had been. 
 
 A thunder of applause burst from the pent-up 
 spectators. It was a babel of voices, shrieks, 
 shouts, yells of frenzy. 
 
 Suddenly a single cry was heard. 
 
 " O King ! I claim thy justice ! " 
 
 It was the Brahmin councillor who had re- 
 ceived the mohan-mala from Narayan Lai. He 
 was now standing before his seat, his eyes blazing 
 in wrath. 
 
 " There is a thief in this assembly ! " he cried 
 out fiercely, sweeping his thin bony finger to the 
 world around. His rank alone entitled him to 
 such bold words. 
 
f?? Verftirt nf tl?e (gnfcfl 
 
 An instant hush fell upon them all. This was 
 bathos indeed. A while ago they were in the 
 clouds above; now they were hurled to earth 
 with a rude, sordid shock. Each looked at his 
 neighbour askance, and wondered where the blow 
 would fall. 
 
 " The garland has been stolen from my neck." 
 
 Truly the beautiful chain of gold no longer 
 shone upon the Brahmin's breast. With one 
 accord all eyes turned to the man sitting behind 
 him. 
 
 But he was a bronzed old warrior, the hero of 
 many battles. He was chewing his bushy beard 
 and his right hand playing with the hilt of his 
 sword. 
 
 " But look ! look ! Upon thy bosom ! " 
 
 It was a startled cry from the guard that 
 stood by the Brahmin's side. He pointed his 
 hand at the Brahmin's breast. 
 
 A loud mocking laugh answered him from the 
 back of the throng cold and hard and cynical. 
 
 Dazed and bewildered, a thousand emotions 
 rending his heart, the old priest put his hand to 
 125 
 
{j? Berintri nf Iff? (gn&a 
 
 his bosom. With a frantic clutch he pulled out 
 something and held it up. 
 
 It was a long strip of cloth, rolled up length- 
 ways ; the same that Narayan Lai had torn from 
 his turban. All eyes saw that. 
 
 The garland of gold had returned to cloth. 
 
 " Gold back to maize ; maize to lizard ; lizard 
 to cloth ! " Such was the comment of the multi- 
 tude. But all the transformation they had not 
 seen. It was merely their fanciful imagination 
 lengthening out the final change. 
 
 " Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity," murmured 
 the priest in a quivering voice whose bitterness 
 he could not disguise. 
 
 " Nay, venerable father, it is the wisdom of the 
 elect. The goddess has made thee indeed wiser 
 than thy generation." 
 
 And like a man risen from a funeral pyre 
 whilst yet the flames were doing their work, 
 Narayan Lai turned to his king and faced him 
 upon his throne begrimed, besmeared, cold and 
 haughty and domineering. 
 
 Then for the third time on the self -same day 
 126 
 
Elje Brriirt of tit e (Softs 
 
 his master tried him anew in the very moment that 
 Narayan Lai thought his perilous task for the 
 day was over. 
 
 Without a word the king descended from his 
 throne, walked to the courtyard, turned to the 
 right and came upon the adjacent field. 
 
 But lo ! what sight was this upon the field ! A 
 rectangular trough, thirty cubits long and ten 
 wide, was dug in the ground. It was filled with 
 burning fagots. By its broader side, towards the 
 west, stood a hillock of the same. A crowd of 
 sweating firemen, naked to the waist, fed the 
 trough from the hillock, and kept it ready for 
 their master's use ; for they had received his 
 command to keep the fire burning bright in the 
 trough, though they knew not for what purpose. 
 At intervals they cleared the ashes from the top 
 with long rakes, so that the trough was one level 
 surface of glowing charcoal. 
 
 Fifty cubits to the north was the water-tower 
 
 that fed the fountains of the adjacent palace 
 
 with their hundred jets. But all this day the jets 
 
 had been silent, so that the water-tower was now 
 
 121 
 
lye VtrMrt nf 1 lj t <S0fca 
 
 throbbing with pent-up force ; instead, a single 
 pipe had been inserted at the base of the tower, 
 ending in a brass nozzle. The nozzle could be 
 turned in a socket to point upwards, downwards, 
 or at any angle outwards. Its purpose no man 
 knew. 
 
 Seated upon the dai's by the side of the tower, 
 the king spoke to his prisoner before him with a 
 veiled sneer: 
 
 " Thou hast escaped the fire of thy own crea- 
 tion. Now escape mine!" 
 
 What hideous mockery was this ! What brutal 
 sport of pitiless Fate to let a man escape one 
 deadly peril, and then forthwith to try him again 
 with the same peril in a deadlier form ! 
 
 " Thou must cross the fiery gulf, along its 
 length, upon thy naked feet," the voice of the 
 king spoke in relentless words. " Thine own fire 
 did not touch thy head. See if mine will burn 
 thy feet ! " And for the first the king laughed 
 in his bitterness. 
 
 Narayan Lai stood before him, silent and still. 
 
 "What! Dost refuse the ordeal? Dost fear 
 128 
 
Ije Vtrftirt nf ttje (gflba 
 
 the fire ? Then thou shalt perish by water." The 
 king pointed to the brass nozzle beside the dais. 
 
 Then all understood its purpose. If Narayan 
 Lai refused the fiery ordeal, the guards would 
 lay him on his back before the water-tower, and 
 insert the nozzle downwards into his mouth. 
 The lever controlling the mechanism would be 
 suddenly turned, and the piled-up water let 
 loose in all its fury through the nozzle. The 
 next instant Narayan Lai would be dead. . . . 
 
 He bowed his head. 
 
 " What is written upon my brow shall be ful- 
 filled, the cruelty of man notwithstanding. I 
 accept thy ordeal, O King!" 
 
 The guards escorted him to the southern side 
 of the burning trough, facing the king. At its 
 edge they left him, and fell back on either 
 side. 
 
 For one brief moment Narayan Lai paused in 
 thought, then quickly took off his tunic; his 
 turban he had left behind in the palace-hall. . 
 Seated upon the ground, he rolled up his trou- 
 sers to his knees. Suddenly he bent low his 
 129 
 
OJlje Urr&irt af ilte (gn&a 
 
 supple form, and reposed his head upon the 
 ground between his feet, his long hair covering 
 the feet on either side. 
 
 The shades of night were now falling fast. 
 The multitude stood by the trough, twenty 
 cubits afar, facing the hillock. From left to 
 right Narayan Lai would cross or perish in 
 the fiery gulf. They watched him keenly. 
 
 At the edge of the trough his half -nude form 
 glistened with rolling sweat. He raised his 
 head a moment, revealing the soles of his feet. 
 Facing the fire, they caught the heat full, and 
 seemed to crinkle inwards. Then again Nar- 
 ayan Lai lowered his head upon them. 
 
 " He prays to Agni, the fire-god ! " the mul- 
 titude whispered with bated breath. 
 
 " To give to his feet the immunity of his 
 
 head!" 
 
 " See, he knocks his head upon his feet ! " 
 
 For now with both hands laid upon his long 
 
 hair Narayan Lai seemed to bow his head 
 
 quickly and repeatedly upon his feet. Then 
 
 suddenly he leapt up and stood erect. For that 
 
 130 
 
2Ufe Herfotri af ttj* (S0b0 
 
 brief instant he seemed in the lurid glare to be 
 but a bronze statue. The sweat streamed down 
 his body and wetted the ground beneath his 
 feet. The next instant he plunged into the 
 burning trough. 
 
 The first three strides he took he scarce 
 seemed to touch the fire. Then suddenly he 
 seemed to flounder; some treacherous spot 
 seemed to yield beneath his tread. 
 
 "He is lost!" 
 
 "Run to the side!" 
 
 "No! Onwards!" 
 
 Ay, better to die battling with the fire and 
 upon it, than to perish impotent by water and 
 beneath it. It was all done with the quickness 
 of lightning; with fire there could be no pause 
 or hesitation. Narayan lurched forward, 
 reeled, steadied himself, then with one deep 
 gulp of breath bounds onwards. Did the 
 glowing embers crackle beneath his tread he 
 recked not; little red sparks shot up around 
 his feet he heeded them not. With eyes 
 straight before him, teeth clenched tight, nos- 
 131 
 
trils opened wide, he flew over the trough. It 
 was one mad rush whilst yet the spectators 
 took but three short breaths. It could not be 
 more. Within that he must die or conquer. 
 
 He approached the other end. At ten cubits 
 he vaguely saw something before him: at seven 
 he realised its import. Perchance some care- 
 less fireman had failed in his task and had piled 
 there burning wood, not glowing embers; per- 
 chance it was a sudden gust of wind; he knew 
 not. All that he saw in that instant's flash was 
 a million little tongues of flame shoot up before 
 him like a million spikes. 
 
 One short step to the very edge of the spikes 
 and he hurled himself headlong through the 
 air over the flaming zone. Falling to hard 
 earth, he lay prone an instant; his feet, skim- 
 ming the last row of flames in their fall, were 
 drawn in quickly beneath him. Then stagger- 
 ing up, reeling forward like a drunken man, he 
 reached the dais; cast himself down before it. 
 
 " Dohai J dohai, O King ! " the words escaped 
 from his bursting lips. It was that terrible 
 
ije TJeriiri of lite (Sabs 
 
 cry for justice, eternal justice, that the suprem- 
 est monarch on earth must heed. 
 
 With these words Narayan Lai lay prone at 
 his master's feet, rigid and inert and motionless. 
 Half his task was over. He still lived. 
 
 His master bowed his head. An attendant 
 approached with a jar, and poured a stream of 
 cool olive oil upon Narayan's feet. 
 
 " Open the flood-gate," the king bade again. 
 
 The nearest guard tilted up the nozzle and 
 turned the lever that controlled the piled-up 
 water. There was a short sharp hiss; then a 
 furious jet, an inch thick at the nozzle, shot 
 out in the air, expanding. Sixty cubits afar 
 it fell upon the fiery trough. In that mo- 
 ment all men realised the power and the fury of 
 the water, and inwardly shuddered, thinking of 
 the nameless death in store for Narayan Lai 
 had he refused the fiery ordeal. For, ere the 
 tower was half empty, the trough was but a 
 sluggish lake. 
 
 "Carry him away, and tend him well," the 
 king spoke again. 
 
 133 
 
STlf* Her&iri 0f ttj^ (gn&a 
 
 And at the command the guards carried 
 Narayan Lai away upon a charpoy. Laying 
 him upon his bed, they wiped the oil from his 
 feet. 
 
 Lo! the soles were whole and unburnt, with- 
 out even a scald ! 
 
 "Verily, the mind is greater than the body," 
 murmured the Great King from his pillow. 
 " Yet methinks, in piling fire upon his own head 
 he had died in agonising torture, but for the 
 benevolent spirit of his dead father." This he 
 added with a sigh, as he thought of his own 
 hundred ancestors and their sevenfold virtues. 
 
 The Story-teller was silent awhile, letting the 
 soothing hope do its work. The Great King 
 was sick unto death ; the Great King might yet 
 be saved by that hope. 
 
 And yet, O best beloved readers, there were 
 found evil-minded detractors who doubted the 
 marvellous nature of these facts. Away from 
 the presence of the Great King, I afterwards 
 heard from the Story-teller of their foul 
 
calumnies. For, on the night of the trial, when 
 the multitude had dispersed from the audience- 
 hall, a band of opium-soaked besotted knaves 
 were gathered together in the den at the out- 
 skirts of the city. There, amid the fumes of 
 the soul-destroying drug, their foul tongues 
 were loosened. 
 
 "There is a traitor within the palace!" said 
 a thick-set man, with a scar upon his nose. He 
 had once been a housebreaker, but, having been 
 caught, had been sentenced to have his nose 
 slit open with a lancet. 
 
 " How knowest thou ? " asked another, hold- 
 ing his hookah with his left hand. For his right 
 hand had been cut off for giving short weight 
 to the poor in the bazaar where he was a 
 bunniah. 
 
 " Last night I saw a man in a beggar's garb 
 leave the palace. Meeting me face to face, he 
 paused, put forth his hand as if to beg alms, 
 then suddenly snatched back his hand and has- 
 tened into the darkness. But, in turning, his 
 face came full in the light of the beacon on the 
 135 
 
OJlt? BcrMrt of Hie (6 i s 
 
 gate, and I recognised him. It was Rama 
 Krishna!" 
 
 " Ay, brothers," went on a third knave, " my 
 wife, who goes morn and night to the palace 
 kitchen, tells a wondrous tale. This morn in 
 clearing away the remains of Narayan Lai's 
 supper, she saw a chappati [unleavened bread] 
 uneaten. Within it was a dark stain, giving a 
 strong pungent odour. Then coming again in 
 the evening, whilst the juggler was away on his 
 trial, she searched the room and came upon a 
 small empty phial having the same odour " 
 
 " Hast thou the phial ? " a husky voice inter- 
 rupted the speaker. It was the man that wore 
 his turban low over his ear ; the same that once 
 before had bought the incriminating palm-leaf 
 from the scribe for a gold mohur. 
 
 "In my house; not with me." A silent 
 message passed between the two which the others 
 could not understand. Then the speaker 
 resumed his tale : 
 
 " And besides the phial she also found a 
 fragment of a fig-leaf upon which were traces 
 136 
 
tje BrrMri nf Uj* <*&** 
 
 of a grey powder. She cast the leaf thought- 
 lessly upon the kitchen fire; and it blazed up 
 with a sudden spurt." 
 
 Then all around turned to the man that had 
 once been a scribe in the bazaar, and asked him 
 mockingly, "Read to us this riddle, O man of 
 much learning ! " 
 
 Thinking awhile, encircled by the opium 
 fumes and ignoring the mockery in their tones, 
 the scribe answered them: 
 
 " It is known to most scholars, and therefore 
 to expert jugglers, that hair, jute, and certain 
 other fibres are rendered non-inflammable when 
 steeped in the sap of the arakia, a rare plant 
 found only in the higher elevations of the Terai. 
 Narayan Lai must have often used this sub- 
 stance when of his own free will he affected 
 to place fire upon his head ; hence he must have 
 kept a constant supply of it in his house. 
 Now, when did the king seal up the bundle of 
 straw?" 
 
 "The day before the trial," answered all. 
 For the king had done this openly in the hall- 
 137 
 
of -public-audience, though he had not revealed, 
 his purpose. 
 
 " But Rama Krishna is also a scholar," went 
 on the scribe, revelling in his own knowledge. 
 "Thus he guessed the king's purpose, and 
 forthwith obtained some of the arakia from the 
 juggler's house. This he conveyed in the phial 
 to some accomplice in the palace. The accom- 
 plice hid the phial in the chappaties intended 
 for Narayan Lai's supper, and thus escaped 
 the vigilance of the guards. Then just before 
 the trial, the juggler rubbed the arakia into his 
 thick glossy hair, and thus made it immune. 
 But you have noticed in the trial, O brothers, 
 that his tunic was not immune; for it was set 
 alight by the falling sparks." 
 
 " But the grey powder ? " they asked, still 
 in doubt. "Whence came it?" 
 
 The scribe opened wide his palms. " How can 
 I tell? It is not in the evidence!" Yet, think- 
 ing awhile, he continued : " Methinks he always 
 had it; a juggler is wont to carry hidden about 
 his person things that he might need at any 
 138 
 
If? Vtrftirt nf llj? <80&a 
 
 moment; above all, the means of making fire. 
 Ask any street urchin for the cracker he flings 
 upon the pavement with an explosion. You 
 will find that it contains a grey powder and bits 
 of broken glass. The powder alone by friction 
 will set straw aflame. Perchance the juggler 
 carried some of the powder hidden behind his 
 ear. You will have noticed that twice during 
 the feat Narayan Lai had the opportunity of 
 raising his hand to his head; once in taking 
 off the turban, and again just a moment before 
 the flash. Thus was the powder reached, and 
 afterwards mixed with the straw. Such is the 
 reading of the riddle," the scribe concluded. 
 
 " But what of the fiery trough ? " they asked 
 him disbelievingly. " Why did that not burn 
 his feet?" 
 
 The scribe smiled in superior wisdom. " Be- 
 cause in feigning to bow his head upon his feet 
 in prayer at the edge of the trough he was 
 really rubbing the arakia from his long hair 
 into the soles of his feet and thus rendering 
 them immune likewise. Besides, it is known to 
 139 
 
SI;? Vtrftirt af ttye (Saba 
 
 all that if a man were to wet his hand and then 
 to plunge it into molten iron and withdraw it 
 quickly, within the space of a quarter of a 
 second, the hand would be uninjured; and this 
 he might do repeatedly if the hand were wetted 
 afresh. For, the great heat would instantly 
 transform the water into steam, which would 
 form a thin coating around the hand and keep 
 the molten iron away for that short interval. 
 
 " Now, over and above the arakia, the soles of 
 Narayan Lai's feet were covered with sweat; 
 nay, his whole body. Thus in the act of run- 
 ning quickly over the fiery trough the sweat 
 was constantly rolling down his body and wet- 
 ting the soles of his feet ; for, before beginning 
 the ordeal, Narayan Lai waited awhile at the 
 edge of the trough till the intense heat had 
 covered his body with a hundred streams of 
 sweat. Thus, besides the arakia, he had a 
 second protection to his feet." And the scribe 
 put his lips to his neglected hookah, and refused 
 to speak further. 
 
 But, O best beloved, the scribe was a foul 
 140 
 
lf* U0rbirt 0f life (g0ba 
 
 calumniator. For, in the first case, if it were a 
 material fire that Narayan Lai had produced, 
 then why did the Parsi, the fire-worshipper, 
 think it but a red flower? And the piece of 
 cloth that became a lizard, then a maize stalk, 
 then a gold chain, and back again to cloth 
 was that also done by a mere material method, 
 such as successive substitution? Or was it not 
 rather the triumph of a superior mind over in- 
 ferior ones, the juggler's over those of his spec- 
 tators? 
 
 For of mere physical peril Narayan Lai's 
 master had in store for him a full measure; a 
 deadly peril in which his juggler's art was of 
 no avail an actual physical peril of appalling 
 magnitude, to escape from which it needed not 
 merely the utmost skill of the human mind, but 
 also the utmost courage of the human heart. 
 
 141 
 
THE MAGIC SPELL 
 
 secret peril that had so long 
 been hanging over Narayan Lai, 
 like a sword held by a single thread, 
 now fell upon him suddenly in the 
 very hour of his hope. Half his task was over ; so 
 far he had conquered, and with the ever fulness 
 of a youthful heart had already begun to hope 
 for ultimate triumph. He did not know the 
 tricks of Fate! 
 
 Yet, what man's reasoning is unable to dis- 
 cern, woman's presentiment, intuition, premoni- 
 tion, is able to foresee. The Princess Devala, 
 so long immured in her apartments and denied 
 all open communication with the outer world, 
 had suddenly been stricken with a great fear 
 for her lover's life. So far, even in his utmost 
 peril, she had never wavered in her hope. Now 
 for the first time her hope was shaken to its 
 
very foundations. She tried to think, to reason ; 
 and thought and reason alike were on the side 
 of hope. But presentiment was on the side of 
 despair; and presentiment triumphed. Her 
 heart was steeped in despair. 
 
 And as if relentless Fate sought to leave her 
 not a single ray of light in this ocean of dark- 
 ness, her faithful friend and companion, Leila, 
 so long hopeful, buoyant, jubilant, was now 
 likewise stricken with a strange despondence. 
 Forsooth she had a greater cause for it than 
 her mistress ; for her fears had a material shape 
 which mad elephants could not make her 
 reveal to the princess. Then, seeing that all else 
 were vain in battling with this sense of impend- 
 ing doom, Leila went at last to her lover. For 
 when a woman's heart is in terror, whether it 
 be from the demons of hell or the lightning of 
 heaven, she needs the comfort of a man's strong 
 arm. 
 
 In the second watch of the night, when the 
 guards had changed and Harnam Das was at 
 his post, she came to him. 
 143 
 
tf? H ? r & i r i f t If ? <& & s 
 
 " Dost thou love me well? " she asked of him. 
 " Dost thou love me well? " 
 
 For an answer, Harnam knelt at her feet and 
 kissed the hem of her garment ; then arising, he 
 drew her to his breast and enfolded her in his 
 embrace. 
 
 " Dost thou love me above all things? " she 
 asked again, laying her hands upon his breast. 
 
 Harnam Das touched the hilt of his sword 
 then flung off his hand. Again he laid his right 
 hand upon the hilt, and again he flung it off. 
 The third time the hand paused upon the hilt 
 held it, clutched it, raised it to her right 
 hand. 
 
 It was the homage, the fealty, the oath of 
 allegiance he could have given to his sovereign 
 alone. She touched the hilt with her right hand, 
 accepting the homage. Then to show that, 
 though his queen, she was still his slave, she 
 replaced the sword, took his hands in hers, kissed 
 them, and held them to her breast. Then sud- 
 denly she released them, stepped back, and 
 faced him full. 
 
 144 
 
Slje TJer&trt of tlje (Bn&s 
 
 "Thou hast said it! Thou hast proved it! 
 Have I thy promise?" 
 
 "Thou hast my promise, my oath, my hom- 
 age. Command me." 
 
 Her voice changed. The tension of her 
 nerves gave way. So long she had held up her 
 heart. Now the bands of strength that had 
 encircled it snapped like reeds. 
 
 She laid her head wearily upon his breast. 
 " Save my mistress. She is pining to death. I 
 am impotent to aid her in her heart's desire 
 to prove her lover's innocence. But thou " 
 
 "I too am impotent!" A vague apprehen- 
 sion was creeping over him. What was this 
 she was asking of him subtly insinuating? 
 "Wouldst thou have me betray my master's 
 trust?" he flung her off from him in the 
 moment's impulse "wouldst have me perjure 
 my soul?" 
 
 She answered him face to face. "Ay if 
 
 thou dost love me!" She stood erect before 
 
 him, her veil fallen from her face, her hair 
 
 streaming behind her, her hands cast up before 
 
 145 
 
her. She was like unto an avenging goddess. 
 Only her heaving breast betrayed in her the 
 affrighted maiden. 
 
 " If thou didst love me, thou wouldst fight 
 
 against hell in arms for my sake " She 
 
 turned her head quickly, and glanced behind 
 her. A faint sound, as of a deep-drawn breath, 
 trickled into her ear out of the dark corridor. 
 A cold shiver passed over her frame, as if a 
 wind from a sepulchre had struck into her 
 bones. 
 
 She brought her lips to her lover's ear, and 
 poured into it hot panting words. " Even as I 
 now fight against a palace In arms! " 
 
 He started. A dim light was breaking upon 
 his vision, so long obscured. 
 
 " Tell it to me." 
 
 " I know not what it is " She glanced 
 
 around her wildly. A while ago, in fighting her 
 own battles singled-handed, she had played the 
 man, the man of blood and iron. Now beside 
 her lover she had become a weak fragile woman, 
 trembling like a frightened deer. 
 146 
 
Slf* Her&irt af t$t (Safca 
 
 " Unseen footsteps pursue me. Swift shadows 
 start up from behind pillars and colonnades, 
 dog my footsteps, overtake me, envelop me, then 
 vanish in the dark. I hear muttered curses 
 around me, threatening my life. But yesterday 
 I was at my meal. Ere I took a mouthful, the 
 hill myna thou didst give me flew down from its 
 perch and rested on my arm. It pecked at a 
 ripe red mango, flew back to its perch flut- 
 tered its wings, then dropped down dead. A 
 poisoned fruit, remember! None but a fiend 
 with the knowledge of all jehannum could have 
 done that. . . . And not my life alone! Oh, 
 how can I tell thee? Turn away thy face, and 
 spare me the shame of my eyes ! " She laid her 
 head upon his shoulder so that she could whis- 
 per into his ear, her face unseen. 
 
 A broken sob struggled through her lips. 
 " Wouldst thou have me in bridal bereft of the 
 flower of my virtue ? " 
 
 His jaws came down like a vice, his hand 
 clutched at the hilt of the sword his finger- 
 nails burying themselves deep into the palm, un- 
 147 
 
3tff* Urr&Ui 0f til* (Softs 
 
 consciously. " Go on ! " he muttered between his 
 breath. " Tell me all !" 
 
 "The night before the attempt on my life I 
 was passing a dark corridor. As I approached 
 a pillar a thick blanket descended upon me from 
 nowhere, a rough hand fell upon my mouth 
 over the blanket, another upon my belt be- 
 neath the blanket." For Leila was a " belted 
 woman," a maiden whose duty it was to wear a 
 belt from her childhood in symbol alike of her 
 birth and her virtue ; a girdle that no man might 
 touch, save her wedded spouse. 
 
 " Go on ! Do not fear ! " It was a pent-up 
 volcano that spoke beside her in forced calm- 
 ness. 
 
 "Nay, I was spared. The man dragged me 
 through the corridor ; but even as he was lifting 
 me over the steps before a threshold, my belt 
 gave way; I slipped though his arm and fell 
 upon the floor. For that single instant my 
 mouth was released from his other hand; I 
 emptied my heart in one piercing shriek. The 
 sound of hurrying footsteps, the clamour of ap- 
 148 
 
U?rfciri nf tlje (gflfta 
 
 preaching voices and the man whipped off the 
 blanket and fled down the corridor. When the 
 eunuchs reached me, I was voiceless. They mar- 
 velled, thinking I had seen a spirit." 
 
 "None whom thou dost suspect?" 
 
 She wavered. " Yes ; let me tell thee all. 
 That night I came to thee with the sweetmeats 
 a shadow pounced upon me. . . . Save for my 
 dagger, I had been undone. But now seek for 
 a man with a scar upon his cheek or ear I know 
 not which." 
 
 Harnam Das bowed his head. Then stretch- 
 ing forth his hand to the armoury on the wall 
 beside him he took down three daggers; small, 
 but of the finest Jeypur make. 
 
 " Meanwhile take these. One for thyself ; one 
 for thy mistress if the verdict of the gods be 
 against her. The third to hold for a sudden 
 need, if thou shouldst lose the first. Now go in 
 peace. But tell me first : what wouldst thou 
 have me do ? " 
 
 " Guard thy prisoner from unseen perils! For 
 the hour of his next trial is at hand. If he dies, 
 149 
 
Site HUrMrt nf t It c (S 
 
 my mistress dies likewise. And I? I go with 
 my mistress! Dost thou understand me?" 
 
 Harnam Das paused awhile, then bowed his 
 head. " It is written. Kismet, fate ! Mine and 
 thine ! . . . I believe at last that he is innocent ; 
 my love for thee has made me believe. But I 
 owe a duty to my king, and consciously shall 
 permit none to aid and abet him to escape. 
 Yet that very duty bids me guard him from 
 perils that my master does not forsee. Now 
 go in peace. He is at least safe in my charge." 
 
 The next morn Narayan Lai's master sent 
 word to him in his dungeon: 
 
 "Thou must find the Temple of the Manik, 
 enter it, and fetch me the precious gem that lies 
 therein. Within the hour must thou set forth. 
 Pray meanwhile." 
 
 Know, O Joy of the Palace (said the Story- 
 teller unto the Great King), that of all gems the 
 manik is the most precious. Heap diamond 
 upon ruby, ruby upon sapphire, sapphire upon 
 emerald, emerald upon opal, opal upon ame- 
 150 
 
U*r&iri of ilf* (gobs 
 
 thyst, and the heap will be to a single manik 
 as a glimmering oil-lamp to the noonday sun. 
 Such is the virtue of that mystic gem. 
 
 The manik of my tale was given by one of the 
 gods to a great hero of antiquity. But he hav- 
 ing sinned grievously against his benefactor, 
 a monstrous serpent came out of the jungle 
 and devoured him and the gem he wore. 
 
 Yet so great was the hardness of the stone 
 that it stuck in the serpent's throat, and even- 
 tually forced its way to its head; so that when 
 it roamed about the jungle the gem shone like 
 a beacon-light. 
 
 Soon a mighty prince arose, who was also a 
 magician learned in mystic lore. He slew the 
 serpent and obtained possession of the manik. 1 
 
 1 The terrible cobra-di-capello is popularly believed 
 in India to be the lineal descendant of this serpent. 
 Probably the legend arose from the spectacled marking 
 on the cobra's head, which was deemed to be the setting 
 for this stone. Most of the historic gems that have 
 come out of India have similar legends attached to their 
 origin, e.g., the Koh-i-noor, the Orloff Diamond (on the 
 Russian sceptre), the Pitt, the Regent, etc. 
 151 
 
SI;* lerfciri nf ill* (gn&a 
 
 But that gem was a curse the curse of the 
 ingratitude of its first human owner. The 
 prince was seized with an incurable disease. He 
 made vows to every shrine in the land, and yet 
 was not healed. 
 
 Then in despair he listened to the doctrines 
 of a new faith, an heretical faith that had just 
 arisen, and was induced to bestow the gem upon 
 its false god, a one-eyed god. 
 
 Thou knowest, O Protector of the Faith, 
 that at the sources of the Ganges are the sacred 
 shrines of Hardwar. What is not so well known 
 in these latter days is that at the sources of the 
 Jumna which is only three days' march from 
 the Ganges there is another shrine, but now 
 buried beneath the ashes of Time. Even its 
 probable situation is merely guessed at from a 
 gigantic eminence in the depth of the forest, 
 under which it is supposed to lie. 
 
 This prince built the temple for his false god, 
 
 to whom he had given the manik as an eye. He 
 
 selected the site so carefully that it could only 
 
 be approached from one side along a dark 
 
 152 
 
ravine. That ingress is now probably lost in 
 the growth of the jungle. 
 
 Likewise, he took such means for the safety 
 of the gem itself, that anyone attempting to 
 despoil the god should die an instant death. 
 And lest perchance those who made the con- 
 trivance that secured this end should reveal it 
 to others, he slew them with his own hand. 
 
 Yet because of his own perfidy in forsaking 
 the gods of his birth, his disease was not cured. 
 He died in violent agony, crying out at the 
 moment of death in vain remorse that until a 
 man was born who, having received favours, 
 was not guilty of ingratitude no human hand 
 should own that gem. And it is whispered to 
 this day that his spirit guards the gem from 
 generation to generation in whatever incarna- 
 tion he may be, human or bestial. No man has 
 entered that temple and come back alive. 
 
 Now Narayan Lai, having received many 
 
 favours, was accused of the basest ingratitude. 
 
 Also thou knowest, O Seat of Wisdom, that 
 
 once a curse is uttered by the gods, it remains 
 
 153 
 
Herfcirt nf ifye (Snfcs 
 
 in force until its cause is removed even though 
 centuries should have elapsed. 
 
 So, if Narayan Lai was guilty of ingratitude, 
 the curse of the manik would fall upon him. 
 Moreover, unless divinely aided because of his 
 innocence, he would die a terrible death the 
 moment he touched the eye of the god. For in 
 itself the venture was full of the deepest peril. 
 Thus reasoned Narayan Lai's master, and 
 bade him set forth to the temple within the 
 hour. 
 
 And within the hour a tall white-bearded 
 form, enveloped in a long shawl, stole up to the 
 guard at the prison door. 
 
 "I am his guru," he whispered, pointing to 
 Kali's vermilion upon his brow. " He is in 
 danger of death. The king bids him pray. I 
 am here to pray with him." 
 
 The guard bowed his head to the royal word, 
 and allowed him entrance. 
 
 Softly the guru closed the door after him, 
 glancing quickly around to note the solitary 
 window high up near the roof. 
 154 
 
Herftiri nf Itfe (Snfta 
 
 " Whence is this to me, that my master should 
 deign to come to the hovel of his slave?" mur- 
 mured the youth, casting himself at the guru's 
 feet. 
 
 But the high priest raised him from the 
 ground, saying: 
 
 " The gods grant that the day may come 
 when I shall kneel to thee." Then seeing the 
 look of wonder upon the other's face, he hastily 
 checked the dawning hope. " Nay, my son, 
 that comes after if it ever comes ; pray that it 
 may. But now I am here for thy more immedi- 
 ate need." 
 
 , With skinny hands he brought out a musty 
 scroll from under his shawl. 
 
 " This book might guide thee in thy new ven- 
 ture," he said to the youth. " It contains tradi- 
 tions handed down from countless ages, written 
 down from book to book when each was in 
 tatters. Thou knowest that it is one of the 
 duties of our order to preserve public ar- 
 chives." 
 
 He turned over the yellow leaves, peering 
 155 
 
Sly? ISUrfctri 0f ily* (gn&s 
 
 under his whitened brows for the place he 
 sought. 
 
 "A few words only; with that thou must be 
 content. It is written that when the builder of 
 that temple was on his death-bed, he cried out 
 in delirium some incoherent words that his 
 friends heard, but could not understand." 
 
 Then lowering his voice to a low impressive 
 whisper, he read these words : 
 
 " ' Where falls the light . . . third from the 
 full 9 
 
 " What the last words mean, I know not," he 
 continued. " The first, thou must find. But it 
 is also written that that prince died on the night 
 of the full moon following the festival of Kali. 
 So, whatever the words may mean, I would pray 
 thee to make the attempt on the third night after 
 the full moon following the night of Kali, which 
 is now at hand. And I will beseech the benign 
 goddess to help thee that night against evil 
 spirits." 
 
 Then without a word, and ere Narayan Lai 
 knew of his purpose, the guru passed his right 
 156 
 
Herfcirt 0f tire (Bubs 
 
 hand over the youth's face, holding a small dark 
 phial in the hand. With a sudden gasp the 
 youth took in the strong odour in a single 
 breath, reeled, fell backwards to the ground. 
 But the guru caught him up ere he reached the 
 floor, raised him up, and laid him tenderly on 
 the couch. 
 
 Narayan lay motionless and still, breath- 
 ing scarce perceptibly ; then gradually he 
 began to move restlessly from side to side, 
 his breath coming irregularly in spasmodic 
 gasps. 
 
 Gently the guru placed his hands upon the 
 youth's head and face, soothing the disturbing 
 spirit. At last it seemed laid to rest. The 
 limbs lay limp and inert upon the bed, the res- 
 piration was slow and measured, the pulsation 
 regular and mechanical. The guru raised the 
 eyelids, first the one and then the other, and 
 gazed upon them. 
 
 The eyeballs had turned upwards, so that the 
 pupils lay hidden beneath the brows. 
 
 Then sitting down by the bed, the guru 
 157 
 
oilte Her&irt of tt;e (Bnfcs 
 
 breathed upon the sleeper's face, and began to 
 question him in a low monotone. 
 
 "What seest thou?" 
 
 A sudden quiver shot through the youth's en- 
 tire frame, as if he were seized with an ague fit. 
 
 " What seest thou ? " came the question again, 
 in a deep relentless voice. 
 
 Mechanically the lips opened, and the sleeper 
 answered in a high petulant voice like a fractious 
 child: 
 
 " A black cloud. It is all darkness." 
 
 " See again. Lift the veil. Seek among 
 caverns and pools and ravines a thousand 
 years ago ! " 
 
 Suddenly the youth started. He spoke in a 
 low frightened whisper: 
 
 " The Speckled Band! " 
 
 "What is her rank?" 
 
 " The Queen of the Serpent Brood! " 
 
 " What is her crown ? " 
 
 " The Gem of Life! " 
 
 Then the old man breathed anew upon his 
 face. 
 
 158 
 
Herfcirt af tlj* (Safca 
 
 "What seest thou? " 
 
 " The Magic Prince! " 
 
 " Where stands he now ? " 
 
 " In the Cavern of a Thousand Nights." 
 
 "What faces him there? " 
 
 " The Serpent-Queen, guarding her crown." 
 
 "Who wins?" 
 
 " The Magic Prince slaying the Serpent- 
 Queen! " 
 
 "Who takes the gem?" 
 
 " The Magic Prince." 
 
 Once again he breathed upon the sleeper's 
 face, deeper, longer. 
 
 "What seest thou?" 
 
 " The Temple of Ten Thousand Pillars! " 
 
 " Who owns the fane? " 
 
 " The One-eyed God! " 
 
 "What is his eye?" 
 
 " The Gem of Life! " 
 
 "Who placed it there?" 
 
 " The Magic Prince." 
 
 "Forever?" 
 
 " For ever! " 
 
 159 
 
!f? Uerfctri af ilj* (Snba 
 
 " Who robs the gem ? " 
 
 " Z>^5 from the suspended axe! " 
 
 " But he who hung it there? " 
 
 " First pulled the catch that stayed the axe! " 
 
 " Where stands the secret? " 
 
 " Where falls the light from the false God's 
 nostrils.' 9 
 
 " Who now guards the fane ? " 
 
 " The Spirit of the Serpent-Queen." 
 
 ? Can she harm thee? " 
 
 " Ay, to grind my bones to dust in her coils! " 
 
 "What talisman to save thee from her 
 coils?" 
 
 " None but that of Love! " 
 
 " Then, sleeper, awake ! " the guru cried, 
 emptying his breath in one deep gust over the 
 youth's face. " For none other can save thee 
 from thy fate ! " 
 
 With a start Narayan Lai awoke from his 
 dream, remembering nothing of what he had 
 dreamt. But the guru told him all. 
 
 " Go, my son, to meet thy destiny. That 
 which is written upon thy brow from the hour of 
 160 
 
SIi? Vtritiri nf ttje (gobs 
 
 thy birth shall be fulfilled demons and devils, 
 savage beasts and human brutes, ay, thunder 
 and earthquake notwithstanding." Saying this, 
 the guru departed. 
 
 But scarce had he left, and whilst yet the 
 guard was showing him out, a small roll of dried 
 plantain-leaves fell into Narayan Lai's room 
 from across the doorway. But that roll reached 
 the ground with a thud that leaves alone could 
 not make. Marvelling exceedingly, the young 
 man opened it. 
 
 It was a small dagger of the finest Jeypur 
 make. And with swimming eyes he read these 
 words inside the leaves : 
 
 " For the eye of the false god. This dagger 
 hath a twin which will find its sheath in its 
 owner's heart, if thou dost not return." 
 
 " And this in mine, if I fail," murmured the 
 youth, pressing his beloved's gift to his lips 
 fervently. 
 
 Outside, in escorting the high priest out, the 
 161 
 
lj* Eer&irt of tlje (Snfca 
 
 guard came upon a waiting-maid hurrying 
 through the corridor, He guessed that from 
 her garb ; for her face was veiled. Her mission 
 there he knew not and perchance was loth to 
 ask. , 
 
 162 
 
IN THE GRIP OF THUGS 
 
 ^ j^ ITHIN the hour of the king's com- 
 m IP ^m man( ^ Narayan Lai was brought 
 %^ I f before his master. Under an es- 
 cort of fifty men commanded by 
 Harnam Das, he was bidden to set forth to the 
 hills in search of the Temple of the Manik. 
 
 Ten days' march would take him there; ten 
 days he might spend in his venture; ten days 
 more would bring him back. At the end of the 
 month he must place the gem in his master's 
 hand. 
 
 " If thou are killed in the Temple, thy sins 
 will have found thee out. If thou darest not to 
 enter, my men will return with thy head." Thus 
 bade the king as they departed. 
 
 That night a silent figure stole out of the 
 palace from the furthest wing. None saw him 
 163 
 
If * Herfciri f i Ij ? <S i a 
 
 leave so he thought. Three hours later a red 
 glare leapt into the sky from a plateau that 
 began its rise twelve miles away, but which 
 extended still further northwards. 
 
 " The first night's encampment," they said at 
 the palace. And when afterwards for five 
 nights, gazing from the watch-tower of the 
 palace, they saw the fire further and further 
 away, they truly felt that it marked the line of 
 Narayan's march. 
 
 Thus knowing what the fools would believe, 
 the man who had stolen out chuckled to himself 
 and returned boldly to the palace an hour before 
 daybreak. 
 
 But nearing the outer wall, he suddenly 
 stumbled upon something in the dark. It was 
 a mendicant sitting upon the ground, with his 
 back to the wall, counting his beads silently. 
 
 The jemadar cursed him beneath his breath, 
 then crept into the palace. But the mendicant, 
 smiling grimly, leapt to his feet and vanished 
 into the dark towards the plateau. 
 
 Meanwhile Narayan Lai and his guards had 
 164 
 
reached the foot of the hills. The country grew 
 wilder and more rugged. Dense jungles and 
 dark ravines alternated with yawning chasms 
 and sudden precipices. Giant trees, piercing 
 the clouds, towered on the sloping hillside in 
 solitary grandeur. Volcanic boulders of awful 
 dimensions, wrenched from the mountain by 
 some colossal upheaval in the past, rested in 
 unstable equilibrium where they had fallen. 
 
 Out in the far distance, on the ninth day, they 
 discerned the faint outlines of a gigantic emi- 
 nence. It might have been some patriarchal ban- 
 yan-tree covering many an acre, or some bygone 
 edifice over and above whose dilapidated form 
 there grew in tangled heap the forest progeny 
 of many centuries. 
 
 Towards evening they came within clear vision 
 of the eminence and there stopped. There 
 was no passage beyond. It was all a dense 
 mass of bush and jungle. 
 
 For a while they were puzzled, disconcerted. 
 Then a sharp turn to the west revealed a steep 
 declivity that in the prehistoric past might have 
 165 
 
@f|? Uerfciri nf tltr nia 
 
 been a pathway. Along this they threaded their 
 way in single file, till, they came to a sudden 
 fall. 
 
 The earth lay beneath their feet in a long dark 
 ravine. It was so narrow that a mountain - 
 goat might not turn within its base. 
 
 " Thus far we go, and no further," spoke the 
 leader of the guards. " Thy mission lies yon- 
 der. We wait for thee here." 
 
 Narayan Lai could find no immediate answer. 
 He had eleven days yet in which to make the 
 attempt; the sooner he began, the better. On 
 the other hand, the moon was only eight days 
 old ; six more would bring it to the full. The 
 third from the full was nine days off. If he 
 failed on that night, there would still be two 
 days left if he survived. 
 
 " I, too, wait awhile," answered Narayan 
 Lai. 
 
 They returned to the mouth of the declivity, 
 and finding a large sal tree half a mile beyond, 
 pitched their tents beneath it. 
 
 On the evening of the seventh day that is, 
 166 
 
uFlf? Herfcirt 0f ilf? (goba 
 
 two days before Narayan Lai could attempt the 
 search for the gem they escorted him to the 
 ravine, placing two resinous torches in his hands 
 to guide his path. 
 
 " If I am not with you again on the third 
 night," he told the guards, " count me dead." 
 
 With that he descended into the gully, whilst 
 the guards returned to their tents, knowing that 
 there was no egress for Narayan Lai, save past 
 them. But for greater security Harnam Das, 
 the captain of the guards, posted five men at the 
 very mouth of the ravine; for, struck by a 
 strange presentiment, he sought to close it not 
 merely from exit but also from the ingress of 
 unknown foes. The five men sat down under a 
 peepul-tree at the mouth of the ravine, smoking 
 their hookahs till they were to be relieved by 
 their comrades half a mile away. 
 
 Narayan Lai threaded his way through the 
 stony gorge; risked breaking his neck circuit- 
 ing a huge boulder that jutted out from the hill- 
 side like a giant's clenched fist, fingers down- 
 wards ; floundered ankle-deep in mud over an 
 167 
 
Ely* Ber&Ut nf tli* 05050 
 
 ancient river-bed, climbed with slippery feet a 
 narrow winding ledge on the other side, and dis- 
 appeared from the sight of the guards. . . . 
 
 The shades of night had fallen ; the earth was 
 wrapped in darkness. At the second watch, at 
 the hour of midnight, Harnam Das came with 
 four of his comrades to relieve the five guards 
 at the mouth of the ravine. A hundred 
 cubits afar he gave the sign; but there was no 
 countersign in response. Coming nearer, he 
 saw by the flickering fire of dried leaves the men 
 had enkindled that they were all reclining upon 
 the ground. At twenty paces he repeated the 
 sign ; but still there was no answer. With 
 vague apprehension he drew nigh. 
 
 The five men were all reclining on their right 
 side, their legs doubled up beneath them as when 
 seated upon the ground, the head of each resting 
 upon the earth on its right side. The right 
 hand of each still clutched the hookah. 
 
 They were all dead! 
 
 He felt each body: it was still warm. He 
 168 
 
ij? Herfciri nf tl?? <&0&0 
 
 glanced at the fire : it was flickering low ; might 
 have been tended two hours ago. He touched 
 each chillum (bowl) of the hookahs; it was 
 quite cold. 
 
 The men had died an hour ago, perhaps more. 
 But less than two. 
 
 He examined each body in detail to discover 
 the cause of death; and scarce had he raised 
 the head from the earth, when the cause of death 
 was all too clear. 
 
 On the left side of the neck there was a deep 
 wound, severing the jugular vein. A sharp 
 thrust downwards with a dagger or a sword 
 might have made the wound. The assassin 
 might have stood before his victim in dealing 
 the blow. But Harnam Das examined each 
 face, and found it calm and serene, with no fear 
 of death upon it. Death had been painless 
 and instantaneous. The assassin could not 
 have approached his victim from the front. 
 
 From the back? That was only possible if 
 the blow had been dealt with the left hand. 
 But were the five assassins, who had approached 
 169 
 
ff* lUrfcirt 0f ilf* (gain 
 
 their victims from the back simultaneously, all 
 left-handed? That was scarce probable. Har- 
 nam Das scrutinised the ground behind each, 
 but the hard earth yielded no trace of an ad- 
 vancing or receding foot-print. 
 
 " From above ! " a deep guttural voice an- 
 swered him from the darkness of the night. 
 
 With quickening breath a tall gaunt form 
 emerged from the forest. It was Rama 
 Krishna. 
 
 " Am I too late ? " Then glancing quickly at 
 each face of the dead, and seeing that Narayan 
 Lai was not numbered among them, a deep sigh 
 of relief burst from his panting lips. 
 
 " It is fate kismet ! " he said to the guards, 
 bowing his head. " I was hastening up from 
 the plains below to avert this " waving his 
 hand to the dead " but now let us avenge it ! " 
 
 " But say, whose work is it? " Harnam Das 
 asked of him, clutching at the hilt of his sword. 
 
 In answer the pundit lit a torch at the fire and 
 silently went to the rear of the peepul-tree 
 beneath which they stood. There, at the back 
 170 
 
if* H?r&irt af life (gains 
 
 of the trunk, he bent his eye to the ground; in 
 vain; the parched earth refused a clue. Then 
 circling round towards the mouth of the ravine, 
 he suddenly stopped and motioned to Harnam 
 Das to approach. There, just beyond the shel- 
 ter of the tree, the earth was soft with recent 
 rain. Naked footprints ! Each pointing to the 
 ravine. How many they could scarce tell; for 
 the footprints were in single file. 
 
 The pundit returned to the tree a moment, 
 glancing upwards. Just above the dead guards 
 a network of branches met his gaze. The 
 guards had chosen that spot beneath for the 
 protection the branches afforded them from the 
 rain ; but that very fact had been their undoing. 
 The branches were scarce ten feet away. 
 
 " Within reach of a lance thrust ! " muttered 
 the pundit. " As the men sat beneath, they were 
 within seven feet of the boughs ; and when they 
 turned their heads to pull at their hookahs, they 
 bared their necks at the vital part. A simul- 
 taneous thrust from above, and they died with- 
 out a cry." 
 
 171 
 
ff? Vtrdirt nf tl?? (Snfca 
 
 " But from whom? Dost suspect " 
 
 "Thugs!" 
 
 And at the single word Harnam Das started. 
 But already the pundit was back to the ravine. 
 
 " Whither goest thou? " 
 
 " To the rescue and to vengeance ! If thou 
 dost know thy duty, thou wilt come likewise ! " 
 
 " I come," Harnam answered shortly. He 
 motioned to his men, and three of them followed 
 him; the fourth returned to the encampment to 
 bring up a fresh patrol. 
 
 " How many are they ? " Harnam asked after 
 awhile. 
 
 " Perhaps five, perhaps fifty," the pundit 
 answered. " Five entered the ravine to-night. 
 How many more were waiting within I know 
 not." 
 
 Harnam Das glanced at his slender force: 
 four armed men in all ! The pundit shrugged his 
 shoulders impatiently. 
 
 " Wouldst fight with swords against Thugs ? 
 I tell thee, thou must fight with thy head, not 
 thy right arm. These are crafty men, full of 
 172 
 
Slje Uer&irt u f ttje (6 & s 
 
 tricks and stratagems. We must fight them 
 with stratagem as deep, not with brute force. 
 Now come ! " 
 
 They circuited round the boulder, crossed the 
 ancient river-bed, gained the narrow ledge 
 opposite, and vanished behind it. 
 
 Meanwhile let us follow Narayan Lai in his 
 perilous task. 
 
 When Narayan Lai left the ravine he knew not 
 which way to turn. The ledge on which he 
 stood divided at that point. On his right was 
 a gradual slope upwards sparsely dotted with 
 trees ; on his left a pathway downwards, leading 
 to a cluster of dense jungle and bushes. He 
 chose the upward course. After a while the 
 region altered in aspect. A forest of tall deo- 
 dars, sal, and toon met his gaze. A full hour 
 he kept to the forest, then beyond it came to a 
 small open space. The sound of murmuring 
 waters trickled into his ear. On the further 
 side of the clearing there was a stream. His 
 path was checked on that side. 
 173 
 
Turning a little to the west he came to a hill. 
 Its flank lay parallel with the stream; and 
 gazing beyond the stream in the enshrouding 
 gloom he caught a glimpse of a rising eminence 
 looming in the distance. He understood: the 
 stream flowed between the two. If his search 
 failed upon this hillside, he must cross the stream 
 and try his fate upon the eminence. 
 
 But approaching the hill, he saw a dark 
 cavern at its base. The gloom was now impene- 
 trable, his torches flickering low. He must 
 wait for the morn to resume his task. 
 
 He ate of the cliappaties (unleavened bread) 
 that Harnam Das had given him and which he 
 had brought in his girdle, and drank from the 
 stream. Then entering the cavern, he searched 
 for a bed. To his surprise the cavern seemed 
 long and endless. He had hoped to lie beside 
 the inner wall ; but though he had come twenty 
 paces from the mouth, there was still an endless 
 void before him. 
 
 Glancing around, he saw a small recess on the 
 left formed by a large projecting boulder. 
 174 
 
If* IBUrfcirt 0f Ify* (gnfcfl 
 
 Behind this he gathered together an armful of 
 leaves from the clearing outside, and lay down 
 to rest. The torches he placed beside the 
 boulder. They flickered awhile, spluttered, then 
 died out in ashes. He was now in inky dark- 
 ness. . . . 
 
 How long he slept he knew not. Returning 
 slowly to consciousness, it was his ear that first 
 resumed its function. A vague confused sound 
 seemed to trickle into it ; but between sleep and 
 consciousness as he was, he could scarce tell 
 whether it was a real material sound or merely 
 the ending of a dream. Then his nostrils came 
 to his aid : a strong smell of something burning. 
 A while after, his half-closed eyelids : a sudden 
 flash of light before them. In vague apprehen- 
 sion he sat up then suddenly crouched low 
 behind the boulder holding his very breath. 
 
 Before him were six stealthy forms ! 
 
 Each man clutched a long lance with his right 
 hand, a spluttering torch high above his head 
 with the left. They were peering into the 
 impenetrable darkness of the cavern beyond. 
 175 
 
SI;? Vrrhirt nf ilje <g0&0 
 
 " He has come this way ! " It was a low 
 whisper from the leader ; a man with fierce over- 
 hanging eyebrows, his turban woven with his 
 long hair and worn low over the forehead. " We 
 shall catch him surely." 
 
 " Ay ; the remains of his supper lie outside," 
 answered the second, wearing his turban like- 
 wise as his leader. " He must be within." 
 
 A sudden sinking came over Narayan Lai's 
 heart. It was lie whom they sought! Why, 
 he did not pause to ask. A glance at the six 
 men on the other side of the boulder was enough. 
 Their character was revealed in their turbans 
 of mingled hair and cloth. They were Thugs 
 upon the war-path ! Merciless fiends who would 
 steep their hands in his blood for the lust of 
 gold, or for the mere pleasure of it. 
 
 He lay but six feet away. A sudden curios- 
 ity on the part of a single foe, a slight diverg- 
 ence of the file of Thugs to the left, and he was 
 lost. But intent upon their search, and think- 
 ing him to be still ahead, they passed the boulder 
 one by one, following in their leader's wake. 
 
 176 
 
lj? Berfctri 0f tlje (Sofia 
 
 Into the black darkness beyond. Their bodies 
 passed from view; only six flaming torches held 
 aloft could Narayan Lai see in the depth of the 
 cavern. Then even they passed out of sight. 
 
 Narayan Lai's first impulse was to emerge 
 quickly and escape by the entrance. He came 
 out from behind the boulder, stepped to the mid- 
 dle of the cavern then suddenly fell flat upon 
 his face. 
 
 At the entrance he saw two more torches : 
 two more Thugs on guard! His retreat was 
 cut off! He was trapped! 
 
 Slowly, imperceptibly, he crawled back to his 
 hiding-place behind the boulder. There he must 
 lie. His fate hung upon the caprice of the 
 gods. 
 
 A while after he caught the flash of torches 
 again in the depth of the cavern. The six 
 Thugs were returning ! Then a horrible appre- 
 hension smote him. Now looking towards him, 
 they were sure to espy him as they approached 
 the boulder! 
 
 He glanced around: the boulder was scarce 
 177 
 
SI;* Mrr&Ut of t\\t (6nb0 
 
 large enough to hide his whole body from view 
 when seen from the inner side of the cavern. 
 He might curl his head and half his body behind 
 the boulder in a semicircle, but his feet would 
 betray him even though he were to place them 
 flat on their side along the ground. The glis- 
 tening soles would catch the glare of the return- 
 ing torches, and reveal him to the foe. 
 
 In frantic haste he tortured his brain for 
 some plan. . . . Slowly it germinated in his 
 mind, all too slow for such urgent need. And 
 at best it was but a slender chance. He must 
 try it, or be lost. 
 
 He scooped up the bed of dry leaves upon 
 which he was lying, and placed them loose upon 
 his feet and legs up to the knees. Loose and in 
 a natural manner, as if they had been driven in 
 by wind or tide. Then holding his breath, and 
 praying the gods to send blindness to his foe- 
 men's eyes and deafness to their ears, he lay 
 curled round the boulder. 
 
 The six Thugs came past him, cursing softly, 
 asking for his blood. For one brief moment 
 178 
 
fje TJertiirt nf life <B n & s 
 
 Narayan Lai thought, with rising hope in his 
 heart, that they would depart altogether. But 
 they only went to the entrance to recall their 
 outposts there. The eight Thugs came back to 
 the interior and sat down to rest. An arm's 
 length from the boulder! 
 
 " Perchance he has escaped into the innermost 
 cavern." 
 
 " Then we have him safe " 
 
 " As if he were in hiding behind this very 
 rock ! " The speaker struck the left-hand side 
 of the boulder with his lance. Lying with his 
 head curled inwards, the spear-point came to 
 rest but a span from Narayan Lai's face. " I 
 shall carry back his head to the Master upon 
 my lance ! " 
 
 Changing his aim in wanton mood, the speaker 
 stabbed at the right-hand side of the boulder. 
 The sharp steel glanced off the rock and crashed 
 into the pile of leaves. There was a sharp 
 twitching of Narayan's Lai's lips. He clenched 
 down his teeth to smother the cry of pain but 
 dared not move his feet. He left them to the 
 179 
 
mercy of the playful lance. The thin stream of 
 blood oozed out of the wounded ankle and 
 bedewed the leaves. The lance came again, and 
 in sportive mood transfixed the leaves. 
 
 The Thug withdrew the weapon, and held up 
 the bunch of leaves at its point as a trophy. 
 
 " See, the leaves are red. It is blood ! " 
 
 " Thou hast killed a sleeping rat ! ' 
 
 " Go behind the boulder, and search for the 
 body." 
 
 " Ay, I shall," replied the Thug, rising up. 
 
 " And carry it back to the Master upon thy 
 lance ! " sneered the leader, stopping the sport. 
 "We must arise at earliest dawn; now let us 
 rest." 
 
 Narayan Lai heard them dispose themselves 
 to sleep, but they were long in the deed. An 
 intense longing came over him to shift his 
 wounded foot, but he dared not yet awhile. 
 Perchance the agony was too great ; perchance 
 some unbidden sound escaped his pursed lips. 
 Witness, O Fate, that when we would be silent 
 as death, would scarce dare to breathe for dear 
 180 
 
SUf? IBUrMrf nf tiye (gnba 
 
 life, that very instant all nature is at war 
 within us to make us breathe hard, to cough, to 
 sneeze to rend our very soul in noise and 
 clamour. Perchance there was some slight 
 movement in Narayan's Lai's limbs. He knew 
 not. But he saw a dark shadow looming over 
 the boulder. It was well for him in that hour 
 that all the torches were then out. The Thug 
 stabbed with his lance into the darkness beyond 
 the boulder, and meeting the solid wall opposite, 
 was satisfied. Once he brought down the point 
 and just grazed Narayan's left arm; but 
 for the roundness of the boulder his heart had 
 been transfixed. Then, assured that it was but 
 a squeaking rat, the Thug retired to rest. 
 
 Gradually the sounds died out. Long the 
 youth waited, too long it seemed in the pain. 
 Then at last there came to his ear the welcome 
 sound of the regular and long-drawn breathing 
 of tired men locked in slumber. 
 
 Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he drew up his 
 legs, and sat up. Upon hands and knees he 
 crept, along the inner wall towards the inte- 
 181 
 
rior of the cavern; for there was no exit past 
 the Thugs. With a slight thud he knocked his 
 knee against a projection, and fell flat upon 
 his face. A light sleeper stirred, woke up, 
 raised his head, and peered into the darkness. 
 Feeling with his hand, the Thug picked up an 
 extinct torch and flung it over his head. 
 
 " Curse those skulking rats ! " he muttered, 
 and lay down to rest. 
 
 The torch struck the wall a yard above Nara- 
 yan's head, recoiled, and fell before him. 
 Thinking a moment, he picked up the torch. 
 But full forty beats of his heart he counted and 
 yet forty more, ere he dared to move. Then 
 crouching along the wall, he worked his way 
 inwards into the cavern. 
 
 Coming at last beyond earshot of his foes, 
 he sat on the ground, tore off the end of his tur- 
 ban, and tied up his wounded ankle; for that 
 was his most urgent need. Limping in pain, he 
 went further and further inwards, groping 
 along the wall to guide his path. Where the 
 cavern led he could not tell, nor cared. His 
 182 
 
one thought now was to flee from his relentless 
 foes. Sufficient for the moment was the existing 
 peril. In that moment of pain, had his judg- 
 ment been clearer, he would at least have antici- 
 pated the possibility of other perils that per- 
 chance in fleeing from one, he was falling into 
 another. . . . 
 
 Suddenly he saw a dim hazy light ahead. He 
 paused in thought. What could it be? Cau- 
 tiously he made his way. The light grew 
 slightly clearer, though yet it was but a dif- 
 fused glare. Thirty paces, twenty, and he 
 turned a sudden corner. His heart stood still. 
 A great bitterness rose up within him ; he cursed 
 Fate. 
 
 Before him was the other end of the cavern; 
 the cavern was but a long tunnel beneath the 
 hill he had seen that evening beside the stream. 
 But ten paces from the opening he saw a small 
 fire of dried leaves and twigs, beside it three men 
 stretched upon the ground: Thugs. He was 
 between two fires ! 
 
 His first thought was to retrace his steps. 
 183 
 
eij? Her&trt nf lire (S ft e 
 
 Then the utter hopelessness of his position struck 
 him full, sending a chill into his heart. No, if 
 he must needs take the plunge, let it be forward ! 
 Better to die advancing than retreating. 
 
 Thinking awhile and resolved to die, he 
 crawled up to the sleeping forms on hands and 
 knees. Stretching forth his right hand, he 
 held the torch he carried to the side of the fire. 
 He only prayed in his inmost soul that it would 
 catch alight before his merciless foes awoke. 
 True, he had flint and tinder at his girdle ; but 
 to light the torch by them would have awakened 
 the Thugs. It was well for him that the torch 
 had already been lit once, and was dry. It did 
 not splutter. But too slow was the fire at its 
 work; so it seemed to his aching heart, though 
 it beat but seven times meanwhile. 
 
 That instant he rose to his feet, took a long 
 deep breath, and gathered his limbs for the leap. 
 The next he hurled himself over the fire, over the 
 prostrate forms flinging the torch backwards 
 over his head into the interior of the cavern. 
 In a single second after reaching earth he 
 184 
 
(fe Her&iri af ilf? (Sa&a 
 
 covered the ten paces to the mouth. Then 
 wheeling sharp round, he fled helter-skelter up 
 the hillside. 
 
 Behind him the awakened Thugs leapt to their 
 feet. Seeing the flaming torch within the tun- 
 nel, they sprang to it thinking they should 
 find their quarry fallen beside it. Then realis- 
 ing the deceit, they rushed out of the cavern in 
 hot pursuit. 
 
 But in the short respite their prey was already 
 out of sight. They knew not which way he had 
 fled. In the darkness they could see nothing. 
 Then with devilish cunning they lay low upon 
 the ground, with ear to earth. The faint sound 
 of soft footfall upon moss and creeper ! Their 
 quarry had fled up the hill! (Had the sound 
 been that of breaking twigs and brambles, they 
 had known that the fugitive had gone towards 
 the jungle below.) 
 
 Hot-footed they scrambled up the hill. A 
 
 dense screen of creepers rose up before them. 
 
 The foremost pursuer had his hand upon the 
 
 screen to part it when his comrade behind 
 
 185 
 
pulled him back. The next instant all three 
 were upon their faces, with ear to earth. One 
 crawled to the right along the screen, one to 
 the left ; the third remained listening. In ten 
 seconds the first stopped, rose up, and ran back 
 swiftly to his starting point; for the sound 
 along the ground to the right had grown fainter 
 and fainter. But the man on the left hastened 
 on, and did not return. Then his two com- 
 rades behind understood that the sound had 
 increased that way! They plunged forward 
 to the left and overtook the other Thug. 
 
 All three ran along the screen of creepers, till 
 suddenly behind a projecting rock they came to 
 a stop. Yes, there was the gap in the screen! 
 Their quarry had made it in his hasty flight! 
 They plunged into the gap, now sure of their 
 prey. 
 
 And Narayan Lai? A hundred cubits he had 
 put between himself and his pursuers, before 
 they were at the gap ; but a hundred cubits was 
 all too little for such need. Already his swollen 
 ankle caused him intense agony ; a little more, 
 186 
 
and he should fall moaning to the ground in his 
 foemen's path. Yet he struggled on with 
 clenched teeth, lest an inadvertent cry of pain 
 should betray him. It was well for him that the 
 lowering clouds above hid the moon; he blessed 
 the darkness, thankful for even such small 
 mercy. Then suddenly a break in the fleeing 
 clouds revealed him for an instant to the Thugs. 
 He heard the cry of cruel exultation behind 
 and went headlong in his last despairing effort. 
 Half wheeling to the right in the returning 
 darkness, he sought the shelter of a low thicket 
 he had noticed in the flash of moonlight. Behind 
 it he cast himself flat upon the earth, gasping 
 for breath. Whether the Thugs had also noticed 
 the thicket, he knew not. From their position 
 lower down the hill, and having eyes for him 
 alone, perchance it had escaped their ken in the 
 short flash of moonlight; and in the returning 
 darkness perchance they would miss it full fifty 
 cubits on the right, and go straight up the hill 
 instead. He prayed they would. That was his 
 sole chance. 
 
 187 
 
If* lerfctrt nf tlf* (Sn&H 
 
 Then in response to his prayer the thunder- 
 laden clouds parted with a sudden clap. A 
 torrent of rain came down. A moment after 
 the wind swept down upon the hill with a mighty 
 roar. Gathering force each moment from the 
 very resistance it encountered, it hurled itself 
 down at last upon the hill-top in fierce anger, 
 and, meeting the tall trees upon the summit, 
 mowed them down as with a scythe. The next 
 instant it caught up the fallen giants and flung 
 them off the summit towards the side of the 
 stream as if they were but wisps of straw. For 
 it was a tropical cyclone before which all nature 
 must bow and lie impotent. The lowly bushes, 
 the suppliant reed, the yielding grass, it alone 
 spared; the stubborn and the mighty it swept 
 away from the hillside. 
 
 And from his inmost heart Narayan Lai blest 
 the storm. He took off the bandage from his 
 ankle and let the cool rain play upon it. He felt 
 with his fingers tenderly, and discovered to his 
 intense relief that the wound was but in the 
 flesh; the muscle and tendon had been spared. A 
 188 
 
lie Vtrfttrt nf tlj? <S b a 
 
 small pool of water formed before him ; into it 
 he placed his foot, and lying back, reposed 
 awhile on the ground, thinking. 
 
 Judging by the position of the moon in the 
 brief flash, it was yet two hours from the break 
 of dawn. Within that he must escape from 
 the hill; for in the coming light he would be 
 lost. 
 
 But how? If he went towards the summit, he 
 would be observed by the three Thugs there. If 
 he descended the hill, his only exit that way was 
 by the cavern : and there he might run straight 
 into the arms of the foes he had left behind 
 earlier in the night. 
 
 Suddenly he remembered the stream he had 
 noticed that evening. Did it flow past this side 
 of the hill? . . . He too put his ear to the 
 ground, and waited. . . . 
 
 A full hour he waited. The storm abated. 
 Gradually the raging wind died out. Then 
 another sound arose in his ear : yes, the rushing 
 of swollen waters ! 
 
 Quickly he bandaged up his ankle, soaking 
 189 
 
$If* Uerbfrl nf flf* (Snfca 
 
 the cloth in the pool. Thinking awhile, calcu- 
 lating the direction, he curved round slightly 
 to the left, and crawled upon his hands and 
 knees over the soft moss. 
 
 How long, he could not tell ; it seemed a long 
 century to him. In his deep anxiety to reach the 
 goal, he failed to notice for a moment that the 
 moss and creepers had grown scarcer; that he 
 was now upon harder ground. Suddenly he 
 knocked his knee against a rock, stifling a cry 
 of pain. But that rock had saved him from a 
 peril he had scarce realised in the darkness. 
 Now stretching out his right hand overhead, he 
 began to feel cautiously ere he proceeded. 
 Thrice his own length, and his hand touched the 
 sharp edge of the rock, sloping downwards. 
 
 Yes, that was the end of the cliff; one step 
 further, and he would have fallen head foremost 
 into the stream below. 
 
 But how far was the stream? He picked up 
 
 a stone with the left hand, laid the thumb of his 
 
 right hand upon the left wrist, lightly cast the 
 
 stone over the edge of the cliff, and from that 
 
 190 
 
Sly* Herbtrt nf ily* (gnfca 
 
 instant begun to count his pulse. One, two, 
 three then the splash. The stream was a full 
 hundred cubits below! 
 
 Worse than that. The left hand had only 
 jerked the stone forward lightly. It could not 
 have gone more than five cubits horizontally ; 
 and yet it had not touched the hillside in its fall. 
 He understood: the cliff was a perpendicular 
 wall at that point. 
 
 Keeping along the edge, he began to work his 
 way downwards along the slope of the hill. A 
 while after he stood up, and flung a stone over 
 his head with all his strength; and heard the 
 answering splash. He jerked another stone 
 lightly, as he had done awhile ago : and heard a 
 soft thud, another, and then the splash. The 
 cliff had begun to slope out towards the stream. 
 
 Thus he made his way down the hillside, till 
 at last dropping a stone from the edge he heard 
 the thud within a second. There was a ledge 
 below him, within ten cubits ! 
 
 Proceeding a little further down to make 
 quite sure, he dropped lightly upon the ledge. 
 
 191 
 
lj* lerfciri of ilf* <S0i0 
 
 From there to gain the stream by successive 
 stages was but the work of time. 
 
 With newborn hope in his heart he felt the 
 water at his feet. He was a good swimmer; if 
 he could but see his way to avoid sunken rocks 
 he would surely cross the stream in safety. The 
 swift-coming dawn broke upon him without 
 notice. A moment more, and he would be in 
 the stream. . . . 
 
 That instant he heard a reverberating sound 
 overhead; it was a huge boulder thundering 
 down the hillside. It came from ledge to ledge, 
 then plunged into the water five cubits ahead, 
 just where he would have been now. In vague 
 apprehension he gazed up. 
 
 In the dim light he saw three grinning faces 
 peering at him over the edge of the cliff. 
 
 His first impulse was to plunge into the 
 stream before the next boulder came. But a 
 second's thought made him recoil into the shelter 
 of the bank. What avail now to cross the stream 
 in sight of his foes? Surely, they too could 
 192 
 
cross? The utmost effort of human fortitude, 
 of physical pain and endurance, had failed to 
 save him from these relentless foes. He must 
 try stratagem. . . . 
 
 Meanwhile the Thugs on the hill-top parted. 
 Two ran down the slope towards their quarry; 
 the third hastened the opposite way to warn his 
 comrades at the mouth of the cavern so that they 
 might watch the stream there in case Narayan 
 Lai attempted to run along the bank and take 
 to the stream from that point. 
 
 Long they waited there watching the stream ; 
 the eight Thugs and their comrade who had 
 brought the warning. The broad daylight 
 was now upon the stream, but they saw noth- 
 ing. 
 
 " Perhaps he has run up the hillside again, 
 and is now hiding at the summit." 
 
 " Then surely we shall catch him," answered 
 the Thug who had joined them. " The storm 
 has swept it bare of trees, and there is no hid- 
 ing-place." 
 
 " Ay, brother ; thou dost speak truly," the 
 193 
 
SI;? Urrittri nf tlte (6 n b 
 
 leader of the gang replied, waving his hand to 
 the stream. 
 
 For upon the stream was a mighty sal-tree 
 floating down, roots foremost. Half its leafy 
 boughs were submerged, the other half forming 
 a canopy at the head. The tree passed within 
 a lance-throw of the Thugs ; then the swift 
 current caught it in a bend in the stream, twirled 
 it round as if it were but a cockle-shell, and cast 
 it upon the bank opposite at a point that seemed 
 to be at the foot of the eminence. 
 
 And all the morning the Thugs waited for 
 their prey, and found him not. Then, dividing 
 their forces, they left three men at the stream 
 beside the cavern, and with the rest scoured the 
 hillside. All day they searched for their quarry ; 
 still in vain. 
 
 And all day the sal-tree lay upon the oppo- 
 site bank ; in its leafy canopy a silent form lay 
 hid all day. Thrice the pangs of hunger had 
 nearly driven him out to forage for food; but 
 still he stayed within the shelter, waiting for 
 nightfall. In crossing the stream on the tree 
 104 
 
in the very sight of his foe, he had run enough 
 risk for the day. He now prayed for darkness 
 to continue his task. 
 
 Verily, all this was but a prelude. The full 
 tragedy yet remained. He had yet to find the 
 precious manik, or perish! 
 
 195 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE MANIK 
 
 T nightfall Narayan Lai emerged 
 from his hiding-place and looked 
 around. Making his way along the 
 bank, he saw a low clump of trees, 
 at its edge a plantain-tree; in that region it 
 grew wild like mushrooms. He ate of its lus- 
 cious fruit in ravenous hunger, and quenched his 
 thirst from the stream. 
 
 Then turning to the inland, he saw before 
 him a seeming plateau, with a gentle slope 
 upwards. This he ascended ; reaching the top 
 quickly, he saw a level stretch of earth dotted 
 with thicket along its length. In the dim star- 
 light he made his way for a full hour. Passing 
 by a pine-tree, he picked up a short dry branch 
 fallen to the ground. Plucking off the withered 
 leaves, and flattening the top against a stone 
 to expose the resinous fibres, he made a torch 
 196 
 
ahr U*r&irt of t It (6 n ft s 
 
 of it. But not till he was past the thickets, and 
 hidden by them from all possible observation 
 from his foes on the hill-top on the other side of 
 the stream, did he venture to bring out the flint 
 and tinder from his girdle and light the torch. 
 
 Suddenly the plateau sloped down to a ravine. 
 Beyond it he saw again the gigantic eminence 
 he had noticed the day before. Seen across the 
 stream, it had appeared so near ; now he realised 
 that it was a long league further. Descending 
 the slope, he threaded his way again on to the 
 other side, then came to an abrupt pause, know- 
 ing not which way to turn. Behind him was 
 the deep ravine he had just quitted, before him 
 the perpendicular rock. Then examining this 
 closer, he found hidden beneath a growth of 
 moss and creepers the mouth of a dark grotto. 
 It seemed a mere crack on the face of the rock. 
 
 Bending low to his knees and holding aloft 
 the torch, he stepped forward to the grotto. 
 The next instant he stood rooted to the spot. A 
 cry, a wail, rang in his ear; an infant's wail. 
 Here! there! No, behind ahead! 
 197 
 
Sttj? Iterfciri af t^t (gnba 
 
 He turned to the right yes, from there! 
 
 He turned to the left no, from there! 
 
 It seemed to come from everywhere, a long 
 piteous cry. Yet it was the same voice. 
 
 Suddenly there was a laugh, a mocking laugh. 
 It came from nowhere. 
 
 Remember that he was in a desolate region, 
 with the tropical darkness around him. There 
 was no sign of a created being, living or dead. 
 And yet that wail, that laugh, rang in his 
 ear. 
 
 His heart turned cold with fear; his blood 
 froze in his veins. 
 
 Yes ! inside the grotto, framed in the dark- 
 ness was a Face! Half beast, half man. Low 
 hanging jaws; reddish whiskers; dirty grey 
 hair, bushy over the projecting forehead; blink- 
 ing bloodshot eyes. 
 
 Over the head protruded long ears or horns ; 
 which he could not tell. There seemed to be a 
 hump behind in the darkness, like a hunchback's. 
 He caught a glimpse of the legs, crooked like a 
 satyr's. The jaws opened, and there issued 
 198 
 
Sriye Uerfttri nf ilj? (Sn&a 
 
 forth the same mocking laugh. The being ad- 
 vanced, hobbling over the crooked legs. 
 
 It was the Grey Hyena. 
 
 He remembered the tales of his childhood, 
 mothers' tales to frighten children. The cun- 
 ning beast that first wailed like a child to al- 
 lure its unwary victim, then tore it to pieces. 
 The ingenuity of a fiend, perchance a human 
 fiend! 
 
 He remembered the teachings of his faith; 
 the souls of the accursed haunting the bodies of 
 beasts in their re-incarnations ; of their return- 
 ing to earth to expiate the sins of their past 
 lives. 
 
 He stood still, with his hand to his bosom 
 where lay the small dagger he had received in 
 his prison too small, too material, for such a 
 foe. But the hyena blinked, and in that there 
 was a leer a scornful leer. 
 
 "Hook-ka huah! . . . huah! huah! huah!" 
 laughed the hyena. 
 
 It ambled out of the grotto, blinked and 
 leered again, then with the same laugh disap- 
 199 
 
2IIf* Uerfcirt nf tty* <go&0 
 
 peared down the ravine. Five minutes later he 
 heard the wailing of .a child in the stillness of 
 the night. 
 
 With a panting heart he entered the grotto. 
 It widened out beyond. Stooping at every step, 
 holding aloft his torch, he came to a long dark 
 gallery that seemed to lead into the bowels of 
 the earth. 
 
 A cold, damp, musty smell arose in the air as 
 he entered the tunnel. Lower and lower into 
 the earth he went, but the dark roof lifted 
 higher and higher, till the lurid glare failed to 
 reach the gloom above. The parallel walls on 
 either side seemed to recede from view. It was 
 a black space of unknown dimensions around, 
 above, beyond. Drip! drip! drip! fell from 
 overhead the last surviving raindrops caught 
 in the earth above. 
 
 Creepy, slimy, sluggish things crawled be- 
 tween his naked toes with chilling sloth. Sud- 
 denly he stumbled. It was a heap of bones 
 perhaps bestial, perhaps not. With a heavy 
 step he lurched up and crashed through a 
 200 
 
tf* Vt-r&Ut nf itf* <0&a 
 
 thick skull, awakening a thousand hideous 
 echoes. 
 
 As if aroused from a prolonged slumber, pale 
 green eyes seemed to peer at him from every 
 nook and corner. He felt a deep breathing in 
 the place, other than his own. The place seemed 
 all alive with beings that he could not see 
 nor hear; only feel. With drunken steps 
 he walked on and on into the enshrouding 
 gloom. 
 
 Suddenly he heard a low rumbling sound, like 
 distant thunder. It grew louder and louder, 
 reverberating through the long tunnel, then 
 ending in a dull thud. 
 
 " A boulder fallen outside ; it seemed a chorus 
 of unhuman laughter ! " And he smiled a grim 
 sickly smile. 
 
 An instantaneous gleam of light, reflected 
 from the torch by some moving object, shot 
 ahead, and then quickly vanished. A nestling, 
 whirring sound above, and a dark cold mass 
 rushed through the air and fell flat on his face. 
 With a cry of horror he dropped the torch and 
 
tore off the thing with his fingers. It was a 
 huge bat, with large flapping wings. 
 
 A cold shudder ran through his frame. 
 Snatching up the brand he hastened on. The 
 sides of the cavern became visible again. He 
 seemed to be entering a wide corridor hewn out 
 of the solid rock. The ruddy glare revealed the 
 faint outlines of two rows of gigantic pillars 
 flickering drunkenly in the uncertain gloom. 
 
 Pillars and pillars and pillars. There seemed 
 to be no end to them. At last they widened out 
 into the central chamber. Above, the gloom 
 was still impenetrable, but far ahead there ap- 
 peared the head of the chamber in a dark hazy 
 mist. 
 
 He drew nearer. Against the solid wall, and 
 jutting out in bold relief, he made out a huge 
 outline spread fan-shaped from a central body. 
 
 It was a colossal idol. 
 
 It sat upon a raised musnud chiselled in black 
 marble, its feet coiled beneath the body. The 
 arms lay upon each knee. The head was unseen 
 in the gloom above. 
 
 202 
 
Slfe UeriHrt 0? ilj* <g0fca 
 
 Coming nearer he raised the torch aloft till 
 the slanting rays fell upon the face. It was a 
 grim, stern face not like that of Brahma, or 
 Vishnu, or Siva. 
 
 The monstrous ears spread out like fans on 
 each side of the head; the broad, square jaws 
 clenched tight in savage fury; the thick, flat 
 nose hung heavy over the mouth. It was more 
 fiend than man ; less man than beast. He shud- 
 dered in vague terror as his restless eyes fell 
 upon these features involuntarily. For it was 
 not them that he sought. 
 
 From right in the centre of the forehead he 
 saw a spark of light emanating with intermit- 
 tent glow as he moved his torch. With quicken- 
 ing breath he saw that. 
 
 It was the eye of the god the manik. 
 
 It scintillated rays of fire from its uncut 
 corners even in that flickering light. Three 
 human eyes placed together would have seemed 
 small beside it. Yet it shone with the angry 
 blaze of a human eye a living eye. 
 
 Hark! what was that? A step a laugh a 
 203 
 
SUj* Hrriirt af llje (Sn&a 
 
 low chuckle? Impossible surely, in the bosom 
 of Mother Earth, and in that dread hour of 
 night when even idols sleep! 
 
 He looked around with fearful eyes, like a 
 criminal caught in his toils. He strained his 
 ears to catch the echo of some advancing foot- 
 step, and clutched convulsively the dagger in 
 his bosom. 
 
 Drip! drip! drip! Splash! . . . 
 
 Was it but the chuckling of the water falling 
 from the earth above to the earth beneath? 
 Surely, not a laugh? 
 
 All stillness again, save the beating of his 
 heart. In intense relief he passed on, cursing 
 his cowardice. 
 
 But scarcely a step had he taken when he 
 recoiled in sudden terror. He saw a recumbent 
 figure upon the sanctuary; another; yet 
 another. All lying in a heap in strange unnat- 
 ural attitudes. 
 
 Holding his breath, he peered at them, the 
 cold sweat standing in beads upon his brow. 
 
 Then gradually he realised. They were dead ! 
 204 
 
Human skeletons. Mere bags of dust that 
 would crumble at the lightest touch. 
 
 But in each of them he noticed something that 
 he could not understand. From the head to the 
 breast each skeleton was cloven in twain. Some 
 fearful blow must have done that perchance 
 in the living flesh. 
 
 With a cold shiver he passed them by, and 
 ascended the altar. He looked up to the gleam- 
 ing stone upon the idol's brow. Now or 
 never ! 
 
 But what did he see there that made him start 
 in sudden horror, his knees knocking together 
 in convulsion, his bronzed face blanching to a 
 leaden hue? 
 
 Right above his head, and held by an iron 
 rod from the roof, was an enormous axe. Its 
 huge blade, a yard across from horn to horn, 
 lay on a line with the idol's brow. 
 
 As one awakening from a dream, the knowl- 
 edge of its purpose began to dawn upon him. 
 The moment the despoiler touched the eye of the 
 god some secret spring would be released. The 
 205 
 
iron rod that held the axe would swing back 
 upon him. The axe would cleave him in twain. 
 
 Then he understood also the fearful import 
 of those skeletons strewing the floor of the 
 sanctuary. Unhappy wretches that had met a 
 terrible death. 
 
 With a bound he sprang clear of the 
 threatened space, stumbled headlong over the 
 sanctuary, and lay crouching in the corner 
 opposite. 
 
 And now the diminished torch flickered and 
 sputtered in his hand till he cast it to the floor. 
 There the red spark glowed awhile, then died 
 away under a veil of ashes. 
 
 It was an impenetrable gloom. The idol, 
 whose huge outline he had last seen by the dying 
 embers, was now beyond his ken. He sat still, 
 and the dull hours passed slowly by. He remem- 
 bered his guru's warning words, and waited for 
 Mother Kali to reveal her bounty. 
 
 He knew not that the hand of Death was close 
 upon him. 
 
 His trials? What were they now? Kings 
 206 
 
Sllf* JUrfctri nf tlf* <gnim 
 
 and rulers what were they? It was Death 
 that came to seek him against the will of 
 kings. 
 
 He heard a strange sound, a low soft whistle, 
 some distance away it seemed in that stillness. 
 It came again, nearer. This time he thought it 
 could not be a whistle; rather as the escape of 
 wind from an iron nozzle. It came nearer still, 
 sharper, harder. It died out a moment, then 
 instantly resumed, but now in an intermittent 
 flow. 
 
 He crouched upon his hands and knees, and 
 peered into the gloom. He thought he saw 
 something; felt sure he saw. It might have 
 been a black mass, more imagined than seen, 
 dark against the darker background. 
 
 Still nearer. It seemed to rise in the air to 
 rear up a thick column three cubits high. The 
 column approached, a long heavy body trailing 
 behind it ; that he guessed from the soft sweep- 
 ing rustle it made. Some terrible being that 
 man was impotent to face. 
 
 He lay flat on the ground, scarce daring to 
 207 
 
l|? Uerbtri nf tlf* (gn&s 
 
 breathe then suddenly remembered in horror 
 that half his own body lay straight in its path. 
 For a moment he was stunned by the thought. 
 On one side lay the sanctuary rails; he could 
 recede no further. On the other was this fear- 
 ful monster. His end was inevitable. 
 
 In that supreme crisis it was mere instinct 
 that prompted him to act, the love of man for his 
 life. He turned on his side, curved his legs 
 inwards under him, an inch at a time lest the 
 sound should betray him. He prayed for time 
 just the bare moments to curl himself by 
 the rails. 
 
 Slowly the knees came up, too slow for such 
 a peril. He felt a breath upon his face. The 
 strange intermittent sound had risen to a steady 
 flow. The cold, clammy wind enshrouded him 
 like a blast from a grave. The Thing was upon 
 him a dark mass looming over him ! 
 
 O Bhugwan, grant one single moment one 
 single span to recede in silence ! One little span 
 for a human life. . . . Too late, too late ! 
 
 In frantic haste he clashed his knees to his 
 208 
 
GJIf* flpr&iri of tiff (Softs 
 
 chin, then shivered in terror. A soft clatter 
 he heard by his side, and knew that he was 
 betrayed. In that last movement the dagger 
 had fallen from his bosom. 
 
 Swerving swiftly at the sound, the Thing 
 came down upon his knees. A chilling body 
 rolled over them, grinding them down by its 
 sheer weight. He marvelled that he did not 
 shriek out in horror. Perhaps he did. In that 
 agonising moment he was not conscious of his 
 deeds. Perhaps a merciful torpor had come 
 upon him to spare this pain. 
 
 But suddenly the Thing had stopped in its 
 course. He felt that something was now creep- 
 ing under him; how, he was too deadened with 
 pain to know. Slowly, yet forcibly, his legs 
 were pulled out from beneath him. Something 
 seemed to be above them, under them, all around 
 them. Something seemed to be crushing them 
 on every side. 
 
 And slowly the pressure began to mount up ; 
 upwards from the knees, the thighs, the waist. 
 He was lifted up like a child by some irresistible 
 209 
 
t?* Eerfciri nf ttfe (Safca 
 
 force, and a new band cast around him higher 
 and higher. 
 
 In stooping to the floor at the first sense of 
 danger, his arms had lain doubled up against 
 his breast. As the first coil touched his elbow, 
 he realised with a shock that now his destruc- 
 tion was nearing its completion. Even as a 
 man striking out in a nightmare, he awoke from 
 his stupor. 
 
 With a stifled groan he threw out his arms 
 wildly refusing to die without a struggle. A 
 cold curling mass met his hands. He hit at it 
 blindly thrust it from him clutched it in a 
 frenzied grasp with both hands. 
 
 A blast of fire smote his face that instant, 
 just from the end of his arms. A sound as that 
 of rushing waters issued therefrom, an arm's 
 length away. Then he realised that the Thing 
 that held him in its grip and he it was a 
 gigantic boa. 
 
 Then also he realised as he lay upon his side, 
 that soon his legs, his whole body, would be 
 paralysed under that stupendous pressure then 
 210 
 
If* Hrrbiri of iff* (gafca 
 
 crushed into soft clay. Knowing this, he 
 clenched his fingers upon the serpent's throat 
 with the grip of death just to get the dearest 
 price for his precious life. 
 
 He knew he must die. What else he knew, 
 mattered little. In that moment of agony all 
 knowledge flashed through his mind in a vision. 
 What this serpent was, according to the teach- 
 ings of his faith, and what vengeance it was 
 wrecking upon him, the world would never know ; 
 the king would never know. Kings and rulers? 
 What mattered they now? He that sent him to 
 this death, what cared he for one human life? 
 Not death alone, but this cruel torture who 
 would ever know, or care? She perchance . 
 
 The spell was broken. The spell that had 
 cast its shroud over his senses at the moment 
 of death was broken. From the thought of Tier 
 came the thought of her gift the dagger ! It 
 lay upon the floor before his breast ; he had heard 
 it clatter there when the serpent had swept past 
 it in its last coil. 
 
 The spirit of the Serpent-Queen, its new 
 211 
 
Ij? lerfcirl nf tlje (gnba 
 
 incarnation, was grinding his bones to dust 
 even as in his mystic trance he had fore- 
 told. 
 
 " What talisman to save thee from her coils? " 
 
 " None but that of Love! " 
 
 Ay, none save his beloved's parting gift! 
 
 Alas ! he could not reach it without releasing 
 one hand from the monster's throat; the other 
 alone would scarce keep it away. Already his 
 arms were aching from that rigid thrust, and 
 quivering all along their length in a ceaseless 
 tremor. And yet he must gain the dagger for 
 that very reason. Soon it would be too late. 
 Oh, if his limbs were free ! He could then have 
 thrust a foot against the serpent's neck, and 
 released one hand. 
 
 In the frenzy of madness he racked his 
 brains. Some plan, some scheme, to reach the 
 dagger ! 
 
 Then like a glimmering hope the thought 
 came to him. Even in that position he could at 
 least roll upon the floor; his elbows were free. 
 One turn of the body sideways would bring his 
 
SItfe V*r&irt 0f tlj? (ga&a 
 
 hands within reach of the sanctuary rails ! He 
 remembered that ; for sight was denied him. 
 
 Clenching his teeth, and taking a deep long 
 breath, he thrust out in one last stupendous 
 effort. Curling his fingers, he found an iron 
 bar. Slowly he drew the serpent's neck towards 
 it, thrust it behind, released the right hand an 
 instant and seized the dagger. 
 
 A soft rending sound, a thud and the blade 
 was buried up to the hilt in the serpent's throat, 
 again and again. 
 
 A savage hiss a swish a grinding, racking 
 pain down his waist, his limbs a spasmodic 
 beat and beat from the serpent's tail upon his 
 legs and the massive coils slowly relaxed from 
 their terrible tension. 
 
 Panting, gasping, his eyes swimming in a 
 mist, he staggered up from the writhing heap, 
 then fell down in a swoon. 
 
 How long he lay there he could not tell. He 
 awoke with a start. But for the cold, lifeless 
 coils against his feet that deadly struggle in 
 213 
 
2Iif* Uerfcirl nf ttj* <80&a 
 
 the dark might have seemed a horrible night- 
 mare. His eyes fell upon the gloom around, 
 and gradually it began to dawn upon him that 
 his task was not yet over. Even that agonising 
 conflict had been but a prelude. His trial yet 
 remained. 
 
 In vague, uncertain purpose he arose to his 
 feet, then stood rooted to the spot. 
 
 What was that he saw? Right ahead against 
 the solid darkness a faint light glimmering, a 
 single ray ; then another by its side. Suddenly 
 the two leapt downwards in converging pencils, 
 till they met in one broad band and shot away 
 towards the dark corridor. 
 
 Bewildered, a thousand emotions rending his 
 heart, he gazed upwards. 
 
 They were from the nostrils of the idol! 
 
 What divine manifestation was this what 
 infernal mechanism, rather? 
 
 With hands pressed tight to his throbbing 
 brow he thought. Then his eyes fell upon the 
 particles of dust, disturbed from their long rest 
 by his intrusion, shining in the beam of light. 
 
If? Uerfcirt 0f ttj? (guibfl 
 
 The light was real, material! Not a phan- 
 tom light. 
 
 Like an inspiration came back to him his 
 guru's words, " The third night from the full 
 moon." 
 
 It was the moonlight. It shone through some 
 well-devised gallery in the earth above, and then 
 peered down through the idol's nostrils. That 
 could happen only when the moon was at a par- 
 ticular point in the heavens ; a particular night, 
 a particular hour. This was the fateful 
 moment. 
 
 But what meant the light? What did it 
 portend ? 
 
 " Where falls the light . . ." 
 
 He remembered these words the dying words 
 of the builder of that temple. With quickened 
 breath he followed the light from the nostrils, 
 across the sanctuary, along the steps, into the 
 vast corridor. Lower and lower it bent, bathing 
 his head, his breast, his knees ... it halted 
 upon a flagstone ! 
 
 Then his panting heart stayed its beat. The 
 
ff* Vtr&irt nf tlf* (Sain 
 
 flagstone, a cubit square, was nowise different 
 from its neighbours. He examined its surface, 
 but found no mark, no inscription upon it. He 
 peered into the lining of mortar around, but that 
 was hard and level like the rest. And all the 
 while the moonlight was moving across its face. 
 Soon it would be shut off, and he would have lost 
 his chance for ever. 
 
 In frenzied haste he stuck his dagger into the 
 lining, and ripped open the mortar all around. 
 About that flagstone lay his salvation. It was 
 not above. It might be beneath. 
 
 Plunging the blade between, he tugged and 
 strained till he felt the stone move. With one 
 exhausting effort he thrust the dagger beneath, 
 and lifted the slab. 
 
 His hungry hands groped in the hollow. With 
 a stifled cry he felt the touch of cold metal. It 
 was an iron ring. 
 
 One frantic pull a sudden snap as of a 
 bursting cord a spark of light at the foot of 
 the idol, and a heavy clang of steel against stone 
 rang through the vast temple. 
 216 
 
The axe had fallen. 
 
 And now with crouching gait he ascended the 
 idol. Hand over hand, and foot upon the ladder 
 of arms, he mounted. A momentary hesitation, 
 one last struggle of superstition against revela- 
 tion, and the point of the dagger reached the 
 glittering gem. 
 
 A sudden pause whilst the heart beat a dozen 
 times and the precious manik was gouged out 
 of the idol's eye. 
 
 A distant rumbling the idol moved rocked 
 upon its seat. The vast unseen roof creaked and 
 groaned; the whole temple swayed and shook 
 like a shell upon the sea. 
 
 A loud chuckle the pitter-patter-pitter of 
 invisible feet a swishing and a rushing sound, 
 as of living bodies hurled through the air and 
 the terror-stricken youth leapt down with a 
 gasp and fled into the darkness. 
 
 Cold, clammy hands swept past his head. 
 
 Dank, musty breaths fanned his face. Large 
 
 lumbering bodies, soft to the touch, skimmed his 
 
 hands. Hard, shell-clad objects rolled and 
 
 217 
 
JjJljr Urrfiirt of the (6 & s 
 
 crushed over his feet. All along the corridors, 
 along the galleries, along the tunnel. 
 
 Bruised and bleeding, he reached at last the 
 earth above. Stumbling at every step, he fled 
 over the gorge into the ravine, into the gully, 
 into the ancient pathway, and fell panting upon 
 the level ground. But with a stifled cry he 
 rose again. Cold terror sat upon his brow, and 
 chased him over the earth. 
 
 What has he seen or heard or felt? 
 
 The pale moonlight fell upon him, around 
 him, and far over the fields and jungles. But, 
 ye gods ! what sight was this ? 
 
 A herd of wild buffaloes, bursting through 
 the thicket, come bellowing like thunder, tram- 
 pling the earth, nostrils breathing fire, tails in 
 the air. Wild boars and antelopes, mountain 
 goats and jackals, black vultures with flapping 
 wings, screeching through the air, and ser- 
 pents and toads and frogs creeping and hopping 
 on the earth. A raging wolf ran out, and a 
 bleating sheep ran by its side. A frantic 
 elephant came thundering onwards, and a wild- 
 218 
 
If* VtrMrt nf ilf? (gnfcfl 
 
 cat sat upon its head. A snarl, a growl a 
 yellow-bellied tiger leapt forth and ran pur- 
 sued by a deer! 
 
 They fled helter-skelter, stumbling and fall- 
 ing, and rising again. Now the field narrowed 
 to a nullah, with thicket on either flank and, 
 tiger and antelope, wolf and sheep, serpent and 
 toad, fled side by side and hustled one another 
 in that stupendous race. Hunger, instinct, 
 ferocity, all was forgotten. They shivered 
 and cowered and ran all together. 
 
 For that which pursued them in that com- 
 mon flight and held them in its grip like the 
 hand of death, was Fear. 
 
 A terrific shock, and the earth trembled as 
 if in collision with a large planet. An awful 
 sound like the fall of the heavens and man 
 and beast lay prone upon the ground. 
 
 It was the parting asunder of Mother Earth. 
 
 Dazed and wild-eyed, the youth arose and 
 gazed behind through the cloud of dust dancing 
 in the pale moonbeams. The gigantic emi- 
 nence, beneath which had lain for countless ages 
 219 
 
tft U^rbfrl of fife (gnfca 
 
 the subterraneous Temple of the Manik, was 
 now flat with the ground. 
 
 Verily, the earthquake had done its work. 
 The secret the Temple had held locked up in 
 its bowels for centuries of years and cycles of 
 centuries had been yielded up at last at the 
 decree of Fate. Well might the Temple fall. 
 
 And the youth, hugging the precious gem to 
 his breast, went forth into the night with a 
 bursting heart. 
 
 Descending the plateau, he gazed bewildered 
 before him. The hillside opposite, in which he 
 had lain hidden the night before, had now van- 
 ished from human sight. Likewise the stream 
 beneath had been wiped off the face of the earth. 
 Dimly, vaguely he took in the significance of 
 that stupendous cataclysm: realised that the 
 overhanging cliff had indeed fallen, and filled 
 up the stream. 
 
 With awe and fear in his heart and the vision 
 
 of Omnipotent might in his eyes he ran swiftly 
 
 over the fallen mass, down the declivity, up the 
 
 stony gorge at last beyond which lay the plains. 
 
 220 
 
SUy* Berbiri 0f ilje (gnfca 
 
 With panting breath he climbed up, reached the 
 narrow opening then with a last despairing 
 cry, a piteous moan, struggled onwards with his 
 ebbing strength, reeled, staggered, fell prone 
 upon his face. For in the very moment of 
 safety, cruel pitiless Fate had struck him down. 
 
 At the mouth of the gorge a row of levelled 
 lances awaited him. 
 
 Then in that agonising moment merciful 
 oblivion came to him. He lay upon the ground 
 before the lances, a senseless mass of poor 
 bleeding humanity that had been sorely tried, 
 had struggled bravely through countless perils, 
 then in the moment of victory that had cost 
 him his last ebbing strength had been struck 
 cruelly down by mocking Fate. His destiny 
 was fulfilled : that was his last conscious thought 
 ere the oblivion enshrouded him in its pall. . . . 
 
 But, merciful Bhugwan, what marvel was this ? 
 
 The lances did not descend upon him and 
 transfix him. Instead, a hand was stretched 
 forth, another, and he was lifted up tenderly, 
 silently. 
 
ij? Ueritrt of il|? (Softs 
 
 " Close the gorge ! " It was a hurried whisper, 
 a deep guttural voice that gave the command. 
 
 And at Rama Krishna's word the guards 
 piled up the boulders they had already collected 
 against the mouth of the gorge. . . . 
 
 Suddenly a distant rumbling, louder, louder 
 a might roar. 
 
 " Back ! Back all on either side ! " Rama 
 Krishna shouted above the din. 
 
 The guards ran back from the gorge into the 
 shelter of the forest. Simple-minded warriors, 
 they knew not that the terrible cataclysm was 
 not yet over. 
 
 The torrent came down with a roar of 
 thunder, gathering force at the narrow declivity. 
 When the overhanging cliff had fallen into the 
 stream in the earthquake, it had but diverted 
 the channel. Rama Krishna knew that soon the 
 piled-up water on the upper side would overtop 
 the barrier then rush down in an irresistible 
 flood, sweeping all things before it. 
 
 A sudden shock a piercing shriek, a human 
 shriek, far down the declivity, another, yet 
 
another and the wall of water hungrily de- 
 voured its fleeing prey reached the gorge, 
 cast up a column of spray thirty cubits above 
 the boulders. 
 
 The spray subsided, and a while after the 
 sound of moving waters died out. All was still. 
 The guards crept to the mouth of the gorge 
 and peered over the boulders. 
 
 Ten cubits beneath them the declivity was 
 now a sluggish molten lake. Seven fathoms 
 below its surface lay hid the evidence of the 
 swift retribution it had wreaked upon the flee- 
 ing Thugs. 
 
 " Come away," the guards said, one to 
 another. "The brethern are avenged." 
 
 They turned to their charge. For Narayan 
 Lai was still their prisoner ! 
 
 Ten days after, a haggard and emaciated 
 form, with hands and feet cut open in a hundred 
 wounds, a madman's haunted look in his sunken 
 eyes, and raving, delirious words upon his lips, 
 was brought back by the guards to the palace. 
 
 "The manik, O King!" 
 
With these words Narayan Lai delivered up 
 his trust, and fell down in a swoon at his 
 master's feet. 
 
 
 
 "Of a truth, high was the destiny of this 
 man," the Great King murmured. " Verily, such 
 perils could be sent to him alone for whom much 
 reward was in store." He mused awhile, think- 
 ing of the perils of his own youth on the field of 
 battle ; and thus thinking, gathered hope for the 
 days yet to come. 
 
 " But tell me this, O man of learning : Why 
 was Narayan Lai made to undergo so many 
 trials ? Surely Parameshwar could give his ver- 
 dict once for all ? " 
 
 The Story-teller marvelled at so great a 
 wisdom. 
 
 " True, O Heaven-born ; but it is as easy for 
 Parameshwar to manifest his will six times in 
 succession as once or sixty times six times. In 
 an ordeal dependent upon divine judgment, we 
 mortals may make any stipulation we choose. 
 If Parameshwar accepts the terms, he will fulfil 
 
She Uerbtrt nf ilj* <g0ba 
 
 them in their entirety. So, if five times Narayan 
 Lai escaped, but at the sixth succumbed, then 
 indeed would the verdict of the Deity have been 
 against him from the beginning. The race is at 
 the finish, not at the start." 
 
 "But tell me, what was the design of Para- 
 meshwar in sending the earthquake ? " 
 
 " To aid him ; and yet to try him. Earth- 
 quakes and landslips are not unknown in the 
 lower altitudes of the Himalayas. And per- 
 chance the heavy rainfall, and then the mechan- 
 ical forces that caused the fall of the axe, might 
 have set into action the initial movement. Great 
 results often have small causes ; even a flicker- 
 ing spark will set a whole forest ablaze, and a 
 tiny hole in a dyke that a child's small hand 
 might stop will turn a sea-girt lowland into a 
 raging gulf. 
 
 " As regards the serpent, such a creature may 
 sometimes be found lurking in ancient ruins. 
 But, O Heaven-born, the re-incarnation of the 
 original serpent that carried the manik upon its 
 head would it not be there on such an occasion 
 
Ij* UerfcUt of tlje <S0fca 
 
 when the first hand came to despoil it that was 
 not guilty of the basest ingratitude? Would 
 it not be there to test if verily Narayan Lai 
 would escape death by divine aid because of his 
 innocence? For it was indeed Narayan Lai's 
 fate that he should suffer peril upon peril, and 
 a thousand unseen perils. 
 
 "Thus in his next trial," continued the 
 Story-teller, "but for an unknown friend he 
 had died a cruel death. True, it was his fate to 
 have that friend; nevertheless he had cause to 
 thank the gods for so great a love." 
 
 226 
 
THE SERPENT'S TOOTH 
 
 EOR three days and three nights Nar- 
 ayan Lai lay in the swoon of death, 
 with but intermittent flashes of con- 
 sciousness. The stupendous ordeal he 
 had gone through in the search for the precious 
 manik had left its impress upon him for ever. 
 Thrice he had started from his bed with a cry 
 of terror, flinging off the blankets from his 
 limbs. 
 
 " The serpent ! The serpent ! Can ye not see 
 it? It is enfolding my limbs in its coils, grind- 
 ing my bones to dust! Its fangs are at my 
 throat keep it back, keep it back ! " 
 Thus in his delirium he fought anew that terri- 
 ble battle with the boa-constrictor in the subter- 
 raneous temple. The prison guards gave him 
 such rough comfort as they might, but it scarce 
 3S7 
 
Slje HUrbirt nf ilj? <S & 
 
 sufficed to cure him of such sickness of both 
 mind and body. 
 
 Then on the third night the Princess Devala 
 said to her handmaid, " Leila, dost thou love 
 me? Then lend me thy garments." 
 
 But Leila, understanding her purpose, shook 
 her head sadly. "Wouldst thou go to him in 
 disguise, Heaven-born, to nurse him back to life? 
 But what avail ? Remember he has yet two more 
 trials and a time may come when thou alone 
 canst save him from certain death! Reserve 
 thine own effort for that supreme crisis." 
 
 " But why not now as well as then ? " 
 
 " Because if thou goest to him now and thy 
 disguise be detected, as well it might, thou shalt 
 have lost all chance of going to him in the 
 greater need. For then thou shalt be so well 
 guarded awaiting the end, thine and his that 
 even I could not serve thee." 
 
 " But is not this the supreme crisis ? " the 
 princess asked again, resolved in her inmost 
 heart that in the hour of need she would fling 
 away her all for her lover's sake. 
 28 
 
"A little while, yet a little while and the 
 hour of darkness will be at hand, when none but 
 thou mayest save him!" For gifted, like some 
 maidens, with a vision of the future, Leila 
 vaguely felt a presentiment in her heart that, 
 great as Narayan Lai's perils had been so far, 
 at the culminating ordeal when man and beast 
 and devil would be let loose against him, either 
 he must sink in the strife or the Supreme Para- 
 meshwar would declare His verdict by the hand 
 of the very woman for the love of whom Nara- 
 yan Lai was undergoing these perils. 
 
 " Meanwhile hope, watch and pray," she said 
 to the princess. " And fear not for the present. 
 Even now the guru and his brethren are tend- 
 ing him. For they have obtained leave to 
 nurse him and minister to him till the next 
 trial." 
 
 Thus when Narayan Lai had regained his 
 health and strength, his master bade him appear 
 before him for the fifth ordeal. And this the 
 king did on the very morning of the trial, with- 
 out any previous warning so that the guru 
 229 
 
Sly? Uerairi nf fly? (S050 
 
 and his brethren had to take a hurried fare- 
 well. 
 
 But the night before a strange scene had 
 been enacted in the palace courtyard. Going 
 with her silver pitcher to the inner foun- 
 tain, Leila saw the self-same mendicant that 
 once before had begged alms from the palace 
 guards. 
 
 A vague presentiment seized her heart. She 
 called in the mendicant to the fountain and gave 
 him of her bounty. The old man, stooping 
 down to give her his blessing, whispered into 
 her ear: 
 
 " Within the king's packets lies death. The 
 alchemist who made them up is a friend, but 
 must needs obey the royal command. Thus all 
 night must I seek the antidote; but at my 
 return it may be too late! Say, hast thou a 
 lover amongst the guards ? " 
 
 " But he may be impotent ! " she mur- 
 mured softly. " His very duty may keep him 
 away " 
 
 " Then the lover of a friend of thine whose 
 230 
 
SItj* Herfcirt nf tlje (Sn&a 
 
 duty might take him to the trial? Answer 
 quickly ! " 
 
 A vague light crept into Leila's mind. She 
 must find two friends in the palace: Harnam 
 Das, if a man of position were needed; and 
 another for humbler duties. In frantic haste 
 she racked her brains. There was indeed a serv- 
 ing-maid of the palace, deeply attached to the 
 princess and betrothed to one of the attendants ; 
 their marriage had long been deferred for the 
 want of a dower. Then Leila inwardly vowed 
 that out of her own dower would the deficiency 
 be made good. All this passed through her 
 mind in a flash of inspiration. 
 
 " Enough ! The guru will do the rest ; I but 
 obey him in seeking the antidote. Yet the trial 
 may have already begun when I return; thus 
 prepare thy friend's lover for his task." Say- 
 ing this, the mendicant vanished in the dark. 
 
 Inside, in a corridor, the Jemadar of the 
 Palace, the Thug in disguise, was waiting for 
 Leila, seeking to waylay her. Since his friends 
 had perished in the ravine in Narayan LaPs 
 
SFlf* !*r&Ui 0f tlje (gnfca 
 
 fourth trial, he knew that he must carry out his 
 evil deeds within the palace. Before the end of 
 the trials Narayan Lai must die; else his own 
 life would be forfeited; the secret spies of his 
 master would see to that. Thus if Narayan Lai 
 were not killed in the trials, if instead he 
 triumphed over them all, then must he slay the 
 youth in the very moment of triumph, or perish 
 himself ; for afterwards it would be too late. 
 
 Thus his first endeavour was that the youth 
 should die in the trials; that would spare him 
 his own peril. And somehow the false jemadar 
 seemed to realise that he must silence Leila for 
 ever to gain that end. He awaited her coming 
 in the corridor, his hand upon the dagger in his 
 girdle. If she shrieked, he would silence her then 
 and there. But if possible, he would carry her 
 away noislessly, as once before he had nearly 
 done fulfil his other nameless purpose upon 
 her, then slay her and cast her body into the 
 ravine beyond the palace wall. . . . 
 
 Suddenly Leila paused. At the beginning of 
 the dark corridor she dreaded there was a short 
 
side passage leading into an alcove. Here behind 
 a curtain she paused to take breath. Young as 
 she was, the hidden perils of the palace had 
 taught her wisdom and stratagems. 
 
 A while after a maiden's veiled form, with a 
 pitcher balanced upon her head, seemed to be 
 dimly visible at the beginning of the side pas- 
 sage, nearest the corridor. It seemed to hesi- 
 tate a moment, before plunging into the cor- 
 ridor. 
 
 A stealthy sound was heard less a muffled 
 foot step than a hard breathing. Nearer and 
 nearer came the sound from pillar to pillar. 
 With a sudden swoop the jemadar fell upon his 
 prey flung his arms around the veiled form. 
 Down came the pitcher with a crash and lay 
 broken in a thousand fragments ; for it was an 
 earthern pitcher. That instant another form 
 whisked past him, holding a silver pitcher in 
 her hands, not upon her head. With a muttered 
 curse the jemadar turned to her. But already 
 Leila was far down the corridor. 
 
 And the veiled form, that had borne the 
 233 
 
Stf* H*rMri 0f ilf? (Soils 
 
 empty earthen pitcher upon its head and whom 
 the jemadar had embraced? It suddenly threw 
 off the veil, and held him tight in its grasp ! One 
 fierce struggle, and the two were upon the floor, 
 Harnam Das on top. Then a quick turn of the 
 wrist, and the jemadar was uppermost. Releas- 
 ing one hand he sought for something at his 
 girdle. But clutching his antagonist's head 
 with both arms, Harnam gave a sudden twist 
 and rolled over on his side, bringing down his 
 foe before him. Thus in grim silence they 
 wrestled; for each felt that this was a private 
 matter, and the world must not know of it. 
 Each saw nothing of the other, and knew not 
 of his identity ; but each felt instinctively 
 that, if so permitted, the fight must be to the 
 death. 
 
 But it was not so permitted. The sound of 
 hurried fotsteps, and a crowd of eunuchs burst 
 from the inner palace. Even as Leila had 
 reached the door, set down the pitcher, and was 
 about to turn single-handed to her lover's aid, 
 the eunuchs heard the scuffle through the open 
 
OJlj* HerfcUi 0? ilye C506s 
 
 door. They ran down the corridor with drawn 
 tulwars but found nothing ! 
 
 With common instinct the combatants had 
 parted, and had fled different ways into the 
 darkness! . . . 
 
 Thus in the subsequent commotion and talk 
 among the attendants of the palace on this night 
 before Narayan Lai's fifth ordeal, it did not 
 seem strange that an affrighted serving-maid 
 of the palace should confer with her betrothed 
 and seek his protection in going about her 
 duties. 
 
 The day of the trial came, and Narayan Lai 
 was taken before his master. The scene was 
 once more the audience-hall of the palace. 
 Narayan Lai was taken there in his bare clothes 
 white trousers, white tunic, and white turban. 
 The councillors sat once more before the throne, 
 leaving a space for the juggler twelve cubits in 
 diameter. 
 
 At a sign from the king an attendant 
 approached with a long piece of leather three 
 fingers thick, and cut off with his sword a por- 
 235 
 
tion that reached from his waist to his feet. He 
 came and placed it on the floor midway between 
 Narayan Lai and the throne, and on a line with 
 them. There it lay inert and motionless a 
 piece of leather. All wondered why it lay there. 
 
 " Roll up thy sleeves," bade the king. 
 
 Without a word Narayan Lai obeyed, and 
 stood with arms bared to the elbow. 
 
 "That is thy subject," said the king, point- 
 ing to the rigid black line. " Breathe life into it 
 before my eyes, so that it may live and move." 
 
 Narayan Lai seemed lost for a while in deep 
 thought, his eyes closed, his lips half open. 
 Then a faint smile broke upon them as he real- 
 ised the nature of the task he was bidden to 
 perform. 
 
 He knelt down before the line, resting upon 
 his heels, and stretched forth his right hand till 
 the fingers just closed over the end of the 
 leather. Gently he began to wriggle it upon the 
 floor, the undulating motion passing along the 
 leather from end to end. His left arm was 
 bent round over his back in the manner of a 
 236 
 
Sll* Urrfciri 0f ttje (gnfcs 
 
 fencer. Perhaps he did that to indicate that 
 the left hand would be no confederate of the 
 right. 
 
 Gradually he accelerated the motion, working 
 with his wrist alone. The curves began to 
 increase in width, and the further end to come 
 nearer. 
 
 Soon the vibration became so rapid that 
 the coils seemed to telescope into one another. 
 Suddenly he thrust forward the whole arm, 
 while still maintaining the lateral motion. The 
 free end shot out and licked the foot of the dai's 
 then was drawn back as rapidly. 
 
 Faster and faster grew the pace. It became 
 a haze of sweeping curves. Once he raised the 
 left hand from his back, and rapidly circled it 
 over the wriggling mass then seeming to 
 repent of his forgetfulness, drew it back hastily 
 to its resting-place. The wise ones among the 
 spectators shook their heads at that, and smiled 
 knowingly. A cross-eyed sage plucked at his 
 neighbour's sleeve and silently pointed to the 
 head of the mass. The other dropped his spec- 
 
SFlye U^rfciri af if?? <60fts 
 
 tacles upon his nose and peered over them 
 curiously. 
 
 " The end is in the air," he muttered, gravely 
 re-adjusting his glases. 
 
 The end of the coil was no longer upon the 
 floor; it was a span above it. Perhaps the 
 rapidity of the motion had given it some species 
 of centrifugal force. 
 
 The grey-haired councillors around heard 
 the words, and, casting gravity to the winds, 
 craned their necks like excited schoolboys. 
 
 "A thick wire at the end of the leather, to 
 give it that support," exclaimed one in a moment 
 of inspiration. " It must have been caught up 
 from the floor." 
 
 "Too thick for a wire," objected another; 
 " it is even thicker than the leather." 
 
 " That is only a deception of the eye," main- 
 tained the sage, when someone on the other side 
 of the da'is gave a loud gasp. 
 
 " It is expanding ! It is as broad as a child's 
 hand." 
 
 " A woman's rather," corrected another. 
 
lf? H^rbirt nf tlj? <g0&0 
 
 " A man's ! " cried out a heavy old warrior, 
 clutching at his huge whiskers that lay twisted 
 over his ears. 
 
 Truly, the end of the leather was like a man's 
 hand, the fingers bent slightly inwards ; it was 
 just visible over the haze. That instant the 
 middle finger seemed to lengthen out, a full inch 
 beyond the others. 
 
 "And it is a wire at the end of it," mur- 
 mured the man of wisdom. " Only it seems very 
 thin now." 
 
 His neighbour protested that there was no 
 wire. Then hastily he admitted there was not 
 one, but two. A moment later he denied there 
 was any. Then, again, he ate his words, and 
 confessed there was. 
 
 Two tiny wires seemed to emerge from the tip 
 of that middle finger. They quivered the tenth 
 of a second in the air, then were withdrawn. 
 Again they darted out, and as quickly vanished. 
 Like miniature forked lightning they vibrated 
 to and fro. 
 
 Suddenly Narayan Lai leapt to his feet, lift- 
 239 
 
ing the mass of curves still wriggling in the air, 
 flicked it violently, then dashed it to the floor 
 a supple line of black flesh, thick as a man's 
 hand at the other end. 
 
 Slowly the head begin to rise, higher and 
 higher, slowly the tail began to coil inwards, 
 round and round. The black wires began to 
 dart anew, in and out. Two shining points of 
 light burst forth on the broad head behind the 
 wires. 
 
 It was a living serpent. Awhile it stood 
 erect, seeking a prey. 
 
 "Maro! Maro! (Kill! Kill!)" broke out a 
 babel of voices. The huddled heap of undig- 
 nified councillors fell back towards the walls in 
 sudden haste. 
 
 But with a swift stride Narayan Lai caught 
 up the serpent in his right hand by the tail. 
 In an instant the head curled round with an 
 angry hiss. An arm's length from his hand it 
 oscillated just once back to take sure aim upon 
 it, then launched out for the fatal blow. 
 
 But quicker than lightning Narayan Lai's 
 
NARAYAN LAL CAUGHT UP THE SERPENT IN HIS 
 RIGHT HAND BY THE TAIL " 
 
left hand closed over the right slid along the 
 serpent's body, tightening the fingers as it went 
 and gripped the baffled creature by the neck. 
 He pressed the thumb upon the throat, forcing 
 the serpent to open wide its mouth. 
 
 " Behold the poison fangs, O King ! " Two 
 pairs of white ivory gleamed within, one on 
 either side. Each fang was no bigger than a 
 grain of rice ; yet one single scratch from it 
 upon the juggler's arm would have turned him 
 into a blackened corpse. 
 
 " A sword and a flute ! " he gasped between 
 his pursed lips, his wrist shaking violently from 
 the desperate struggles of the serpent to escape. 
 They were brought after a seeming age and 
 placed by his side the sword, a long narrow 
 blade. 
 
 "Narayan Lai bent down over the floor and 
 thrust the serpent's tail under his right foot. 
 He seized the flute with his right hand that was 
 now free, and began a weird chant upon it 
 stretching forth his left hand that still held the 
 serpent by the neck, as far as it could reach. 
 
SFIf? $?rbtri of tlj? <8a&a 
 
 Suddenly, with a furious climax upon the 
 flute, he sprang back from the floor, releasing 
 that instant his left hand from the serpent's 
 neck. Ere the dazed creature could resolve to 
 strike, he stepped back four cubits from it and 
 began a soft soothing melody like distant 
 music across still waters. 
 
 For a while the serpent hesitated. Anger 
 and joy battled in its glistening eyes. It raised 
 its head, poised it a moment in the air, arched 
 its back, recoiled to take aim then relapsed 
 into a suppliant column, bowing humbly to the 
 music. 
 
 The music changed. Narayan Lai glided 
 into a lullaby, low and gentle. In response the 
 serpent waved its head from side to side in 
 graceful motion. Softer and softer came the 
 music, and gentler and gentler bowed the ser- 
 pent's hood. The music seemed to die away in 
 a muffled echo, and the serpent held its length 
 erect in the air as if lulled to sleep in that 
 upright attitude. 
 
 Again the tune was changed. It was now 
 
Sly? Uerfciri nf llf* (gn&a 
 
 the quick-pulsing beat and broad rhythm of 
 " Taza bi taza" the most famous melody of the 
 land. In a moment the delighted creature 
 awoke from its dream, puffed out its hood to the 
 utmost, and swayed its entire length in har- 
 mony. But yet the time grew faster. The 
 oscillating coil swept out in pride and pleasure 
 and joy, the tail beating upon the floor in 
 unison. 
 
 The music burst forth into a rhapsody, wild, 
 fierce, interwoven with passion and pain. Nara- 
 yan Lai strode across the arena, stamping at 
 each furious blast. The serpent leapt to the 
 strains in frantic motion, hissed and struck out 
 at imaginary foes, circled round the juggler, 
 and followed him about like a trailing shadow. 
 Thus did Narayan Lai beguile it, and work it 
 up to the frenzy of madness. 
 
 Suddenly the flute rang out in a shrill screech ; 
 a series of discordant notes burst out in a loud 
 crescendo, then stopped dead short. 
 
 The serpent winced and writhed in pain, as 
 if struck by a whip. With an angry hiss it 
 243 
 
Sije Hcr&irt of tlte (Bobs 
 
 launched forth from the unfolding coil, straight 
 at Narayan Lai. 
 
 But an instant quicker he had seized the 
 sword with his right hand, the left still clutch- 
 ing the flute. Whilst yet the approaching line 
 was a yard from his breast the glittering blade 
 passed clean through it. The head sprang 
 from the blow; Narayan Lai raised the flute 
 before him ; the severed head of the serpent fell 
 upon the bulb of the flute, the open j aws closing 
 upon it in that dying grip. 
 
 The body relapsed upon the floor, quivered 
 and writhed, and marked its passage along it 
 with a broad red band then lay still. Narayan 
 Lai stepped to the dais, lifted up the flute, and 
 pointed to the crimson drops issuing from the 
 
 severed head. 
 
 " Behold, O Heaven-born, this living flesh ! " 
 " Shabash, Narayan! Shabash! " a cheer 
 passed from lip to lip, swelling to a wild shout 
 in the courtyard beyond. But even in that 
 moment of exultation the voice of the king 
 hushed them all. 
 
(Eljapter 
 
 THE POISONED CUP 
 
 'RE the applause had died away, and 
 in the very midst of his triumph, the 
 king turned to the juggler. 
 
 " Thou hast given life where there 
 was no life ; that was well. Now give life to thy- 
 self after I have taken it from thee for an 
 hour's space." 
 
 Narayan Lai caught his breath as he heard 
 these words. He marked the signal that brought 
 forth two men from a doorway beside the throne. 
 What danger threatened him he knew not; the 
 nature of this trial was beyond his anticipa- 
 tion. 
 
 He marked the two men well; his instinct led 
 him to gather quickly whatever clue he could. 
 The first was middle-aged ; he was unknown to 
 him. The other, a young man, he recognised 
 
If* Uerbiri af ilf? (Sn&a 
 
 as one of the attendants of the palace. They 
 bore trays in their hands, that of the first con- 
 taining three silver goblets, that of the other two 
 pieces of conch shell, and two little packages of 
 cloth. They knelt before the king, who broke 
 with his own hands the seal upon each package. 
 The seal was that of his signet-ring. 
 
 Two of the goblets were empty; the third, 
 double the size of the others, was full of water. 
 Setting the tray down, the first attendant 
 retired. Narayan Lai instinctively noted that 
 the second attendant, the young man, lagged 
 somewhat behind. He laid down the tray, and 
 opened one of the packages a piece of cloth a 
 quarter of a handkerchief in size. It contained 
 a white powder. 
 
 "Diamond-dust," spoke the king from the 
 throne. "One shellful of it will be mixed with 
 water. That thou must drink." 
 
 But diamond-dust was a deadly poison. One 
 shellful would kill three big men. 
 
 The attendant opened the other package. It 
 contained a dark brown powder. 
 246 
 
Ije U*r&trf nf lly? (Softs 
 
 "Datura," said the king calmly. " One shell- 
 ful of it will be mixed with water. That thou 
 must drink likewise." 
 
 And likewise datura was a deadly poison. One 
 shellful would kill three strong horses. In 
 either case Narayan Lai would die an agonising 
 death. He realised that without the royal word. 
 He saw darkness before him. There was no 
 escape this time. 
 
 Yet from his infancy had he been trained to 
 struggle to the bitter end. And if he refused 
 the feat, he would forthwith be adjudged guilty. 
 That, surely, was certain death. 
 
 The king noted his hesitation. He smiled 
 grimly, and waved his hand. A curtain was 
 flung aside at the further end of the hall, reveal- 
 ing the outer courtyard. A huge elephant, a 
 fine tusker eight cubits (twelve feet) high, came 
 into view. Guided by the mahout, it paused 
 before a block of wood a cubit high. 
 
 For the elephant was the high executioner of 
 the kingdom. The criminal, found guilty of 
 high treason, would be made to kneel before the 
 
If* Vtritirt 0f tl|0 (Softs 
 
 block, and place his head upon it. The elephant 
 would lay its foot upon the head, and press with 
 its whole weight upon it. The next instant the 
 traitor's head would be flat with the wood. 
 
 " Choose between the elephant and the 
 poisons," bade the king, in a level voice; 
 for to him Narayan Lai still seemed to be a 
 traitor. 
 
 In calm acquiescence the youth bowed his 
 head; he would choose the poisons; if need be, 
 would die fighting to the last in silent protesta- 
 tion of his innocence. If he failed well, he 
 could die but once. And the princess? Surely 
 merciful Parameshwar would grant her a happy 
 release simultaneously with his own. For he 
 remembered that she had at her bosom a true 
 and unerring friend that would release her from 
 all pain. 
 
 These thoughts passed through his mind 
 whilst yet the attendant was measuring out the 
 poisons. Suddenly, in the very deed, the menial 
 raised the shell before him as if to see that it 
 were brimful. That instant Narayan Lai 
 248 
 
caught a strange gleam in his eye. It was just 
 a momentary glance, but full of a hidden fire. A 
 mute appeal, passionate, fearful. 
 
 As he lowered the shell into a goblet, the 
 glance travelled down from Narayan's face and 
 lingered the fraction of a second at the edge of 
 the tray. 
 
 Peeping from beneath it Narayan observed 
 the fringe of a cloth, no wider than a wisp of 
 straw; that alone was visible. In a flash of 
 inspiration he realised. It was a third package. 
 The attendant had held it in his fingers under 
 cover of the tray. 
 
 A thousand emotions rending his heart, the 
 juggler tortured his mind to guess what this 
 could mean. Some unknown friend had sent it 
 to him ; instinct and the memory of his love told 
 him that. But how it could save him, he knew 
 not yet. For a moment he thought that per- 
 chance he could substitute its contents for the 
 poisons. But with a sinking heart he saw the 
 attendant fill each goblet of poison with water. 
 To dispose of them secretly now was impossible ; 
 249 
 
2Hf* Vtr&irt of iff* (Sn&a 
 
 he had no means of concealing two goblets of 
 fluid. One hope remained; the package itself 
 might suggest a method. 
 
 As the attendant withdrew, Narayan seized 
 the tray with both hands, as if to draw it closer 
 to him. The right hand covered the edge where 
 the hidden package lay ; the left found its grip 
 near one of the empty cloths upon it. 
 
 Whilst moving the tray to his feet he drew 
 in the package with the little finger of the right 
 hand, and slipped it to the hollow of the palm. 
 With the left hand he picked up the empty cloth 
 and transferred it to the right as if intending 
 to wipe the goblets with it. 
 
 The right hand now held two similar pieces 
 of cloth; one empty, the other that from an 
 unknown friend. But the spectators knew only 
 of the former. 
 
 With the little finger, curved beneath, he 
 felt that the package was loose. It contained 
 something soft; perhaps another powder. To 
 transfer the contents from one cloth to the 
 other whilst ostensibly smoothing down the 
 250 
 
Ife UeriHri af tlf? (Snba 
 
 creases of the latter was not a difficult task 
 to him. 
 
 Hiding the cloth now containing the powder 
 in the hollow of the hand, he proceeded to wipe 
 a goblet with the other. The world thought it 
 was the same one as before. The world was 
 wrong. 
 
 With a catch in his breath he manipulated 
 this cloth, his hungry eyes searching for some 
 hidden clue. First one corner, then another he 
 used to wipe the sides, the rim, the stem of the 
 goblet. 
 
 " This first." His swimming eyes read these 
 words faintly traced upon it. He felt the earth 
 reel beneath him. The writing was that of his 
 guru. 
 
 He remembered the guru's skill in poisons and 
 antidotes. And like a flash of lightning the 
 remembrance came to him that the young at- 
 tendant, who had secretly given him the pack- 
 age, was betrothed to a handmaid of the palace ; 
 that the handmaid was devoted to her mistress, 
 the Princess Devala. 
 
SI;? Urrfctri nf tlf? (gnba 
 
 With a beating heart he raised the goblet of 
 diamond-dust to his lips. The right hand he 
 held beneath it, as if to wipe his mouth with 
 the cloth. But the cloth had changed places 
 once more with the other in the same palm ; 
 the one containing the powder was now fore- 
 most. 
 
 Like trickling sand the hidden powder fell 
 into his mouth. The liquid ran down in a tor- 
 rent after it. With a choking gulp he drank it 
 to the dregs, and cast the goblet aside. 
 
 Whether the antidote would act he could 
 scarcely tell ; he earnestly prayed that it would. 
 His life was upon the knees of the gods. His 
 loved ones were risking theirs for his. If die he 
 must, he would die keeping their trust. 
 
 He bent his head upon his knees, his hands 
 clutched to his breast. With one wild jerk he 
 threw up his hands to seize the other goblet. 
 But now one cloth was in his hand ; the one con- 
 taining the message lay hid in his bosom. 
 
 He poured the fluid down his throat, his lips 
 twitching at each gulp. To the last drop he 
 252 
 
Oil!? Vtr&irt nf ily? (S0&0 
 
 drank ; with a clatter the goblet fell at his feet. 
 His eyes were blazing now; then suddenly they 
 dimmed. Without a word he laid himself down 
 flat on his back, his head pillowed upon his 
 hands. 
 
 Thus he lay awhile with closed eyes. The 
 breath grew harder, sharper; the chest heaved 
 spasmodically. Twice he made to cough, and 
 twice the sound died away in a gurgle. He 
 became restless. He turned his head upon the 
 right shoulder, but found no comfort there. He 
 turned it to the left, and found no comfort 
 there. 
 
 His feet moved; they came together, but 
 again separated. His toes curved inwards into 
 the soles ; his hands slid from beneath his head, 
 jerked round to his sides, opened and closed, 
 and clawed frantically at the air. He was seized 
 with cramps. 
 
 A quiver ran through his frame from head to 
 
 foot. Suddenly he turned on his side, drew up 
 
 his legs, and curled down his head; his chin 
 
 lay almost upon his knees. A moment later he 
 
 253 
 
ij? Vtrbitt nf tiit (gnfca 
 
 shot out his legs, returned to his back, and beat 
 the air with his hands. 
 
 " This is cruelty, not justice," muttered some- 
 one beneath his breath. A while later, a wizened 
 old councillor gasped out, pointing with his 
 finger : 
 
 "He is dying!" 
 
 A murmur broke upon their lips. They saw 
 the signs of hastening death, a trembling of the 
 limbs from the knees downwards, and beads of 
 sweat upon the brow. 
 
 Gradually the trembling ceased. One faint 
 beat another then all was still. 
 
 "He is dead!" 
 
 And a strange silence came upon them all, for 
 they felt dumbly that this was no time to speak. 
 They glanced piteously upon the still body, and 
 thanked the gods that this was no work of 
 theirs. 
 
 Then a sudden cry loosened their tongues. 
 
 "But see, see! The sweat!" 
 
 Truly, the beads were running down the brow 
 and cheeks. 
 
 254* 
 
Slje Brrfciri nf i 1) r (6 b B 
 
 " He still lives ! " 
 
 They clutched at the hope, and the revulsion 
 carried them far. 
 
 " The fever is breaking ! " 
 
 "He may live yet!" 
 
 "He breathes! He moves!" 
 
 Then, without a word, like a dead man return- 
 ing to life, Nayaran Lai sat up. With a chok- 
 ing cry he leapt to his feet, seized the tray and 
 goblets, and stood before the dai's. Drawing a 
 long breath, he bent his head and blew upon the 
 tray finishing in a sudden gasp that seemed to 
 empty his heart. 
 
 " Behold thy poison, O Merciful King ! " 
 
 He held aloft the tray. In one goblet was a 
 white powder ; dry. 
 
 It was the diamond-dust. 
 
 He blew anew, and held up the tray. 
 
 " Behold thy poison, O Light of Justice ! " 
 
 In the other goblet was a brown powder ; dry. 
 It was the datura. 
 
 "See that they be full measure, O Seat of 
 Wisdom ! " 
 
 255 
 
SFtj* Vtrftirt 0f tljr (Sn&a 
 
 He took a shell, and poured the diamond-dust 
 into it. It was filled to the brim. He emptied 
 the shell, and did likewise with the second 
 poison. 
 
 "See that they kill, O Mighty King!" 
 
 He pointed to the two covered cages that 
 hung from the roof, one on either side of the 
 throne. The first contained a myna, the second 
 a hiralal, both of the most exquisite plumage 
 and both favourites of the king. 
 
 But the king descended from his throne, and 
 walked to the courtyard outside. Around the 
 outer wall was a row of trees, and upon the 
 trees many crows. 
 
 " Try them," said the king. 
 
 They fetched Narayan a small guava. Cut- 
 ting it in halves, he dipped one half in the dia- 
 mond-dust so that a tenth of it remained upon 
 it, and cast it under a tree. The other half he 
 dipped in the datura, and cast it under another 
 tree. 
 
 A dozen crows came down, fighting for the 
 booty. The winners seized the plunder, flew 
 256 
 
back to the trees, and ate the guava. Five min- 
 utes after, fluttering their wings, they dropped 
 to the ground, fluttered again then lay still. 
 
 " Is it well, my Master? " asked Narayan Lai. 
 
 And the king answered : " It is well." 
 
 He turned to the mahout who still sat upon 
 the elephant. " Take away the beast. There is 
 no traitor found to-day. The treason shall be 
 proved at the next trial ! " 
 
 He little realised in what wondrous manner 
 his words were destined to be fulfilled to the 
 very letter at Narayan Lai's next and last trial ! 
 
 "And how thinkest thou the poisons spared 
 the life of Narayan Lai," asked the Great King 
 of the Story- teller, " and how blew he them back 
 out of his mouth, dry and separated from the 
 water ? " 
 
 And the Story-teller bowed his head, and 
 murmured that it was the prayers of his loved 
 ones that saved the life of Narayan Lai, and 
 helped him in the feat. 
 
 But, O best beloved, at least some of those 
 257 
 
Sff* lUrfciri of itje (Snfca 
 
 who witnessed the feat believed otherwise. I, 
 the faithful chronicler of the Great King, after- 
 wards heard from the Story-teller of their foul 
 calumnies. For on the night of the trial the 
 usual crowd of knaves came to the low den at the 
 outskirts of the city and discussed Narayan 
 LaPs feats with evil tongues. First, the feat of 
 turning the piece of leather into a live serpent. 
 " Easy enough ! " said the ex-scribe, he that 
 was the sage amongst this vile crew. " It is the 
 usual practice of an expert juggler to lead up 
 to his best feat gradually. Thus to gain the 
 confidence of his spectators from the start, he 
 performs some impromptu feat, which, how- 
 ever trivial, is likely to excite wonder by its very 
 spontaneity. To do this, it is his most usual 
 practice to produce suddenly some live creature 
 from the person of one of the spectators as a 
 rule the most forward or aggressive one among 
 them; and the more startling and repugnant 
 the creature (for instance, a snake, a frog, a 
 lizard) the greater is the merriment of the other 
 spectators, and hence the greater the general 
 258 
 
ST If ? Uer&trt f tfyt <g b a 
 
 success of the feat. Thus it is the juggler's 
 custom to carry some such creature about him 
 (for instance, under his waistband), though in 
 the present case it was fated to fulfil a sterner 
 purpose than to cause merriment." 
 
 " But how came Narayan Lai to possess the 
 serpent," objected the man that had his nose slit 
 open with a lancet, " after being so long in cap- 
 tivity?" 
 
 The ex-scribe smiled in superior wisdom. 
 " His friends ! The guru and the brethren who 
 had access to him daily ! And with what other 
 contrivances they have furnished him, for pos- 
 sible future trials, none can tell." 
 
 " But how could he carry the live serpent 
 safely about his person? Methinks it might 
 have crawled out at any moment, or even have 
 bitten him to death." 
 
 " O simple one ! " cried the scribe in derision, 
 " knowest nothing of narcotics that would re- 
 duce a serpent to sleep, to lethargy, or to com- 
 plete coma for twenty long hours? And after 
 the clever substitution of the serpent for the 
 259 
 
Sly? Uerfciri nf Ifj? (Sofca 
 
 leather, knowest not that the subsequent wrig- 
 gling, to and fro, backwards and forwards, 
 would remove the comatose effects, and grad- 
 ually awaken the serpent to full activity?" 
 
 Then all cried out in unison, " Now tell us of 
 the second feat how the juggler drank the 
 poisons, and brought them back out of his 
 mouth, dry ! " 
 
 The sage pulled at his hookah in silence 
 awhile, cleared his throat, and gave forth this 
 fragment of wisdom: 
 
 " To every poison there is an antidote if 
 we could only find it. But strange as it may 
 seem, the antidote to two poisons administered 
 together is sometimes easier to find than the 
 antidote to each separately ; for the two poisons 
 may to some extent neutralise each other. Now, 
 if a third substance could be found that would 
 complete this neutralisation, then the three 
 taken together would be quite harmless to kill 
 though indeed their nervous effects might still 
 remain, such as cramp and heavy sweat, and 
 subsequently temporary weakness and partial 
 60 
 
2Ilj? Urr&tri nf tl?e <g0&0 
 
 paralysis. This third substance a light oleag- 
 inous stone found only in the deserts of Raj- 
 putana, which, when pulverised into fine pow- 
 der, had the peculiar property of chemically 
 combining with diamond-dust and datura, and 
 thus forming in union with them a new and 
 innocuous substance either the guru or some 
 other friend of the juggler had discovered, and 
 managed to convey to him secretly." 
 
 But a mocking voice answered the sage: 
 " But how did he bring back the powders separ- 
 ately and dry and then prove by the death of 
 the crows that the poisons were not innocuous? 
 Tell us that, O man of much wisdom!" 
 
 The sage gave back scorn for scorn. " Know- 
 est not, O foolish one, that an expert juggler 
 is trained from his earliest childhood to carry 
 small objects in his throat, such as a silver coin? 
 In fact, when the future juggler is four or five 
 years of age, the trainer takes a small coin, 
 bores a hole at the rim, ties a silk thread to it, 
 and holding one end of the thread makes the 
 child swallow the coin only as far as the 
 261 
 
lj* Uer&tri nf tlf? <S0t>0 
 
 throat. There he keeps the coin for only five 
 seconds; thus every day for twelve months. 
 Then gradually he increases the duration, also 
 chooses a successively larger coin as the child 
 grows up till after fifteen years, when the child 
 is grown to be a man, a natural cavity has been 
 formed in the throat. In this, on either side of 
 the root of the tongue, the juggler can now 
 carry two thin silver capsules, and operate on 
 them by an adroit movement of the tongue. 
 
 " Now, when the king had sealed up the two 
 packages of poisons, some friend of the juggler 
 must have learnt of that fact from the royal 
 alchemist, and obtained from him a similar 
 supply of the same poisons. These, hidden in 
 the silver capsules, he had contrived to convey 
 to the juggler in his prison. Thus, O foolish 
 one," concluded the scribe, " it was not the iden- 
 tical poisons he had drunk in liquid form which 
 Narayan Lai brought out of his mouth, dry. It 
 was the supply in the hidden capsules ! " And 
 the sage closed his lips upon the neglected 
 hookah, and refused to speak again. 
 262 
 
t(e Vtrftirt nf t\\* (Sails 
 
 But, O best beloved, the calumnies of such a 
 vile crew as this are indeed endless. They would, 
 if they could, explain away the very wonders of 
 nature of the gigantic tree that grows from the 
 tiny seed, the very sun, moon and stars then 
 how glibly the marvels of man ! Verily, to them 
 nothing is sacred in heaven and earth and the 
 waters beneath. They would explain all things 
 away in the name of science ! Faugh ! they make 
 me sick! 
 
 And, O beloved, at the next trial could any 
 mortal man explain away the feat? Verily it 
 was beyond human anticipation, beyond the 
 power of twice forty thousand friends if 
 indeed all that witnessed it were friends to suc- 
 cour Narayan Lai in that supreme crisis, that 
 stupendous conflict. For, seeing that the 
 chances were slipping by, Narayan LaPs master 
 resolved in the last trial to make him face such 
 a peril as no man had escaped before or since. 
 
 263 
 
THE VERDICT OF PARAMESHWAR 
 
 'NOW, O Son of Heaven, that when 
 doubt like a cankerworm eats into 
 the human heart each attempt to 
 remove the doubt serves but to nerve 
 it to new strength in its hold; each attempt to 
 prove that it is false serves but to reveal new 
 reasons to prove that it is true. Thus was it 
 in the heart of Narayan Lai's master. Five 
 times had he wrestled with and driven back the 
 tempter at his ear, trying to believe that Nara- 
 yan Lai was innocent ; and five times the tempter 
 had returned, bringing seven more tempters 
 with him to show that Narayan Lai was guilty. 
 Thus, in this the last trial, he resolved to put 
 Narayan Lai to such a test as would either 
 cause his certain death, or prove his innocence 
 beyond doubt. If Parameshwar had accepted 
 264 
 
Sij? Beriirt nf tlj* (gnfca 
 
 the original terms of the ordeal, He would ful- 
 fil them in their entirety; would snatch back 
 Narayan Lai from the jaws of death, even in 
 the last hour, if he were truly innocent of guilt. 
 Thus he resolved to make the test such that no 
 human aid could succour him. Divine aid could, 
 if it would; that would be the manifestation 
 of Parameshwar. He would accept then that 
 manifestation. 
 
 Forsooth long afterwards men said that it 
 was tempting fate; that it was demanding a 
 sign from Parameshwar. But as against this, 
 sages had answered that those who had long 
 suffered and had submitted themselves to the 
 Eternal design, had the right to such a sign in 
 the crisis of their life. And this was, indeed, the 
 crisis in the king's own life not merely that of 
 Narayan Lai. 
 
 For if the youth suffered death in this trial 
 the king's own life would be wrecked for ever. 
 He loved his daughter dearly, but not more 
 dearly than he loved honour. The death of the 
 youth would imply the death of the princess 
 265 
 
Brriirt 0f tlj? (Soba 
 
 and his own everlasting despair. Thus indeed 
 was this the crisis in each of three lives, not 
 merely of one. Then when was there a greater 
 right to a sign, if not now? 
 
 By royal proclamation all men were bidden to 
 come to the ancient amphitheatre that lay out- 
 side the city; why, it was not revealed to any; 
 but all guessed that it was to witness Narayan 
 Lai's death or triumph. 
 
 Three hundred cubits north of the city there 
 arose a line of hills, licking the blue sky with a 
 thousand tongues of sal and toon ; between the 
 foot of the hills and the city wall lay the amphi- 
 theatre. 
 
 It was a circular structure, a hundred and 
 fifty cubits across. The outer wall was crum- 
 bling to dust. Well it might. Five-and-twenty 
 centuries ago it had first witnessed the battles 
 of the Ramayana and Mahabharata fought 
 within it with sword and lance, even to the spill- 
 ing of blood ;* and in these latter days had wit- 
 
 1 Some of the episodes from the great national epics of 
 India were once re-enacted with vivid realism. 
 
 266 
 
Srtf? TJerbirt nf tlf? (Soba 
 
 nessed scenes that were less heroic but more sen- 
 sational. 
 
 Within the circular wall arose tier upon tier 
 of raised seats of the purest Nerbudda marble; 
 above them seats of Agra sandstone. The 
 arena, a level sandy space eighty cubits across, 
 lay beneath, surrounded by a stout wall that 
 rose up ten cubits high, even to the base of the 
 lowermost tier. At every dozen paces the wall 
 was pierced for a tunnel, iron-gated at the 
 entrance. Some were four cubits high, some 
 eight. Within the dark caverns that lay beyond 
 the iron bars, timorous men had whispered with 
 bated breath that they had seen crouching forms 
 that had blinked and glared at them with fear- 
 ful eyes. 
 
 On the day of the trial twice ten thousand 
 men came to the amphitheatre, the aristocracy 
 and gentry filling the marble seats, the middle 
 classes finding room upon the sandstone. But 
 of the vulgar multitude twice that number 
 clambered up the hillside opposite, and there sat 
 upon the grass, eating cold chappaties, and 
 267 
 
SFtje Uerfcirt 0f ttyt (Snfca 
 
 laughing and chatting as if they had come to 
 see a fine tamasha, not the death of a living man. 
 They were bidden to come an hour before sun- 
 set ; but the sun was scarce past the zenith when 
 the hillside was a shimmering mass of red and 
 purple, yellow and orange, against the green. 
 Thrice twenty thousand men had come to make 
 a holiday. 
 
 There were strange scenes that day in the 
 city. A ceaseless stream of men filled the streets 
 and by-lanes, all seeking the amphitheatre on 
 the hills. Here and there little groups of men 
 stood by street corners, awaiting the arrival of 
 friends. They spoke in low whispers ; and in 
 their eyes there was a strange gleam, such as in 
 the eyes of those that had suddenly seen light in 
 dark places. 
 
 " Brothers, this morn I was bathing in the 
 sacred Ganges an hour before sunrise " 
 
 " A very meritorious deed ! " sneered a passer- 
 by, pausing awhile to let the sneer rankle. 
 
 " And even as the morning star was pal- 
 ing in the east, I saw " 
 
 268 
 
tje Herfciri af tl?? (gn&a 
 
 " What sawest thou, O Seer? " It was a sud- 
 den laugh from the back; for the little group 
 had now swelled into a throng. 
 
 " A ball of light falling from heaven far 
 
 away on the west," finished the speaker, with a 
 catch in his breath. He was a timorous man, 
 and the terror in his voice matched the terror in 
 his eye. 
 
 There was an instant hush. Signs in the 
 heavens were the most solemn of portents. 
 
 "And then, O brother?" 
 
 " It came swiftly nearer the earth in a line of 
 white light; then when it stood over the royal 
 palace, it suddenly turned blood-red, and burst 
 into ten thousand fragments. Yet, O brothers, 
 I heard no sound!" 
 
 " Ay, but a moment later a gentle shower of 
 rain fell, and blotted out the red sparks from the 
 sky." It was a meek-faced Vishnuvite that gave 
 this hope. 
 
 Then the passer-by that had stopped to sneer, 
 laughed aloud in his superior wisdom. " O 
 foolish brothers ! It was but a shooting-star. It 
 
ly* Uerbiri nf tlje (gafca 
 
 burst, not over the royal palace, but three kos 
 [six miles] beyond, and a full kos from the 
 earth; thus no sound was heard. And the 
 rain came because of the disturbance in the 
 clouds." 
 
 But a snow-bearded oracle that had heard 
 all these things, rebuked him, saying: 
 
 " Thou dost see only with the eye of the body. 
 Canst not read. also with the eye of the soul? 
 Canst not hear the voice of the Deity in the 
 rolling thunder, and read His handwriting in 
 the flashing lightning ? " 
 
 Then amid the hushed silence, a small voice 
 whispered : 
 
 " Read to us this message, O man of wis- 
 dom!" 
 
 "It means that a great wrong will be done 
 this day ; but, like a gentle shower of rain, mercy 
 will come to right the wrong. I have spoken. 
 Peace be with you." 
 
 Saying this, he departed. But even in that 
 moment they had recognised him. For it was 
 he that on the day of the first trial had spoken 
 270 
 
lje BerMrt nf t It r (5 o b 
 
 of a little infant found floating in a wicker 
 basket on the bosom of the Ganges. 
 
 But ere this new hope could take root in their 
 hearts, other men came with omens of woe. 
 
 " Brothers, know you the big tigress in the 
 royal menagerie that has given birth to two 
 cubs? This morn she went mad, and killed and 
 ate her own progeny ; then suddenly realising 
 her deed, she grew madder still, and flung her- 
 self upon the iron bars in the frenzy of de- 
 spair. 
 
 " Yea, brothers," added another, " seeing the 
 people beyond, she tore at the bars with her 
 fangs to get at them. And, methinks, had not 
 the keepers beat her back from the outside with 
 red-hot irons, she had killed herself in her 
 rage." 
 
 Then others, more fanciful or more observant, 
 took up the tale of woe with many embel- 
 lishments. 
 
 "A sweet-voiced woman, singing behind 
 pinjra lattice with the esthraj's dulcet harmony 
 had suddenly hushed her voice, clung to her lord 
 271 
 
SJIfe Uer&irt nf llf? (Snba 
 
 as if stricken with blindness, and lain in his arms 
 cowering with fear. ..." 
 
 " There is sorrow in the palace, O brothers. 
 Thrice the king hath awakened from his sleep 
 with a start, crying out : * Begone, tempter ! ' 
 He seemed to be wrestling with some evil spirit 
 that tormented him." 
 
 And yet another came, and spoke of a pohari 
 woman that had lost her son on his wedding-day, 
 and had herself fallen dead in grief, crying out 
 with her last breath that she would haunt the 
 earth till she found her son at which portent 
 all that heard marvelled; for the soul of a 
 pdhari woman had no love, and was cruel and 
 pitiless even like unto the soul of the tigress 
 that had killed her own progeny. 
 
 " A terrible day ! A day of wrath ! " 
 
 Saying this, the crowd dispersed and went 
 forth to the hillside to make holiday. 
 
 And now all eyes were upon the ivory throne. 
 At the southern diameter of the arena, and 
 facing the hills, was a tall archway, seven cubits 
 
ollje UerMrf of t Ij e (g b a 
 
 wide and twice as high. It was also protected 
 by an iron-barred gate that could be raised or 
 lowered like a portcullis. The archway reached 
 beyond the city wall, even to the adj oining court 
 of the royal palace. 
 
 And above the dome of the gallery, and upon 
 a marble dais, was the ivory throne, inlaid with 
 gold, and incrusted at the arms and head with 
 diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. Over it there 
 floated in the soft breeze a purple canopy of 
 Dacca's loveliest brocade, embroidered with ten 
 thousand stars and moons of alternate gold 
 and silver. 
 
 Seeing this glory and pomp, all there won- 
 dered. Instinctively they felt that there was 
 some hidden purpose in the heart of the king 
 to make this scene linger in their memory for 
 ages to come ; why, they could not guess. 
 
 And the wonder grew all the greater when 
 beside the throne, but a little below it, they 
 caught a glimpse of a low divan beneath a pile 
 of shawls, and upon them a dagger, a goblet, 
 and a silken cord. What they signified none 
 273 
 
could tell; but some, shaking their heads dubi- 
 ously, and shaking the dust off their feet, 
 departed from the amphitheatre, muttering that 
 they approved not of such unbending stern- 
 ness. 
 
 And then the heavy curtains behind the dai's 
 parted, and a tall figure in blue and scarlet 
 stepped forth, and raising a silver trumpet to 
 his lips sent forth a loud blast to the north. 
 From the north the answer came, for suddenly 
 another trumpeter had appeared across the 
 amphitheatre. Then another from the east, and 
 another from the west. 
 
 Whilst yet the echoes were mingling together 
 among the hills, the curtains behind the dais 
 were flung aside, revealing two rows of stalwart 
 men that held their swords aloft to form an arch. 
 Then from beneath it there appeared the king. 
 He was robed in royal kincob, and crowned with 
 a diamond aigrette upon his turban. 
 
 Erect even in age, he walked to the throne 
 with measured tread; then even as he sat upon 
 it, he raised his right hand. 
 274 
 
In almost instant response a dull grating 
 sound was heard. Slowly the iron gate in the 
 archway lifted, and from there came forth two 
 men, with one other between them. They walked 
 to the arena, turned and bowed to the king. 
 Then without a word they led their prisoner to 
 the centre of the arena to a stake driven into 
 the sand. There it had stood unnoticed so long, 
 scarce large enough at that distance to merit 
 attention. Making him face the king, they 
 bound the prisoner to the stake with a stout 
 cord, winding it first around each ankle, then 
 upwards around the knees, the thighs, the waist, 
 the breast, the arms, even up to the neck. Thus 
 they left him, and departed from the arena. 
 
 " Narayan Lai, what is written upon thy 
 brow from thy birth will be fulfilled to the very 
 letter, heaven and earth notwithstanding. If it 
 be death, then let it be death. A brave man 
 should know how to die. Hast thou aught to 
 say? " And there was not a tremor in the voice 
 of the king as he said this. 
 
 But for an answer the prisoner glanced 
 275 
 
SUf? Vtr&irt nf tlje (ga&a 
 
 upwards, and gazed upon the king rather at 
 some vision beyond the throne that he saw in the 
 eye of the mind, not of the body. Yes, what 
 was written upon his brow from his very birth! 
 Was it for this that he was born a traitor's 
 death? Or, to sit upon a throne? 
 
 And then in his inmost heart there arose 
 another yearning. For six long months his eyes 
 had not beheld that vision of beauty which was 
 truly the sole cause, the sole price, of his death. 
 Then in this hour of final dereliction would he be 
 denied its last comfort? Would his glazing 
 eyes, as he yielded up his soul, be denied one 
 glance of pity from her eyes? One little word 
 of love, one single teardrop? 
 
 Then in that hour his manhood forsook him. 
 
 "Justice! Justice, O King! Give me jus- 
 tice ! " It was a shriek of agony that broke 
 from his lips. For a strong man, a brave man, 
 losing his manhood is a terrible thing, and not 
 good to see or hear or dream of. 
 
 But the stern level voice of the king answered 
 him. 
 
 276 
 
"What is written is written. Cry justice to 
 Him that made thee, and not to me." 
 
 Then, whilst yet these words were undried 
 upon his lips, there came a strange softness into 
 his eyes ; and when he spoke again his voice was 
 hoarse and husky. 
 
 " Narayan Lai, to see thee die I desire much ; 
 but to see thee live and triumph I desire more. 
 Pray that Parameshwar save thee." And there 
 was a quiver in his voice that none but Narayan 
 Lai could understand. For in that moment it 
 was the father that spoke, not the king. 
 
 And now a sudden silence fell upon that vast 
 multitude. Twice forty thousand men lost their 
 tongues, and gazed before them like dazed 
 children. 
 
 A heavy, rumbling sound was heard, and a 
 while later a dozen men appeared in the gallery, 
 dragging by a hawser what seemed to be a car 
 resting on four broad wheels, each scarce a 
 foot off the ground. The car was about ten 
 cubits long, six wide, and seven high. What it 
 contained none could tell; for it was covered 
 277 
 
Sff* JUriiri 0f tlje (gn&a 
 
 over with a straw matting. But from the sound 
 it made all guessed that there was much iron 
 about its make; yet not all iron. 
 
 They dragged the car and placed it before 
 Narayan Lai, just two cubits away. Without a 
 word they whipped off its straw covering, and, 
 stepping aside, stood at attention. 
 
 And then there arose a cry of horror from a 
 thousand lips ; a thousand moans of pity 
 were wrung out of a thousand hearts; a thou- 
 sand 
 
 But the cold relentless voice of the king 
 hushed them all. 
 
 " Narayan Lai, thou shalt be placed at the 
 mercy of thy enemy; yet not altogether within 
 its reach. If within the hour, ere the sun goes 
 down, it can reach thee, then thy death will be 
 the just reward of thy guilt. But within the 
 hour Parameshwar may save thee if He so will. 
 I have spoken." 
 
 Verily, Parameshwar alone could save him. 
 For within the iron-barred cage was the self- 
 same tigress that had killed her own progeny, 
 278 
 
and had sought to kill and kill and kill all men. 
 An enormous beast, seven cubits long, such as 
 the jungles yield but once in a generation. 
 
 Without a word the dozen guards stepped up 
 to the cage, six on either side, and placing their 
 hands upon the edges, drew off the iron grat- 
 ings ; for verily the iron bars were but an outer 
 coating. The cage itself was of pliable bam- 
 boo, bound at the joints with Malacca cane. 
 
 It was but a slender hedge that stood between 
 Narayan Lai and his savage foe. 
 
 And now, the dozen guards having departed 
 and lowered the portcullis behind them, the two 
 were left face to face. 
 
 For a moment the tigress hesitated. Accus- 
 tomed to dwell within bars, she had failed to 
 notice any change in their nature ; and the sight 
 of many men passing and repassing before her 
 had been scarce worth attention. 
 
 But gradually it began to dawn upon her that 
 there was now something strange and unwonted 
 before her; for the more savage a beast is, the 
 greater is its curiosity or its suspicion. 
 279 
 
Ij* Her&irt nf iff? <0ba 
 
 She saw a solitary man standing motionless 
 before her cage ; and the cage itself was not 
 like unto her usual dwelling-place. Its walls 
 were of the colour of her own body, and seemed 
 to be like unto things she vaguely remembered 
 she had seen in the jungle in the days of free- 
 dom. 
 
 She rose up, stepped to the front of the cage, 
 stood up on her hind legs, and scrutinised her 
 victim. Suddenly she thrust out her right paw 
 between the bamboo bars. It reached to within 
 a span of Narayan Lai's face, the bars yielding 
 to her efforts. A second thrust, a third, a 
 fourth. The cage creaked and groaned ; the 
 bamboos bent and curved outwards then as 
 quickly sprang back to their original shape. 
 
 Suddenly there was a dull grinding sound. 
 She snapped at a vertical bamboo with her 
 fangs, tore at it, chewed it, tugged it 
 Snap! 
 
 It was a gaping space a foot square. 
 
 Without thought she plunged her head at it. 
 One fierce push her hind legs upon the floor, 
 280 
 
Sly? Uer&trt nf ilj? (g 
 
 her back arched up above them and half the 
 head was out. And then and then 
 
 But the pliable bamboos sprang back in their 
 elasticity. The top end of the broken rod 
 pressed against her head, at the most sensitive 
 part. The bottom end pressed upwards between 
 her chin and throat also an intensely sensitive 
 part. 
 
 Maddened with rage, and somehow seeking to 
 vent it upon the only living creature before her, 
 she strove to thrust out her neck from between 
 the shoulders. An inch, two inches, three inches 
 and the projecting bamboo grazed along 
 three inches of her head. She twisted her neck 
 round, shot out her head recklessly and the 
 jagged end of the lower bamboo bit her throat 
 like a hundred teeth. Her jaws opened wide, 
 and snapped fiercely at the air ; but for the inter- 
 vening span she had crunched her victim's head 
 in that snap. 
 
 And all the while Narayan Lai stood before 
 her, powerless to recede an inch. He felt a 
 spasm at his heart ; something arose in his 
 281 
 
lj? Btrftirt nf tlf? (Safca 
 
 throat, and seemed to shut out the breath of life ; 
 something arose as a mist before his eyes, envel- 
 oping and magnifying the terror they beheld. 
 
 He saw those frightful fangs, those sawing 
 jaws keeping hideous time with the yellow blink- 
 ing eyes; in his dulled ear he heard the sound 
 of creaking bamboo and bursting cane and 
 thought it to be the sound of crunching bones 
 and tearing flesh. His bones, his flesh. 
 
 Inch by inch he saw that cruel face come 
 nearer and nearer. He felt her horrible breath 
 upon his brow, his cheeks, his lips he felt that 
 a while later her enormous jaws would engulf 
 his head in a single bite. Into that moment the 
 agony of a thousand years was encompassed, 
 for he stood powerless to move a single finger 
 to save his life ! Oh, if he were but free to do 
 battle for that life ! Then he would sell his life 
 dearly; would fight with his bare hands where 
 fire and sword might have availed naught. 
 
 And now the sweat of death stood in beads 
 over his brow ; the first shock of terror quaked 
 his limbs and twitched his face. For the bravest 
 282 
 
Ije Uerfciri cf tl?* (Safca 
 
 man might quail to meet such a death, to yield 
 up his life in such impotence. He closed his 
 eyes in that first shock of terror. . . . 
 
 But a moment after something whispered in 
 his ear, and reminded him of the decree of fate ; 
 reminded him that the will of Parameshwar 
 would be done, kings and potentates notwith- 
 standing; reminded him also that twice forty 
 thousand men were gazing upon his dying 
 moments. In that thought his manhood was 
 given back to him. If die he must, he would 
 stare death in the face unmoved. 
 
 He opened his eyes and saw the tigress now 
 half a span before him; from the far distance 
 they seemed to be face upon face like two long- 
 parted lovers kissing each other. To him the 
 kiss would come in but a moment. And in that 
 kiss he would lose, not his heart, but his head; 
 for the tigress would embrace his whole head in 
 that kiss. 
 
 What though he felt the seconds grow into 
 hours, and the minutes into years ? All too soon 
 the embrace would come. Was he awaiting his 
 283 
 
3 lj ? Herfctrt f 1 1} ? < & 
 
 bride? Behold, even now his bride was opening 
 her lips to close upon his own. 
 
 What though he felt the fascination of her 
 eyes, felt their terrible beauty overpower him 
 and engulf his senses in coming torpor? Behold, 
 it was the ecstacy of the bridegroom that felt 
 the sweet breath of his beloved upon his face. 
 
 What though he heard in his swooning ears 
 the sound of creaking, crackling snapping 
 bursting reeds? In that moment he heard the 
 sweet twinkling of jewels upon his bride's arms, 
 and upon her brow and bosom. ... 
 
 And then there arose a cry of agony that 
 thrilled through twice forty thousand hearts. 
 For it came, not from the dying man, but from 
 his judge! His king, his master. 
 
 With tottering feet he stood up before his 
 throne striving to point one trembling hand 
 at something that he saw before him. And then, 
 ere his parched lips could find utterance, all 
 there saw and felt and realised. 
 
 It seemed to be a bundle of white that dropped 
 from the wall into the arena below. It lay still 
 284 
 
a moment as it reached the sand; then casting 
 off the white cloak, it arose and ran swiftly 
 towards the cage a slender form draped in 
 mauve and purple ! It held a small glittering 
 thing above its head. A Dakheen dagger. 
 
 She cut frantically at the cords that bound 
 Narayan Lai and the coils spun round and 
 round, and released him from the stake. 
 
 "Devala!" 
 
 "My love." 
 
 Like a drunken man he reeled aside then 
 grasped the post to steady himself. Verily, it 
 was his bride that had come to him. It was her 
 breath that he felt upon his face his brow, his 
 cheeks, his lips, his heart. It was indeed the 
 tinkle of her jewels that he heard in his ear, and 
 felt their sweet touch upon his bosom. 
 
 " Come, my love come away ! " In that 
 moment it was she that spoke first. Of the two 
 her strength was the greater. 
 
 But he only shook his head, still holding the 
 post. 
 
 "Why, beloved?" 
 
 285 
 
Something laid hands of ice upon her heart. 
 She saw the vacant glassy stare in his eyes 
 and felt a constriction at her heart, staying its 
 beat. Were his senses gone for ever? In that 
 cruel agony had he lost his reason? 
 
 " Because of the beast, my love ! " 
 
 But like a sleepy child he laid his head upon 
 his arm, seeking rest. 
 
 Then she came to his side and entwined her 
 arms around him. She dared not look beside 
 her; for beside her the jaws of the tigress were 
 hungering for their prey. From before the face 
 of death she snatchced away her beloved. 
 
 " Canst walk, my heart ? " She entwined one 
 arm around his waist, and placed his head upon 
 her shoulder with the other. Thus holding him 
 to her, she snatched him from the jaws of 
 death. 
 
 "Where goest, beloved? I am so tired." 
 
 He stopped half-way to the wall, and leaned 
 upon her breast. And what mattered had he 
 reached the wall itself? He could not escape. 
 
 Then sighing helplessly, her own strength 
 286 
 
; 
 
 rr 
 
 SHE CUT FRANTICALLY AT THE CORDS THAT 
 BOUND NARAYAN LAL " 
 
GUje Ber&irt of 1 1) e <g i s 
 
 gave way. Slowly they bent and bent, clinging 
 to each other then suddenly sank upon their 
 knees, upon the sand. She laid his head upon 
 her breast, rocking him there and speaking 
 words that were foolish and senseless. Her eyes 
 glistened but refused to weep. 
 
 She heard a sound that come to her as the 
 sentence of death. It was a roar of pain and 
 rage that suddenly seemed to swell into a roar 
 of triumph. She also heard another sound that 
 arose before her, behind her, all around her a 
 confused sound of eight myriad men that hav- 
 ing lost their tongues had found them in the 
 same moment 
 
 " To the rescue, O brothers ! To the rescue ! " 
 " Ye fools ye cowards come ! " 
 " See ! Half the beast is out of the cage ! " 
 " Art afraid of a beast when a woman dies ? " 
 "Throw him a sword a lance!" 
 " Him, ye fools ? Her. Can ye not see he has 
 swooned?" 
 
 " To the rescue ! To the rescue ! " 
 "Harr! Harr! Mahadeo!" 
 287 
 
2FIf? H ? r & i*r t f 1 1; ? < & a 
 
 "Jo*/ Jflt/ Kali Mai!" 
 
 " To the Princess. To the Princess ! " 
 
 A thousand swords leapt in the air. A thou- 
 sand men rushed to the parapet. A thousand 
 men stood upon it, taking breath to hurl them- 
 selves upon the sand 
 
 " Stay ! Let no man move at the peril of 
 his life!" 
 
 It was a deep hollow voice that checked them 
 all. 
 
 Tall, towering, pale and emaciated, the king 
 stood before the throne. In his eyes there shone 
 a strange unearthly light; his breast heaved 
 with some nameless emotion that struggled 
 within and refused to be stifled. 
 
 "Let this be Tier trial also. It were but a 
 choice of death. Let no man move ! " 
 
 Then a great fear came upon them all ; for in 
 that moment they realised for the first time that 
 indeed the princess also was upon her trial ; that 
 at best it was but a choice of death between the 
 beast and the dagger, the cup, or the silken 
 cord. 
 
 288 
 
1}? lerfciri tlf* <gu&0 
 
 "Let it be the beast if Parar'eshwar so 
 decrees." And sitting down upon the throne 
 the king stared before him, seeing and not 
 seeing; like one that was stricken with sudden 
 blindness. 
 
 And now with a frantic roar and a crash 
 and a snap the tigress cleared the cage. She 
 fell upon the sand to the left of the stake, gazed 
 upon the multitude straight before her, blinked 
 and glared at the setting sun. Conscious only 
 of the sensation of the moment, the first sense 
 that came to her was the sense of liberty. The 
 sight of many men was not altogether new to 
 her ; the sense of liberty was. 
 
 She leaped and gambolled, curving and then 
 straightening out her limbs like steel springs, 
 and throwing off the sand from beneath her 
 velvet paws in a shower around her. She 
 rejoiced in her new-found freedom. She had 
 forgotten her victims. 
 
 Then suddenly she espied them; being 
 towards the side and thirty cubits away, they 
 had escaped her notice so far. But now she saw 
 289 
 
If* Vtrftirt 0f tlfe (Snfca 
 
 them and in a moment her nature changed. A 
 cruel look came into her eyes the look of a wild 
 beast sighting its prey. Her back arched up 
 behind her, and her forepaws met before her. 
 Her tail swung to the right, to the left, then 
 straightened out behind. From that dis- 
 tance she prepared to leap. And then and 
 then 
 
 " Come, my heart, awaken ! The hour is at 
 hand." It was the voice of the maiden calling 
 her beloved. At that supreme moment her 
 strength came back to her. 
 
 What mattered it to her now that her dream 
 was ended? For six long months she too 
 had struggled struggled silently, voicelessly, 
 unseen by men. Her beloved had struggled 
 before a king and a nation. She had fought 
 silently within stone walls. 
 
 And now the end had come; the end of all 
 her hopes, her prayers, her tears. She was no 
 longer a princess ; rather a simple maiden that 
 had loved truly, and for her love was about to 
 die. 
 
 290 
 
fj* Uerbtri of l\\* (Sxiha 
 
 " Beloved, awaken ! Canst not hear me? The 
 beast is upon us!" Her heart went out in 
 that cry. 
 
 And hearing that cry, her beloved awakened. 
 He raised his head from her lap where it had 
 lain in his swoon ; and gazed before him. Then 
 light came back to his soul. Then also his 
 strength was given back to him. . . . 
 
 And now they knelt upon the sand, hand in 
 hand. From that distance they seemed not like 
 a youth and a maiden; rather like two little 
 children that were lost and had none to claim 
 them. They faced the beast, and knelt down 
 side by side, resting upon their heels and bow- 
 ing their heads. 
 
 And never a word escaped their lips. What 
 was in their hearts none could tell ; holding each 
 other by the hand seeing death together face 
 to face seeking to mingle their life-blood 
 together in their dying moment what was in 
 their hearts none could tell. Perchance it was 
 a hymn of joy. What finer death could they 
 have than that? 
 
 Ml 
 
I;e Her&trt nf itf* (Sails 
 
 The tigress leapt. Up, up in the air then 
 down in a fearful curve. With a soft thud she 
 fell upon the sand, and gathered herself up for 
 the last spring. Full half the distance she had 
 spanned in that single leap. 
 
 "Beloved, art afraid of death?" 
 
 "Not with thee, dearest. Let this be my 
 suttee" 
 
 And then the maiden broke down utterly, 
 belying her brave words. She that had held up 
 her courage whilst he lay swooning in her arms, 
 broke into sobs and tears when he had regained 
 his manhood. For now that he was a man, she 
 herself had become a woman. 
 
 " Close thine eyes, beloved ; the tigress 
 leaps ! " And saying this, he calmly arose to 
 place himself before the maiden. 
 
 But she checked him with a hand, seeking to 
 die together, not after him. "It will not be 
 long, dearest. Even now it comes ! . . . " 
 
 And even in that moment a cry of wonder 
 broke from the multitude. 
 
 " Look, O brothers ! The beast is mad ! " 
 
" Has lost her senses." 
 
 " Her strength! " 
 
 For suddenly the tigress had changed her 
 purpose. Relaxing her arched back from its 
 rigid tension, she lurched sideways and came 
 circling round them. 
 
 " She only plays with them like a cat " 
 
 " And will kill them like a mouse." 
 
 " But see again, O brothers. She cannot 
 leap!" 
 
 For stopping suddenly, she crouched before 
 them, lashed her tail from side to side in rising 
 fury then as suddenly swerved round and con- 
 tinued in her course. And all the while the 
 youth and the maiden knelt upon the sand, hand 
 in hand. 
 
 "Ho! The beast is blind! She does not see 
 them!" 
 
 For now the tigress paused before them, not 
 six cubits away, and gazed above their heads. 
 Out in the far distance the sun was sinking upon 
 a bank of cloud in a ball of fire. And the poor 
 mad beast that had killed her own progeny, 
 293 
 
2IIl? Ueriirt nf llf? (6060 
 
 gazed upon the sinking sun and forgot her 
 victims. 
 
 Perchance in that moment some dumb instinct 
 awakened to life within her; some instinct that 
 had long lain dormant ; some instinct finer than 
 the instinct of ferocity and bloodshed. 
 
 Perchance the remembrance came back to her 
 of the days of freedom and happiness in the 
 jungle for even beasts have moments of happi- 
 ness when hungering herself, she had given her 
 breast to her free-born cubs at the hour of sun- 
 set. For verily, gazing upon the setting sun, 
 had she eaten a ball of sand in her hunger 1 
 and had fed her cubs with the milk of her 
 breast. 
 
 Lowering her eyes from the sun, she saw the 
 kneeling forms before her, even at her feet ; saw 
 their bowed heads that now lay together, bent 
 low upon the sand. Then something burst in 
 her mighty heart, and gurgled up through her 
 throat. It was a piteous whine of incontrollable 
 pain and anguish. 
 
 *A popular belief in India. 
 294 
 
lH> Uerfciri nf tlje (Softs 
 
 Then she licked their faces, their hands, their 
 feet, and burrowed in the sand before them, try- 
 ing to lift them to her bosom. 
 
 " See, he has charmed the beast ! " It was an 
 awe-stricken voice from the lowermost tier. 
 
 " No ! She takes them for her cubs." 
 
 " Wrong again. It is the soul of the pahari 
 woman that has entered into the tigress." 
 
 The someone added : " Verily, the soul of the 
 woman that had lost her son on his wedding-day, 
 and having died herself, had sworn to return." 
 
 " And the maiden is his bride." 
 
 Then, seeing this marvel, however it might 
 have been caused, a great stillness fell over them 
 all. They clutched at their beating hearts, and 
 forgot to breathe. 
 
 Hark! What was that? A dull thud, a dis- 
 tant shriek ; the clanging and rattling of chains. 
 The sound came from afar, from somewhere 
 beyond the arena. The dense multitude sat 
 impotent and still, scarce realising its import. 
 
 Suddenly a man, sitting beneath the royal 
 dais, arose from his seat. Ere the multitude 
 295 
 
understood his purpose, he gained the wall and 
 leapt into the arena. Arising from the fall, he 
 ran swiftly forward, drawing his sword as he 
 went. 
 
 " At last I have reached thee ! Die, traitor ! " 
 
 He thrust with his blade but a moment 
 sooner Narayan Lai had leapt to his feet. Lift- 
 ing the maiden in his arms, he sprang to the 
 other side of the reclining tigress. 
 
 Thus the two men faced each other a moment 
 across the beast. Though he recognised his 
 assailant, Narayan Lai knew not why he sought 
 his life, even at the peril of his own. Perchance 
 the assailant's own life was doomed, unless he 
 slew Narayan Lai; thus his purpose was to kill 
 the youth, and take the chance of escaping the 
 tigress and the multitude afterwards. All this 
 passed through Narayan's mind in the instant's 
 flash. 
 
 Hearing the sound of words, the reclining 
 
 tigress gazed up from the sand and saw the 
 
 intruder. Vaguely she seemed to realise that she 
 
 had found her cubs already; and this was not 
 
 296 
 
one of them. She raised herself upon her fore- 
 paws and stretched forth her head 
 
 A confused clamour, a roar of voices, the 
 crash of falling metal. The iron-barred gate 
 beneath the archway came clanging down as if 
 uprooted by some ponderous battering-ram. An 
 ominous snorting, trumpeting, like the blast of 
 a cracked horn and a huge elephant burst into 
 the arena. 
 
 The spell was broken. The multitude that 
 had sat still like dazed children, broke forth in 
 a babel of words. 
 
 " The high executioner ! " 
 
 " The inflicter of death on traitors ! " 
 
 " But see, it is in musth! " 
 
 Then in new terror they saw that the beast 
 had broken loose from its heel-chains; and its 
 mahout was not upon its head. Perhaps his 
 mangled body was lying in yonder courtyard. 
 For a male elephant in musth is worse than a 
 raging tigress. Naught may appease its 
 frenzy, save to kill and kill and kill. 
 
 O Bhugwan, what marvellous sight was this! 
 297 
 
If* lerbtrt 0f t\\* (60ba 
 
 With the instinct of her nature the tigress 
 recognised her hereditary foe of the jungle. 
 Her back arched up on the instant, her limbs 
 became like tense steel. She forgot the human 
 intruder and faced the mad elephant. On her 
 other side were her new-found cubs. 
 
 And at sight of the elephant, the inflicter of 
 death on traitors, a sudden panic seized the 
 intruder's heart. Narayan Lai's assailant fled 
 before the wind, and sought shelter behind the 
 bamboo cage. 
 
 The elephant came hurtling along, digging 
 up the sand with its tusks. Reeling drunkenly, 
 blinking its little red eyes in the sudden glare, it 
 saw nothing; its vengeance was for the sand. 
 Thus it went headlong to the centre of the area 
 and lurched up against the bamboo cage ; the 
 first definite object it had noticed. 
 
 For one brief moment it paused. The little 
 tail switched; the huge trunk curled upwards; 
 the drooping ears flapped up like a pair of wings 
 then in mad frenzy the elephant charged. 
 
 With a groan and a crash the cage went over 
 298 
 
lf? U*r&tri nf itf* <80&a 
 
 bodily. From beneath the falling bamboo the 
 man escaped and fled terror-stricken to the 
 side of the arena the elephant in full chase 
 behind. 
 
 Full half the circumference he ran; then the 
 outstretched trunk, gaining upon him at each 
 stride, caught him up by the middle swung 
 him aloft an instant, then hurled him to the 
 ground. The next instant the huge forepaw 
 reached him half buried him in the sand by the 
 stupendous pressure. A traitor's death! 
 
 The elephant stepped back, gazed down an 
 instant, and grunted in approval of its work. 
 Three strides more, kicking the sand in wanton 
 sport, and the mad beast had come within range 
 of its unnoticed foe. 
 
 An angry growl, a hissing snarl, a terrific 
 roar the tigress hurled herself through the air. 
 With a sudden lurch the elephant recoiled upon 
 its haunches; with the moment's instinct its 
 trunk went up, slashing frantically at the huge 
 yellow form soaring aloft to its head. But the 
 tigress came aslant; the elephant's trunk just 
 299 
 
Sflf? Her btri 0f ilj* (gn&a 
 
 flicked her flank. She passed beyond the head, 
 and fell upon the sand on the other side. More 
 nimble than her unwieldly foe, and turning more 
 quickly, she leapt again at short range and 
 gained the elephant's back, its head. There she 
 fastened her fangs with the grip of death. Her 
 forepaws came down on either side of her jaws, 
 tore at the thick hide, seeking to reach the 
 brain. 
 
 In mad terror the elephant ran, trumpeting 
 shrilly, bearing the tigress upon its head. Thrice 
 round the circumference it careered in its 
 frenzy, its life-blood oozing from the wound in 
 its head. Deeper and deeper sank the tigress's 
 fangs and claws. The mad beast's trumpetings 
 grew feebler and feebler; for its strength, 
 mighty and irresistible a while ago, was now 
 ebbing fast. Its foe had gripped it in its one 
 vital part. 
 
 Suddenly its knees gave way, the trumpeting 
 ceased. Slowly, inch by inch, it began to sink 
 upon the sand. Its huge body shook in a gigan- 
 tic tremor, then came down inch by inch upon 
 300 
 
I;? Berfcirt af ilf* (Soba 
 
 its bended knees. O Parameshwar, verily this 
 was Thy deed, this sight of Thy creation! A 
 mighty fine-tusked elephant, the monarch of the 
 jungle and the lord of the battle-line, dying 
 slowly, drop by drop, in silent majesty before 
 the gaze of twice forty-thousand men struck 
 dumb in speechless wonder ! Verily this was Thy 
 verdict, Thy manifestation, in Thy inscrutable 
 wisdom! . . . 
 
 With the sweat of death upon its brow, the 
 elephant made its last frantic effort. Endowed 
 with an intelligence second only to man's, that 
 intelligence had been obscured in the moment of 
 panic. Now in the moment of death it returned 
 with tenfold clearness. With its last ebbing 
 strength the elephant curled up its trunk, felt 
 softly beneath the tigress's throat with the deli- 
 cacy of a man's finger curled the trunk around 
 the tigress's neck tore her bodily away from 
 its head, held her aloft an instant, brought her 
 down before its bended knees. There the two 
 swayed a moment in the air in the elephant's last 
 spasmodic tremor. Then the trunk touched the 
 201 
 
Slf? Verftirt of tlj? (Softs 
 
 sand, the huge beast bent slowly forward and 
 fell prone upon the arena, upon the tigress. 
 Thus locked in death together the two monarchs 
 of the jungle lay silent and still before the gaze 
 of man. 
 
 But, O Parameshwar, Thy manifestation was 
 not yet over! There still remained the youth 
 and the maiden in the arena. Locked in each 
 other's arms, upon bended knees, they still 
 awaited Thy verdict. What though the youth's 
 last trial was over, his innocence proved? Verily 
 he still awaited Thy fullest proclamation, O 
 Parameshwar! . . . 
 
 Then suddenly amid the hushed silence a deep 
 guttural voice shouted across the amphitheatre : 
 
 " Jail Jail Pertab Sinhji ! " 
 
 The multitude gazed upon one another's 
 faces, and wondered what this could mean. 
 
 " Jail Jail Raj Kumar ke jai! Shout, ye 
 men shout to the heavens ! " 
 
 There, across the amphitheatre, stood a man 
 upon the lowermost tier, leaning against the 
 parapet and pointing a thin fleshless hand at 
 202 
 
Iy* Vtrftirt af ilf? (gnfta 
 
 the youth in the arena. He was robed in a 
 choga of embroidered gold, and wore a turban 
 of the richest silk. But upon his brow there 
 was written still in vermilion the broad trident 
 of Vishnu. Then all knew him to be the pundit, 
 the sage him they had long known as Rama 
 Krishna. Now a pundit no more, but the com- 
 mander of many men. 
 
 " Shout, ye men ! Shout Victory to the 
 Royal Prince ! " 
 
 Then that vast multitude lost their heads 
 and shouted they knew not why. Twice forty 
 thousand men shouted to the mountains, the 
 plains, the fields, the forests, the rivers, the val- 
 leys, even unto the clouds above. 
 
 " Jail Jail Raj Kumar ke jail " 
 
 As one in a dream, the king gazed before him. 
 What cry was this " Jail Jail " To whom 
 did they give that salutation that among mor- 
 tals could only be given to a monarch upon his 
 throne ? 
 
 The cry of the multitude answered him. A 
 hundred men leapt to the arena, and escorted 
 303 
 
lf* Kerfcirt nf tlf* (go&a 
 
 the youth and the maiden to the dais above. 
 There, awaking from his dream, the king placed 
 them upon the divan beside his throne. And 
 placing a bridal veil over the maiden's head, and 
 nine rows of pearls around her neck the self- 
 same necklace that Hira Lai of Benares had 
 given him, to be kept for the maiden's bridal 
 day he joined her hand to that of the youth. 
 
 Then Rama Krishna, standing up before the 
 king, told a wondrous tale: How once a noble 
 queen had placed her new-born infant upon his 
 dead father's throne ; and commanded all to do 
 him homage; but that being vanquished by an 
 upstart usurper who sought the life of the child, 
 she had entrusted him to the sacred Ganges 
 and had made suttee of herself to join her 
 dead husband. 
 
 " But who art thou, O pundit, that thou dost 
 know these things?" 
 
 And Rama Krishna answered the king, " The 
 Dewan (Prime Minister) of the child's dead 
 father. I took up the beggar's gourd, to watch 
 over the life of the child." 
 304 
 
SJlje B*rbirt of tlj? (Softa 
 
 "And the man killed by the elephant, the 
 inflicter of death upon traitors ? " the king asked 
 again. 
 
 Rama Krishna waved his hand, and a dozen 
 men fetched the body from the arena and 
 exposed the face. It was the Jemadar of the 
 Palace ! 
 
 " A double-dyed traitor, a spy in disguise 
 within thy very palace a secret emissary of 
 the upstart usurper. He had risen to power 
 in thy service, being sent by his master to 
 slay the child secretly or lose his own life. 
 But the child escaped him by the decree of 
 Fate. 
 
 "And now, O King," Rama Krishna said 
 again, joining his hands to his brow, and bow- 
 ing his head even to the feet of the youth, " the 
 child has grown to be a man the same that 
 thou hast long known as Narayan Lai." 
 
 And the king proclaimed to the world, " Yea, 
 
 Narayan Lai no more, but Pertab Sinhji for 
 
 ever by the right of his forefathers. And 
 
 henceforth, by the right of my adoption, 
 
 305 
 
SI;? TSerhirt nf ttje <S0&0 
 
 Yuvoraj Kumar Prithiraj " that is, Young 
 King, Royal Prince, Son of Supreme King. 
 
 Then a veiled form came from the back of the 
 divan and knelt at the feet of the Princess 
 Devala. And the princes turned to her father 
 and whispered into his ear. 
 
 The king waved his hand graciously, and 
 Harnam Das, the Captain of the Guards, 
 approached from the other side and knelt at his 
 master's feet. The king joined his hand to 
 Leila's, and the princess took from her bosom 
 a row of diamonds and as a bridal dower clasped 
 it upon that of the maiden who had served her 
 so faithfully whilst the multitude shouted to 
 the heavens anew, and went forth to hold high 
 carouse faf into the night with palace bounty 
 that was showered upon them so lavishly because 
 of the double bridal. 
 
 306 
 
" THUS endeth my tale, O Splendour of the 
 Earth!" the Story-teller concluded, kissing the 
 fringe of the silken sheet. 
 
 And the Great King, raising himself from 
 his pillow, replied, " So also my sickness ; for 
 thy words of wisdom have taught me that a 
 man may be in the grip of death, and may yet 
 escape." 
 
 Then taking the pearls from around his neck, 
 even according to his promise, he placed them 
 himself upon the neck of the Story-teller. 
 
 And to me, his faithful chronicler, he turned 
 and said, " And thou, O truthful recorder of 
 many marvels, go forth into the world, and 
 make known these things unto all men." 
 
 Thus, O best beloved readers, have I unto you. 
 And some day perchance I shall return to the 
 favour of your countenance and tell you many 
 more marvels, O best beloved. Meanwhile, 
 salaam alikhum! peace be with you! 
 307 
 
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