Ayesha
by
H. Rider Haggard

Part 3 out of 7



It was but a little while afterwards that once more we heard the
baying of the death-hounds. Yes, they were heading straight for us,
this time across country. Again the white horse and its rider
appeared, utterly exhausted, both of them, for the poor beast could
scarcely struggle on to the towing-path. As it gained it a great red
hound with a black ear gripped its flank, and at the touch of the
fangs it screamed aloud in terror as only a horse can. The rider
sprang from its back, and, to our horror, ran to the river's edge,
thinking evidently to take refuge in our boat. But before ever he
reached the water the devilish brutes were upon him.

What followed I will not describe, but never shall I forget the scene
of those two heaps of worrying wolves, and of the maniac Khan, who
yelled in his fiendish joy, and cheered on his death-hounds to finish
their red work.



CHAPTER IX

THE COURT OF KALOON

Horrified, sick at heart, we continued our journey. No wonder that the
Khania hated such a mad despot. And this woman was in love with Leo,
and this lunatic Khan, her husband, was a victim to jealousy, which he
avenged after the very unpleasant fashion that we had witnessed. Truly
an agreeable prospect for all of us! Yet, I could not help reflecting,
as an object lesson that horrid scene had its advantages.

Now we reached the place where the river forked at the end of the
island, and disembarked upon a quay. Here a guard of men commanded by
some Household officer, was waiting to receive us. They led us through
a gate in the high wall, for the town was fortified, up a narrow,
stone-paved street which ran between houses apparently of the usual
Central Asian type, and, so far as I could judge by moonlight, with no
pretensions to architectural beauty, and not large in size.

Clearly our arrival was expected and excited interest, for people were
gathered in knots about the street to watch us pass; also at the
windows of the houses and even on their flat roofs. At the top of the
long street was a sort of market place, crossing which, accompanied by
a curious crowd who made remarks about us that we could not
understand, we reached a gate in an inner wall. Here we were
challenged, but at a word from Simbri it opened, and we passed through
to find ourselves in gardens. Following a road or drive, we came to a
large, rambling house or palace, surmounted by high towers and very
solidly built of stone in a heavy, bastard Egyptian style.

Beyond its doorway we found ourselves in a courtyard surrounded by a
kind of verandah from which short passages led to different rooms.
Down one of these passages we were conducted by the officer to an
apartment, or rather a suite, consisting of a sitting and two bed-
chambers, which were panelled, richly furnished in rather barbaric
fashion, and well-lighted with primitive oil lamps.

Here Simbri left us, saying that the officer would wait in the outer
room to conduct us to the dining-hall as soon as we were ready. Then
we entered the bed-chambers, where we found servants, or slaves,
quiet-mannered, obsequious men. These valets changed our foot-gear,
and taking off our heavy travelling robes, replaced them with others
fashioned like civilized frock-coats, but made of some white material
and trimmed with a beautiful ermine fur.

Having dressed us in these they bowed to show that our toilette was
finished, and led us to the large outer room where the officer awaited
us. He conducted us through several other rooms, all of them spacious
and apparently unoccupied, to a great hall lit with many lamps and
warmed--for the nights were still cold--with large peat fires. The
roof of this hall was flat and supported by thick, stone columns with
carved capitals, and its walls were hung with worked tapestries, that
gave it an air of considerable comfort.

At the head of the hall on a dais stood a long, narrow table, spread
with a cloth and set with platters and cups of silver. Here we waited
till butlers with wands appeared through some curtains which they
drew. Then came a man beating a silver gong, and after him a dozen or
more courtiers, all dressed in white robes like ourselves, followed by
perhaps as many ladies, some of them young and good-looking, and for
the most part of a fair type, with well-cut features, though others
were rather yellow-skinned. They bowed to us and we to them.

Then there was a pause while we studied one another, till a trumpet
blew and heralded by footmen in a kind of yellow livery, two figures
were seen advancing down the passage beyond the curtains, preceded by
the Shaman Simbri and followed by other officers. They were the Khan
and the Khania of Kaloon.

No one looking at this Khan as he entered his dining-hall clad in
festal white attire would have imagined him to be the same raving
human brute whom we had just seen urging on his devilish hounds to
tear a fellow-creature and a helpless horse to fragments and devour
them. Now he seemed a heavy, loutish man, very strongly built and not
ill-looking, but with shifty eyes, evidently a person of dulled
intellect, whom one would have thought incapable of keen emotions of
any kind. The Khania need not be described. She was as she had been in
the chambers of the Gate, only more weary looking; indeed her eyes had
a haunted air and it was easy to see that the events of the previous
night had left their mark upon her mind. At the sight of us she
flushed a little, then beckoned to us to advance, and said to her
husband--

"My lord, these are the strangers of whom I have told you."

His dull eyes fell upon me first, and my appearance seemed to amuse
him vaguely, at any rate he laughed rudely, saying in barbarous Greek
mixed with words from the local patois--

"What a curious old animal! I have never seen you before, have I?"

"No, great Khan," I answered, "but I have seen you out hunting this
night. Did you have good sport?"

Instantly he became wide awake, and answered, rubbing his hands--

"Excellent. He gave us a fine run, but my little dogs caught him at
last, and then----" and he snapped his powerful jaws together.

"Cease your brutal talk," broke in his wife fiercely, and he slunk
away from her and in so doing stumbled against Leo, who was waiting to
be presented to him.

The sight of this great, golden-bearded man seemed to astonish him,
for he stared at him, then asked--

"Are you the Khania's other friend whom she went to see in the
mountains of the Gate? Then I could not understand why she took so
much trouble, but now I do. Well, be careful, or I shall have to hunt
you also."

Now Leo grew angry and was about to reply, but I laid my hand upon his
arm and said in English--

"Don't answer; the man is mad."

"Bad, you mean," grumbled Leo; "and if he tries to set his cursed dogs
on me, I will break his neck."

Then the Khania motioned to Leo to take a seat beside her, placing me
upon her other hand, between herself and her uncle, the Guardian,
while the Khan shuffled to a chair a little way down the table, where
he called two of the prettiest ladies to keep him company.

Such was our introduction to the court of Kaloon. As for the meal that
followed, it was very plentiful, but coarse, consisting for the most
part of fish, mutton, and sweetmeats, all of them presented upon huge
silver platters. Also much strong drink was served, a kind of spirit
distilled from grain, of which nearly all present drank more than was
good for them. After a few words to me about our journey, the Khania
turned to Leo and talked to him for the rest of the evening, while I
devoted myself to the old Shaman Simbri.

Put briefly, the substance of what I learned from him then and
afterwards was as follows--

Trade was unknown to the people of Kaloon, for the reason that all
communication with the south had been cut off for ages, the bridges
that once existed over the chasm having been allowed to rot away.
Their land, which was very large and densely inhabited, was ringed
round with unclimbable mountains, except to the north, where stood the
great Fire-peak. The slopes of this Peak and an unvisited expanse of
country behind that ran up to the confines of a desert, were the home
of ferocious mountain tribes, untamable Highlanders, who killed every
stranger they caught. Consequently, although the precious and other
metals were mined to a certain extent and manufactured into articles
of use and ornament, money did not exist among the peoples either of
the Plain or of the Mountain, all business being transacted on the
principle of barter, and even the revenue collected in kind.

Amongst the tens of thousands of the aborigines of Kaloon dwelt a mere
handful of a ruling class, who were said to be--and probably were--
descended from the conquerors that appeared in the time of Alexander.
Their blood, however, was now much mixed with that of the first
inhabitants, who, to judge from their appearance and the yellow hue of
their descendants must have belonged to some branch of the great
Tartar race. The government, if so it could be called, was, on the
whole, of a mild though of a very despotic nature, and vested in an
hereditary Khan or Khania, according as a man or a woman might be in
the most direct descent.

Of religions there were two, that of the people, who worshipped the
Spirit of the Fire Mountain, and that of the rulers, who believed in
magic, ghosts and divinations. Even this shadow of a religion, if so
it can be called, was dying out, like its followers, for generation by
generation, the white lords grew less in number or became absorbed in
the bulk of the people.

Still their rule was tolerated. I asked Simbri why, seeing that they
were so few. He shrugged his shoulders and answered, because it suited
the country of which the natives had no ambition. Moreover, the
present Khania, our hostess, was the last of the direct line of
rulers, her husband and cousin having less of the blood royal in his
veins, and as such the people were attached to her.

Also, as is commonly the case with bold and beautiful women, she was
popular among them, especially as she was just and very liberal to the
poor. These were many, as the country was over-populated, which
accounted for its wonderful state of cultivation. Lastly they trusted
to her skill and courage to defend them from the continual attacks of
the Mountain tribes who raided their crops and herds. Their one
grievance against her was that she had no child to whom the khanship
could descend, which meant that after her death, as had happened after
that of her father, there would be struggles for the succession.

"Indeed," added Simbri, with meaning, and glancing at Leo, out of the
corners of his eyes, "the folk say openly that it would be a good
thing if the Khan, who oppresses them and whom they hate, should die,
so that the Khania might take another husband while she is still
young. Although he is mad, he knows this, and that is why he is so
jealous of any lord who looks at her, as, friend Holly, you saw
to-night. For should such an one gain her favour, Rassen thinks that
it would mean his death."

"Also he may be attached to his wife," I suggested, speaking in a
whisper.

"Perhaps so," answered Simbri; "but if so, she loves not him, nor any
of these men," and he glanced round the hall.

Certainly they did not look lovable, for by this time most of them
were half drunk, while even the women seemed to have taken as much as
was good for them. The Khan himself presented a sorry spectacle, for
he was leaning back in his chair, shouting something about his
hunting, in a thick voice. The arm of one of his pretty companions was
round his neck, while the other gave him to drink from a gold cup;
some of the contents of which had been spilt down his white robe.

Just then Atene looked round and saw him and an expression of hatred
and contempt gathered on her beautiful face.

"See," I heard her say to Leo, "see the companion of my days, and
learn what it is to be Khania of Kaloon."

"Then why do you not cleanse your court?" he asked.

"Because, lord, if I did so there would be no court left. Swine will
to their mire and these men and women, who live in idleness upon the
toil of the humble folk, will to their liquor and vile luxury. Well,
the end is near, for it is killing them, and their children are but
few; weakly also, for the ancient blood grows thin and stale. But you
are weary and would rest. To-morrow we will ride together," and
calling to an officer, she bade him conduct us to our rooms.

So we rose, and, accompanied by Simbri, bowed to her and went, she
standing and gazing after us, a royal and pathetic figure in the midst
of all that dissolute revelry. The Khan rose also, and in his cunning
fashion understood something of the meaning of it all.

"You think us gay," he shouted; "and why should we not be who do not
know how long we have to live? But you yellow-haired fellow, you must
not let Atene look at you like that. I tell you she is my wife, and if
you do, I shall certainly have to hunt you."

At this drunken sally the courtiers roared with laughter, but taking
Leo by the arm Simbri hurried him from the hall.

"Friend," said Leo, when we were outside, "it seems to me that this
Khan of yours threatens my life."

"Have no fear, lord," answered the Guardian; "so long as the Khania
does not threaten it you are safe. She is the real ruler of this land,
and I stand next to her."

"Then I pray you," said Leo, "keep me out of the way of that drunken
man, for, look you, if I am attacked /I/ defend myself."

"And who can blame you?" Simbri replied with one of his slow,
mysterious smiles.

Then we parted, and having placed both our beds in one chamber, slept
soundly enough, for we were very tired, till we were awakened in the
morning by the baying of those horrible death-hounds, being fed, I
suppose, in a place nearby.

Now in this city of Kaloon it was our weary destiny to dwell for three
long months, one of the most hateful times, perhaps, that we ever
passed in all our lives. Indeed, compared to it our endless wanderings
amid the Central Asia snows and deserts were but pleasure pilgrimages,
and our stay at the monastery beyond the mountains a sojourn in
Paradise. To set out its record in full would be both tedious and
useless, so I will only tell briefly of our principal adventures.

On the morrow of our arrival the Khania Atene sent us two beautiful
white horses of pure and ancient blood, and at noon we mounted them
and went out to ride with her accompanied by a guard of soldiers.
First she led us to the kennels where the death-hounds were kept,
great flagged courts surrounded by iron bars, in which were narrow,
locked gates. Never had I seen brutes so large and fierce; the
mastiffs of Thibet were but as lap-dogs compared to them. They were
red and black, smooth-coated and with a blood-hound head, and the
moment they saw us they came ravening and leaping at the bars as an
angry wave leaps against a rock.

These hounds were in the charge of men of certain families, who had
tended them for generations. They obeyed their keepers and the Khan
readily enough, but no stranger might venture near them. Also these
brutes were the executioners of the land, for to them all murderers
and other criminals were thrown, and with them, as we had seen, the
Khan hunted any who had incurred his displeasure. Moreover, they were
used for a more innocent purpose, the chasing of certain great bucks
which were preserved in woods and swamps of reeds. Thus it came about
that they were a terror to the country, since no man knew but what in
the end he might be devoured by them. "Going to the dogs" is a term
full of meaning in any land, but in Kaloon it had a significance that
was terrible.

After we had looked at the hounds, not without a prophetic shudder, we
rode round the walls of the town, which were laid out as a kind of
boulevard, where the inhabitants walked and took their pleasure in the
evenings. On these, however, there was not much to see except the
river beneath and the plain beyond, moreover, though they were thick
and high there were places in them that must be passed carefully, for,
like everything else with which the effete ruling class had to do,
they had been allowed to fall into disrepair.

The town itself was an uninteresting place also, for the most part
peopled by hangers-on of the Court. So we were not sorry when we
crossed the river by a high-pitched bridge, where in days to come I
was destined to behold one of the strangest sights ever seen by mortal
man, and rode out into the country. Here all was different, for we
found ourselves among the husbandmen, who were the descendants of the
original owners of the land and lived upon its produce. Every
available inch of soil seemed to be cultivated by the aid of a
wonderful system of irrigation. Indeed water was lifted to levels
where it would not flow naturally, by means of wheels turned with
mules, or even in some places carried up by the women, who bore poles
on their shoulders to which were balanced buckets.

Leo asked the Khania what happened if there was a bad season. She
replied grimly that famine happened, in which thousands of people
perished, and that after the famine came pestilence. These famines
were periodical, and were it not for them, she added, the people would
long ago have been driven to kill each other like hungry rats, since
having no outlet and increasing so rapidly, the land, large as it was,
could not hold them all.

"Will this be a good year?" I asked.

"It is feared not," she answered, "for the river has not risen well
and but few rains have fallen. Also the light that shone last night on
the Fire-mountain is thought a bad omen, which means, they say, that
the Spirit of the Mountain is angry and that drought will follow. Let
us hope they will not say also that this is because strangers have
visited the land, bringing with them bad luck."

"If so," said Leo with a laugh, "we shall have to fly to the Mountain
to take refuge there."

"Do you then wish to take refuge in death?" she asked darkly. "Of this
be sure, my guests, that never while I live shall you be allowed to
cross the river which borders the slopes of yonder peak."

"Why not, Khania?"

"Because, my lord Leo--that is your name, is it not?--such is my will,
and while I rule here my will is law. Come, let us turn homewards."

That night we did not eat in the great hall, but in the room which
adjoined our bed-chambers. We were not left alone, however, for the
Khania and her uncle, the Shaman, who always attended her, joined our
meal. When we greeted them wondering, she said briefly that it was
arranged thus because she refused to expose us to more insults. She
added that a festival had begun which would last for a week, and that
she did not wish us to see how vile were the ways of her people.

That evening and many others which followed it--we never dined in the
central hall again--passed pleasantly enough, for the Khania made Leo
tell her of England where he was born, and of the lands that he had
visited, their peoples and customs. I spoke also of the history of
Alexander, whose general Rassen, her far-off forefather, conquered the
country of Kaloon, and of the land of Egypt, whence the latter came,
and so it went on till midnight, while Atene listened to us greedily,
her eyes fixed always on Leo's face.

Many such nights did we spend thus in the palace of the city of Kaloon
where, in fact, we were close prisoners. But oh! the days hung heavy
on our hands. If we went into the courtyard or reception rooms of the
palace, the lords and their followers gathered round us and pestered
us with questions, for, being very idle, they were also very curious.

Also the women, some of whom were fair enough, began to talk to us on
this pretext or on that, and did their best to make love to Leo; for,
in contrast with their slim, delicate-looking men, they found this
deep-chested, yellow-haired stranger to their taste. Indeed they
troubled him much with gifts of flowers and messages sent by servants
or soldiers, making assignations with him, which of course he did not
keep.

If we went out into the streets, matters were as bad, for then the
people ceased from their business, such as it was, and followed us
about, staring at us till we took refuge again in the palace gardens.

There remained, therefore, only our rides in the country with the
Khania, but after three or four of them, these came to an end owing to
the jealousy of the Khan, who vowed that if we went out together any
more he would follow with the death-hounds. So we must ride alone, if
at all, in the centre of a large guard of soldiers sent to see that we
did not attempt to escape, and accompanied very often by a mob of
peasants, who with threats and entreaties demanded that we should give
back the rain which they said we had taken from them. For now the
great drought had begun in earnest.

Thus it came about that at length our only resource was making
pretence to fish in the river, where the water was so clear and low
that we could catch nothing, watching the while the Fire-mountain,
that loomed in the distance mysterious and unreachable, and vainly
racking our brains for plans to escape thither, or at least to
communicate with its priestess, of whom we could learn no more.

For two great burdens lay upon our souls. The burden of desire to
continue our search and to meet with its reward which we were sure
that we should pluck amid the snows of yonder peak, if we could but
come there; and the burden of approaching catastrophe at the hands of
the Khania Atene. She had made no love to Leo since that night in the
Gateway, and, indeed, even if she had wished to, this would have been
difficult, since I took care that he was never left for one hour
alone. No duenna could have clung to a Spanish princess more closely
than I did to Leo. Yet I could see well that her passion was no whit
abated; that it grew day by day, indeed, as the fire swells in the
heart of a volcano, and that soon it must break loose and spread its
ruin round. The omen of it was to be read in her words, her gestures,
and her tragic eyes.



CHAPTER X

IN THE SHAMAN'S CHAMBER

One night Simbri asked us to dine with him in his own apartments in
the highest tower of the palace--had we but known it, for us a fateful
place indeed, for here the last act of the mighty drama was destined
to be fulfilled. So we went, glad enough of any change. When we had
eaten Leo grew very thoughtful, then said suddenly--

"Friend Simbri, I wish to ask a favour of you--that you will beg the
Khania to let us go our ways."

Instantly the Shaman's cunning old face became like a mask of ivory.

"Surely you had better ask your favours of the lady herself, lord; I
do not think that any in reason will be refused to you," he replied.

"Let us stop fencing," said Leo, "and consider the facts. It has
seemed to me that the Khania Atene is not happy with her husband."

"Your eyes are very keen, lord, and who shall say that they have
deceived you?"

"It has seemed, further," went on Leo, reddening, "that she has been
so good as to look on me with--some undeserved regard."

"Ah! perhaps you guessed that in the Gate-house yonder, if you have
not forgotten what most men would remember."

"I remember certain things, Simbri, that have to do with her and you."

The Shaman only stroked his beard and said: "Proceed!"

"There is little to add, Simbri, except that /I/ am not minded to
bring scandal on the name of the first lady in your land."

"Nobly said, lord, nobly said, though here they do not trouble much
about such things. But how if the matter could be managed without
scandal? If, for instance, the Khania chose to take another husband
the whole land would rejoice, for she is the last of her royal race."

"How can she take another husband when she has one living?"

"True; indeed that is a question which I have considered, but the
answer to it is that men die. It is the common lot, and the Khan has
been drinking very heavily of late."

"You mean that men can be murdered," said Leo angrily. "Well, I will
have nothing to do with such a crime. Do you understand me?"

As the words passed his lips I heard a rustle and turned my head.
Behind us were curtains beyond which the Shaman slept, kept his
instruments of divination and worked out his horoscopes. Now they had
been drawn, and between them, in her royal array, stood the Khania
still as a statue.

"Who was it that spoke of crime?" she asked in a cold voice. "Was it
you, my lord Leo?"

Rising from his chair, he faced her and said--

"Lady, I am glad that you have heard my words, even if they should vex
you."

"Why should it vex me to learn that there is one honest man in this
court who will have naught to do with murder? Nay, I honour you for
those words. Know also that no such foul thoughts have come near to
me. Yet, Leo Vincey, that which is written--is written."

"Doubtless, Khania; but what is written?"

"Tell him, Shaman."

Now Simbri passed behind the curtain and returned thence with a roll
from which he read: "The heavens have declared by their signs
infallible that before the next new moon, the Khan Rassen will lie
dead at the hands of the stranger lord who came to this country from
across the mountains."

"Then the heavens have declared a lie," said Leo contemptuously.

"That is as you will," answered Atene; "but so it must befall, not by
my hand or those of my servants, but by yours. And then?"

"Why by mine? Why not by Holly's? Yet, if so, then doubtless I shall
suffer the punishment of my crime at the hands of his mourning widow,"
he replied exasperated.

"You are pleased to mock me, Leo Vincey, well knowing what a husband
this man is to me."

Now I felt that the crisis had come, and so did Leo, for he looked her
in the face and said--

"Speak on, lady, say all you wish; perhaps it will be better for us
both."

"I obey you, lord. Of the beginning of this fate I know nothing, but I
read from the first page that is open to me. It has to do with this
present life of mine. Learn, Leo Vincey, that from my childhood
onwards you have haunted me. Oh! when first I saw you yonder by the
river, your face was not strange to me, for I knew it--I knew it well
in dreams. When I was a little maid and slept one day amidst the
flowers by the river's brim, it came first to me--ask my uncle here if
this be not so, though it is true that your face was younger then.
Afterwards again and again I saw it in my sleep and learned to know
that you were mine, for the magic of my heart taught me this.

"Then passed the long years while I felt that you were drawing near to
me, slowly, very slowly, but ever drawing nearer, wending onward and
outward through the peoples of the world; across the hills, across the
plains, across the sands, across the snows, on to my side. At length
came the end, for one night not three moons ago, whilst this wise man,
my uncle, and I sat together here studying the lore that he has taught
me and striving to wring its secrets from the past, a vision came to
me.

"Look you, I was lost in a charmed sleep which looses the spirit from
the body and gives it strength to stray afar and to see those things
that have been and that are yet to be. Then I saw you and your
companion clinging to a point of broken ice, over the river of the
gulf. I do not lie; it is written here upon the scroll. Yes, it was
you, the man of my dreams, and no other, and we knew the place and
hurried thither and waited by the water, thinking that perhaps beneath
it you lay dead.

"Then, while we waited, lo! two tiny figures appeared far above upon
the icy tongue that no man may climb, and oh! you know the rest.
Spellbound we stood and saw you slip and hang, saw you sever the thin
cord and rush downwards, yes, and saw that brave man, Holly, leap
headlong after you.

"But mine was the hand that drew you from the torrent, where otherwise
you must have drowned, you the love of the long past and of to-day,
aye, and of all time. Yes, you and no other, Leo Vincey. It was this
spirit that foresaw your danger and this hand which delivered you from
death, and--and would you refuse them now--when I, the Khania of
Kaloon, proffer them to you?"

So she spoke, and leaned upon the table, looking up into his face with
lips that trembled and with appealing eyes.

"Lady," said Leo, "you saved me, and again I thank you, though perhaps
it would have been better if you had let me drown. But, forgive me the
question, if all this tale be true, why did you marry another man?"

Now she shrank back as though a knife had pricked her.

"Oh! blame me not," she moaned, "it was but policy which bound me to
this madman, whom I ever loathed. They urged me to it; yes, even you,
Simbri, my uncle, and for that deed accursed be your head--urged me,
saying that it was necessary to end the war between Rassen's faction
and my own. That I was the last of the true race, moreover, which must
be carried on; saying also that my dreams and my rememberings were but
sick phantasies. So, alas! alas! I yielded, thinking to make my people
great."

"And yourself, the greatest of them, if all I hear is true," commented
Leo bluntly, for he was determined to end this thing. "Well, I do not
blame you, Khania, although now you tell me that I must cut a knot you
tied by taking the life of this husband of your own choice, for so
forsooth it is decreed by fate, that fate which /you/ have shaped.
Yes, I must do what you will not do, and kill him. Also your tale of
the decree of the heavens and of that vision which led you to the
precipice to save us is false. Lady, you met me by the river because
the 'mighty' Hesea, the Spirit of the Mountain, so commanded you."

"How know you that?" Atene said, springing up and facing him, while
the jaw of old Simbri dropped and the eyelids blinked over his glazed
eyes.

"In the same way that I know much else. Lady, it would have been
better if you had spoken all the truth."

Now Atene's face went ashen and her cheeks sank in.

"Who told you?" she whispered. "Was it you, Magician?" and she turned
upon her uncle like a snake about to strike. "Oh! if so, be sure that
I shall learn it, and though we are of one blood and have loved each
other, I will pay you back in agony."

"Atene, Atene," Simbri broke in, holding up his claw-like hands, "you
know well it was not I."

"Then it was you, you ape-faced wanderer, you messenger of the evil
gods? Oh! why did I not kill you at the first? Well, that fault can be
remedied."

"Lady," I said blandly, "am I also a magician?"

"Aye," she answered, "I think that you are, and that you have a
mistress who dwells in fire."

"Then, Khania," I said, "such servants and such mistresses are ill to
meddle with. Say, what answer has the Hesea sent to your report of our
coming to this land?"

"Listen," broke in Leo before she could reply. "I go to ask a certain
question of the Oracle on yonder mountain peak. With your will or
without it I tell you that I go, and afterwards you can settle which
is the stronger--the Khania of Kaloon or the Hesea of the House of
Fire."

Atene listened and for a while stood silent, perhaps because she had
no answer. Then she said with a little laugh--

"Is that your will? Well, I think that yonder are none whom you would
wish to wed. There is fire and to spare, but no lovely, shameless
spirit haunts it to drive men mad with evil longings;" and as though
at some secret thought, a spasm of pain crossed her face and caught
her breath. Then she went on in the same cold voice--

"Wanderers, this land has its secrets, into which no foreigner must
pry. I say to you yet again that while I live you set no foot upon
that Mountain. Know also, Leo Vincey, I have bared my heart to you,
and I have been told in answer that this long quest of yours is not
for me, as I was sure in my folly, but, as I think, for some demon
wearing the shape of woman, whom you will never find. Now I make no
prayer to you; it is not fitting, but you have learned too much.

"Therefore, consider well to-night and before next sundown answer.
Having offered, I do not go back, and tomorrow you shall tell me
whether you will take me when the time comes, as come it must, and
rule this land and be great and happy in my love, or whether, you and
your familiar together, you will--die. Choose then between the
vengeance of Atene and her love, since I am not minded to be mocked in
my own land as a wanton who sought a stranger and was--refused."

Slowly, slowly, in an intense whisper she spoke the words, that fell
one by one from her lips like drops of blood from a death wound, and
there followed silence. Never shall I forget the scene. There the old
wizard watched us through his horny eyes, that blinked like those of
some night bird. There stood the imperial woman in her royal robes,
with icy rage written on her face and vengeance in her glance. There,
facing her, was the great form of Leo, quiet, alert, determined,
holding back his doubts and fears with the iron hand of will. And
there to the right was /I/, noting all things and wondering how long
I, "the familiar," who had earned Atene's hate, would be left alive
upon the earth.

Thus we stood, watching each other, till suddenly I noted that the
flame of the lamp above us flickered and felt a draught strike upon my
face. Then I looked round, and became aware of another presence. For
yonder in the shadow showed the tall form of a man. See! it shambled
forward silently, and I saw that its feet were naked. Now it reached
the ring of the lamplight and burst into a savage laugh.

It was the Khan.

Atene, his wife, looked up and saw him, and never did I admire that
passionate woman's boldness more, who admired little else about her
save her beauty, for her face showed neither anger nor fear, but
contempt only. And yet she had some cause to be afraid, as she well
knew.

"What do you here, Rassen?" she asked, "creeping on me with your naked
feet? Get you back to your drink and the ladies of your court."

But he still laughed on, an hyena laugh.

"What have you heard?" she said, "that makes you so merry?"

"What have I heard?" Rassen gurgled out between his screams of hideous
glee. "Oho! I have heard the Khania, the last of the true blood, the
first in the land, the proud princess who will not let her robes be
soiled by those of the 'ladies of the court' and my wife, my wife, who
asked me to marry her--mark that, you strangers--because I was her
cousin and a rival ruler, and the richest lord in all the land, and
thereby she thought she would increase her power--I have heard her
offer herself to a nameless wanderer with a great yellow beard, and I
have heard him, who hates and would escape from her"--here he screamed
with laughter--"refuse her in such a fashion as I would not refuse the
lowest woman in the palace.

"I have heard also--but that I always knew--that I am mad; for,
strangers, I was made mad by a hate-philtre which that old Rat," and
he pointed to Simbri, "gave me in my drink--yes, at my marriage feast.
It worked well, for truly there is no one whom I hate more than the
Khania Atene. Why, I cannot bear her touch, it makes me sick. I loathe
to be in the same room with her; she taints the air; there is a smell
of sorceries about her.

"It seems that it takes you thus also, Yellow-beard? Well, if so, ask
the old Rat for a love drink; he can mix it, and then you will think
her sweet and sound and fair, and spend some few months jollily
enough. Man, don't be a fool, the cup that is thrust into your hands
looks goodly. Drink, drink deep. You'll never guess the liquor's bad--
till to-morrow--though it be mixed with a husband's poisoned blood,"
and again Rassen screamed in his unholy mirth.

To all these bitter insults, venomed with the sting of truth, Atene
listened without a word. Then, she turned to us and bowed.

"My guests," she said, "I pray you pardon me for all I cannot help.
You have strayed to a corrupt and evil land, and there stands its
crown and flower. Khan Rassen, your doom is written, and I do not
hasten it, because once for a little while we were near to each other,
though you have been naught to me for this many a year save a snake
that haunts my house. Were it otherwise, the next cup you drank should
still your madness, and that vile tongue of yours which gives its
venom voice. My uncle, come with me. Your hand, for I grow weak with
shame and woe."

The old Shaman hobbled forward, but when he came face to face with the
Khan he stopped and looked him up and down with his dim eyes. Then he
said--

"Rassen, I saw you born, the son of an evil woman, and your father
none knew but I. The flame flared that night upon the Fire-mountain,
and the stars hid their faces, for none of them would own you, no, not
even those of the most evil influence. I saw you wed and rise drunken
from your marriage feast, your arm about a wanton's neck. I have seen
you rule, wasting the land for your cruel pleasure, turning the
fertile fields into great parks for your game, leaving those who
tilled them to starve upon the road or drown themselves in ditches for
very misery. And soon, soon I shall see you die in pain and blood, and
then the chain will fall from the neck of this noble lady whom you
revile, and another more worthy shall take your place and rear up
children to fill your throne, and the land shall have rest again."

Now I listened to these words--and none who did not hear them can
guess the fearful bitterness with which they were spoken--expecting
every moment that the Khan would draw the short sword at his side and
cut the old man down. But he did not; he cowered before him like a dog
before some savage master, the weight of whose whip he knows. Yes,
answering nothing, he shrank into the corner and cowered there, while
Simbri, taking Atene by the hand, went from the room. At its massive,
iron-bound door he turned and pointing to the crouching figure with
his staff, said--

"Khan Rassen, I raised you up, and now I cast you down. Remember me
when you lie dying--in blood and pain."

Their footsteps died away, and the Khan crept from his corner, looking
about him furtively.

"Have that Rat and the other gone?" he asked of us, wiping his damp
brow with his sleeve; and I saw that fear had sobered him and that for
awhile the madness had left his eyes.

I answered that they had gone.

"You think me a coward," he went on passionately, "and it is true, I
am afraid of him and her--as you, Yellow-beard, will be afraid when
your turn comes. I tell you that they sapped my strength and crazed me
with their drugged drink, making me the thing I am, for who can war
against their wizardries? Look you now. Once I was a prince, the lord
of half this land, noble of form and upright of heart, and I loved her
accursed beauty as all must love it on whom she turns her eyes. And
she turned them on me, she sought /me/ in marriage; it was that old
Rat who bore her message.

"So I stayed the great war and married the Khania and became the Khan;
but better had it been for me if I had crept into her kitchen as a
scullion, than into her chamber as a husband. For from the first she
hated me, and the more I loved, the more she hated, till at our
wedding feast she doctored me with that poison which made me loathe
her, and thus divorced us; which made me mad also, eating into my
brain like fire."

"If she hated you so sorely, Khan," I asked, "why did she not mix a
stronger draught and have done with you?"

"Why? Because of policy, for I ruled half the land. Because it suited
her also that I should live on, a thing to mock at, since while I was
alive no other husband could be forced upon her by the people. For she
is not a woman, she is a witch, who desires to live alone, or so I
thought until to-night"--and he glowered at Leo.

"She knew also that although I must shrink from her, I still love her
in my heart, and can still be jealous, and therefore that I should
protect her from all men. It was she who set me on that lord whom my
dogs tore awhile ago, because he was powerful and sought her favour
and would not be denied. But now," and again he glowered at Leo, "now
I know why she has always seemed so cold. It is because there lived a
man to melt whose ice she husbanded her fire."

Then Leo, who all this while had stood silent, stepped forward.

"Listen, Khan," he said. "Did the ice seem like melting a little while
ago?"

"No--unless you lied. But that was only because the fire is not yet
hot enough. Wait awhile until it burns up, and melt you must, for who
can match his will against Atene?"

"And what if the ice desires to flee the fire? Khan, they said that I
should kill you, but I do not seek your blood. You think that I would
rob you of your wife, yet I have no such thought towards her. We
desire to escape this town of yours, but cannot, because its gates are
locked, and we are prisoners, guarded night and day. Hear me, then.
You have the power to set us free and to be rid of us."

The Khan looked at him cunningly. "And if I set you free, whither
would you go? You could tumble down yonder gorge, but only the birds
can climb its heights."

"To the Fire-mountain, where we have business."

Rassen stared at him.

"Is it I who am mad, or are you, who wish to visit the Fire-mountain?
Yet that is nothing to me, save that I do not believe you. But if so
you might return again and bring others with you. Perchance, having
its lady, you wish this land also by right of conquest. It has foes up
yonder."

"It is not so," answered Leo earnestly. "As one man to another, I tell
you it is not so. /I/ ask no smile of your wife and no acre of your
soil. Be wise and help us to be gone, and live on undisturbed in such
fashion as may please you."

The Khan stood still awhile, swinging his long arms vacantly, till
something seemed to come into his mind that moved him to merriment,
for he burst into one of his hideous laughs.

"I am thinking," he said, "what Atene would say if she woke up to find
her sweet bird flown. She would search for you and be angry with me."

"It seems that she cannot be angrier than she is," I answered. "Give
us a night's start and let her search never so closely, she shall not
find us."

"You forget, Wanderer, that she and her old Rat have arts. Those who
knew where to meet you might know where to seek you. And yet, and yet,
it would be rare to see her rage. 'Oh, Yellow-beard, where are you,
Yellow-beard?' he went on, mimicking his wife's voice. 'Come back and
let me melt your ice, Yellow-beard.'"

Again he laughed; then said suddenly--

"When can you be ready?"

"In half an hour," I answered.

"Good. Go to your chambers and prepare. I will join you there
presently."

So we went.



CHAPTER XI

THE HUNT AND THE KILL

We reached our rooms, meeting no one in the passages, and there made
our preparations. First we changed our festal robes for those warmer
garments in which we had travelled to the city of Kaloon. Then we ate
and drank what we could of the victuals which stood in the
antechamber, not knowing when we should find more food, and filled two
satchels such as these people sling about their shoulders, with the
remains of the meat and liquor and a few necessaries. Also we strapped
our big hunting knives about our middles and armed ourselves with
short spears that were made for the stabbing of game.

"Perhaps he has laid a plot to murder us, and we may as well defend
ourselves while we can," suggested Leo.

I nodded, for the echoes of the Khan's last laugh still rang in my
ears. It was a very evil laugh.

"Likely enough," I said. "I do not trust that insane brute. Still, he
wishes to be rid of us."

"Yes, but as he said, live men may return, whereas the dead do not."

"Atene thinks otherwise," I commented.

"And yet she threatened us with death," answered Leo.

"Because her shame and passion make her mad," I replied, after which
we were silent.

Presently the door opened, and through it came the Khan, muffled in a
great cloak as though to disguise himself.

"Come," he said, "if you are ready." Then, catching sight of the
spears we held, he added: "You will not need those things. You do not
go a-hunting."

"No," I answered, "but who can say--we might be hunted."

"If you believe that perhaps you had best stay where you are till the
Khania wearies of Yellow-beard and opens the gates for you," he
replied, eyeing me with his cunning glance.

"I think not," I said, and we started, the Khan leading the way and
motioning us to be silent.

We passed through the empty rooms on to the verandah, and from the
verandah down into the courtyard, where he whispered to us to keep in
the shadow. For the moon shone very clearly that night, so clearly, I
remember, that I could see the grass which grew between the joints of
the pavement, and the little shadows thrown by each separate blade
upon the worn surface of its stones. Now I wondered how we should pass
the gate, for there a guard was stationed, which had of late been
doubled by order of the Khania. But this gate we left upon our right,
taking a path that led into the great walled garden, where Rassen
brought us to a door hidden behind a clump of shrubs, which he
unlocked with a key he carried.

Now we were outside the palace wall, and our road ran past the
kennels. As we went by these, the great, sleepless death-hounds, that
wandered to and fro like prowling lions, caught our wind and burst
into a sudden chorus of terrific bays. I shivered at the sound, for it
was fearful in that silence, also I thought that it would arouse the
keepers. But the Khan went to the bars and showed himself, whereon the
brutes, which knew him, ceased their noise.

"Fear not," he said as he returned, "the huntsmen know that they are
starved to-night, for to-morrow certain criminals will be thrown to
them."

Now we had reached the palace gates. Here the Khan bade us hide in an
archway and departed. We looked at each other, for the same thought
was in both our minds--that he had gone to fetch the murderers who
were to make an end of us. But in this we did him wrong, for presently
we heard the sound of horses' hoofs upon the stones, and he returned
leading the two white steeds that Atene had given us.

"I saddled them with my own hands," he whispered. "Who can do more to
speed the parting guest? Now mount, hide your faces in your cloaks as
I do, and follow me."

So we mounted, and he trotted before us like a running footman, such
as the great lords of Kaloon employed when they went about their
business or their pleasure. Leaving the main street, he led us through
a quarter of the town that had an evil reputation, and down its
tortuous by-ways. Here we met a few revellers, while from time to time
night-birds flitted from the doorways and, throwing aside their veils,
looked at us, but as we made no sign drew back again, thinking that we
passed to some assignation. We reached the deserted docks upon the
river's edge and came to a little quay, alongside of which a broad
ferryboat was fastened.

"You must put your horses into it and row across," Rassen said, "for
the bridges are guarded, and without discovering myself I cannot bid
the soldiers to let you pass."

So with some little trouble we urged the horses into the boat, where I
held them by their bridles while Leo took the oars.

"Now go your ways, accursed wanderers," cried the Khan as he thrust us
from the quay, "and pray the Spirit of the Mountain that the old Rat
and his pupil--your love, Yellow-beard, your love--are not watching
you in their magic glass. For if so we may meet again."

Then as the stream caught us, sweeping the boat out towards the centre
of the river, he began to laugh that horrible laugh of his, calling
after us--

"Ride fast, ride fast for safety, strangers; there is death behind."

Leo put out his strength and backed water, so that the punt hung upon
the edge of the stream.

"I think that we should do well to land again and kill that man, for
he means mischief," he said.

He spoke in English, but Rassen must have caught the ring of his voice
and guessed its meaning with the cunning of the mad. At least he
shouted--

"Too late, fools," and with a last laugh turned, ran so swiftly up the
quay that his cloak flew out upon the air behind him, and vanished
into the shadows at its head.

"Row on," I said, and Leo bent himself to the oars.

But the ferry-boat was cumbersome and the current swift, so that we
were swept down a long way before we could cross it. At length we
reached still water near the further shore, and seeing a landing-
place, managed to beach the punt and to drag our horses to the bank.
Then leaving the craft to drift, for we had no time to scuttle her, we
looked to our girths and bridles, and mounted, heading towards the far
column of glowing smoke which showed like a beacon above the summit of
the House of Fire.

At first our progress was very slow, for here there seemed to be no
path, and we were obliged to pick our way across the fields, and to
search for bridges that spanned such of the water-ditches as were too
wide for us to jump. More than an hour was spent in this work, till we
came to a village wherein none were stirring, and here struck a road
which seemed to run towards the mountain, though, as we learned
afterwards, it took us very many miles out of our true path. Now for
the first time we were able to canter, and pushed on at some speed,
though not too fast, for we wished to spare our horses and feared lest
they might fall in the uncertain light.

A while before dawn the moon sank behind the Mountain, and the gloom
grew so dense that we were forced to stop, which we did, holding the
horses by their bridles and allowing them to graze a little on some
young corn. Then the sky turned grey, the light faded from the column
of smoke that was our guide, the dawn came, blushing red upon the vast
snows of the distant peak, and shooting its arrows through the loop
above the pillar. We let the horses drink from a channel that watered
the corn, and, mounting them, rode onward slowly.

Now with the shadows of the night a weight of fear seemed to be lifted
off our hearts and we grew hopeful, aye, almost joyous. That hated
city was behind us. Behind us were the Khania with her surging, doom-
driven passions and her stormy loveliness, the wizardries of her
horny-eyed mentor, so old in years and secret sin, and the madness of
that strange being, half-devil, half-martyr, at once cruel and a
coward--the Khan, her husband, and his polluted court. In front lay
the fire, the snow and the mystery they hid, sought for so many empty
years. Now we would solve it or we would die. So we pressed forward
joyfully to meet our fate, whatever it might be.

For many hours our road ran deviously through cultivated land, where
the peasants at their labour laid down their tools and gathered into
knots to watch us pass, and quaint, flat-roofed villages, whence the
women snatched up their children and fled at the sight of us. They
believed us to be lords from the court who came to work them some harm
in person or in property, and their terror told /us/ how the country
smarted beneath the rod of the oppressor. By mid-day, although the
peak seemed to be but little nearer, the character of the land had
changed. Now it sloped gently upwards, and therefore could not be
irrigated.

Evidently all this great district was dependent on the fall of timely
rains, which had not come that spring. Therefore, although the
population was still dense and every rod of the land was under the
plough or spade, the crops were failing. It was pitiful to see the
green, uneared corn already turning yellow because of the lack of
moisture, the beasts searching the starved pastures for food and the
poor husbandmen wandering about their fields or striving to hoe the
iron soil.

Here the people seemed to know us as the two foreigners whose coming
had been noised abroad, and, the fear of famine having made them bold,
they shouted at us as we went by to give them back the rain which we
had stolen, or so we understood their words. Even the women and the
children in the villages prostrated themselves before us, pointing
first to the Mountain and then to the hard, blue sky, and crying to us
to send them rain. Once, indeed, we were threatened by a mob of
peasants armed with spades and reaping-hooks, who seemed inclined to
bar our path, so that we were obliged to put our horses to a gallop
and pass through them with a rush. As we went forward the country grew
ever more arid and its inhabitants more scarce, till we saw no man
save a few wandering herds who drove their cattle from place to place
in search of provender.

By evening we guessed that we had reached that border tract which was
harried by the Mountain tribes, for here strong towers built of stone
were dotted about the heaths, doubtless to serve as watch-houses or
places of refuge. Whether they were garrisoned by soldiers I do not
know, but I doubt it, for we saw none. It seems probable indeed that
these forts were relics of days when the land of Kaloon was guarded
from attack by rulers of a very different character to that of the
present Khan and his immediate predecessors.

At length even the watch-towers were left behind, and by sundown we
found ourselves upon a vast uninhabited plain, where we could see no
living thing. Now we made up our minds to rest our horses awhile,
proposing to push forward again with the moon, for having the wrath of
the Khania behind us we did not dare to linger. By this evening
doubtless she would have discovered our escape, since before sundown,
as she had decreed, Leo must make his choice and give his answer.
Then, as we were sure, she would strike swiftly. Perhaps her
messengers were already at their work rousing the country to capture
us, and her soldiers following on our path.

We unsaddled the horses and let them refresh themselves by rolling on
the sandy soil, and graze after a fashion upon the coarse tufts of
withering herbage which grew around. There was no water here; but this
did not so much matter, for both they and we had drunk at a little
muddy pool we found not more than an hour before. We were finishing
our meal of the food that we had brought with us, which, indeed, we
needed sorely after our sleepless night and long day's journey, when
my horse, which was knee-haltered close at hand, lay down to roll
again. This it could not do with ease because of the rope about its
fore-leg, and I watched its efforts idly, till at length, at the
fourth attempt, after hanging for a few seconds upon its back, its
legs sticking straight into the air, it fell over slowly towards me as
horses do.

"Why are its hoofs so red? Has it cut itself?" asked Leo in an
indifferent voice.

As it chanced I also had just noticed this red tinge, and for the
first time, since it was most distinct about the animal's frogs, which
until it rolled thus I had not seen. So I rose to look at them,
thinking that probably the evening light had deceived us, or that we
might have passed through some ruddy-coloured mud. Sure enough they
/were/ red, as though a dye had soaked into the horn and the substance
of the frogs. What was more, they gave out a pungent, aromatic smell
that was unpleasant, such a smell as might arise from blood mixed with
musk and spices.

"It is very strange," I said. "Let us look at your beast, Leo."

So we did, and found that its hoofs had been similarly-treated.

"Perhaps it is a native mixture to preserve the horn," suggested Leo.

I thought awhile, then a terrible idea struck me.

"I don't want to frighten you," I said, "but I think that we had
better saddle up and get on."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I believe that villain of a Khan has doctored our horses."

"What for? To make them go lame?"

"No, Leo, to make them leave a strong scent upon dry ground."

He turned pale. "Do you mean--those hounds?"

I nodded. Then wasting no more time in words, we saddled up in frantic
haste. Just as I fastened the last strap of my saddle I thought that a
faint sound reached my ear.

"Listen," I said. Again it came, and now there was no doubt about it.
It was the sound of baying dogs.

"By heaven! the death-hounds," said Leo.

"Yes," I answered quietly enough, for at this crisis my nerves
hardened and all fear left me, "our friend the Khan is out a-hunting.
That is why he laughed."

"What shall we do?" asked Leo. "Leave the horses?"

I looked at the Peak. Its nearest flanks were miles and miles away.

"Time enough to do that when we are forced. We can never reach that
mountain on foot, and after they had run down the horses, they would
hunt us by spoor or gaze. No, man, ride as you never rode before."

We sprang to our saddles, but before we gave rein I turned and looked
behind me. It will be remembered that we had ridden up a long slope
which terminated in a ridge, about three miles away, the border of the
great plain whereon we stood. Now the sun had sunk behind that ridge
so that although it was still light the plain had fallen into shadow.
Therefore, while no distant object could be seen upon the plain,
anything crossing the ridge remained visible enough in that clear air,
at least to persons of keen sight.

This is what we saw. Over the ridge poured a multitude of little
objects, and amongst the last of these galloped a man mounted on a
great horse, who led another horse by the bridle.

"All the pack are out," said Leo grimly, "and Rassen has brought a
second mount with him. Now I see why he wanted us to leave the spears,
and I think," he shouted as we began to gallop, "that before all is
done the Shaman may prove himself a true prophet."

Away we sped through the gathering darkness, heading straight for the
Peak. While we went I calculated our chances. Our horses, as good as
any in the land, were still strong and fresh, for although we had
ridden far we had not over-pressed them, and their condition was
excellent. But doubtless the death-hounds were fresh also, for,
meaning to run us down at night when he thought that he might catch us
sleeping, Rassen would have brought them along easily, following us by
inquiry among the peasants and only laying them on our spoor after the
last village had been left behind.

Also he had two mounts, and for aught we knew--though afterwards this
proved not to be the case, for he wished to work his wickedness alone
and unseen--he might be followed by attendants with relays. Therefore
it would appear that unless we reached some place whither he did not
dare to follow, before him--that is the slopes of the Peak many miles
away, he must run us down. There remained the chance also that the
dogs would tire and refuse to pursue the chase.

This, however, seemed scarcely probable, for they were extraordinarily
swift and strong, and so savage that when once they had scented blood,
in which doubtless our horses' hoofs were steeped, they would fall
dead from exhaustion sooner than abandon the trail. Indeed, both the
Khania and Simbri had often told us as much. Another chance--they
might lose the scent, but seeing its nature, again this was not
probable. Even an English pack will carry the trail of a red herring
breast high without a fault for hours, and here was something stronger
--a cunning compound of which the tell-tale odour would hold for days.
A last chance. If we were forced to abandon our horses, we, their
riders, might possibly escape, could we find any place to hide in on
that great plain. If not, we should be seen as well as scented, and
then----

No, the odds were all against us, but so they had often been before;
meanwhile we had three miles start, and perhaps help would come to us
from the Mountain, some help unforeseen. So we set our teeth and sped
away like arrows while the light lasted.

Very soon it failed, and whilst the moon was hidden behind the
mountains the night grew dark.

Now the hounds gained on us, for in the gloom, which to them was
nothing, we did not dare to ride full speed, fearing lest our horses
should stumble and lame themselves, or fall. Then it was for the
second time since we had dwelt in this land of Kaloon that of a sudden
the fire flamed upon the Peak. When we had seen it before, it had
appeared to flash across the heavens in one great lighthouse ray,
concentrated through the loop above the pillar, and there this night
also the ray ran far above us like a lance of fire. But now that we
were nearer to its fount we found ourselves bathed in a soft,
mysterious radiance like that of the phosphorescence on a summer sea,
reflected downwards perhaps from the clouds and massy rock roof of the
column loop and diffused by the snows beneath.

This unearthly glimmer, faint as it was, helped us much, indeed but
for it we must have been overtaken, for here the ground was very
rough, full of holes also made by burrowing marmots. Thus in our
extremity help did come to us from the Mountain, until at length the
moon rose, when as quickly as they had appeared the volcanic fires
vanished, leaving behind them nothing but the accustomed pillar of
dull red smoke.

It is a commonplace to speak of the music of hounds at chase, but
often I have wondered how that music sounds in the ears of the deer or
the fox fleeing for its life.

Now, when we filled the place of the quarry, it was my destiny to
solve this problem, and I assert with confidence that the progeny of
earth can produce no more hideous noise. It had come near to us, and
in the desolate silence of the night the hellish harmonies of its
volume seemed terrific, yet I could discern the separate notes of
which it was composed, especially one deep, bell-like bay.

I remembered that I had heard this bay when we sat in the boat upon
the river and saw that poor noble done to death for the crime of
loving the Khania. As the hunt passed us then I observed that it burst
from the throat of the leading hound, a huge brute, red in colour,
with a coal-black ear, fangs that gleamed like ivory, and a mouth
which resembled a hot oven. I even knew the name of the beast, for
afterwards the Khan, whose peculiar joy it was, had pointed it out to
me. He called it Master, because no dog in the pack dared fight it,
and told me that it could kill an armed man alone.

Now, as its baying warned us, Master was not half a mile away!

The coming of the moonlight enabled us to gallop faster, especially as
here the ground was smooth, being covered with a short, dry turf, and
for the next two hours we gained upon the pack. Yes, it was only two
hours, or perhaps less, but it seemed a score of centuries. The slopes
of the Peak were now not more than ten miles ahead, but our horses
were giving out at last. They had borne us nobly, poor beasts, though
we were no light weights, yet their strength had its limits. The sweat
ran from them, their sides panted like bellows, they breathed in
gasps, they stumbled and would scarcely answer to the flogging of our
spear-shafts. Their gallop sank to a jolting canter, and I thought
that soon they must come to a dead stop.

We crossed the brow of a gentle rise, from which the ground, that was
sprinkled with bush and rocks, sloped downwards to where, some miles
below us, the river ran, bounding the enormous flanks of the Mountain.
When we had travelled a little way down this slope we were obliged to
turn in order to pass between two heaps of rock, which brought us side
on to its brow. And there, crossing it not more than three hundred
yards away, we saw the pack. There were fewer of them now; doubtless
many had fallen out of the hunt, but many still remained. Moreover,
not far behind them rode the Khan, though his second mount was gone,
or more probably he was riding it, having galloped the first to a
standstill.

Our poor horses saw them also, and the sight lent them wings, for all
the while they knew that they were running for their lives. This we
could tell from the way they quivered whenever the baying came near to
them, not as horses tremble with the pleasureable excitement of the
hunt, but in an extremity of terror, as I have often seen them do when
a prowling tiger roars close to their camp. On they went as though
they were fresh from the stable, nor did they fail again until another
four miles or so were covered and the river was but a little way
ahead, for we could hear the rush of its waters.

Then slowly but surely the pack overtook us. We passed a clump of
bush, but when we had gone a couple of hundred yards or so across the
open plain beyond, feeling that the horses were utterly spent, I
shouted to Leo--

"Ride round back to the bush and hide there." So we did, and scarcely
had we reached it and dismounted when the hounds came past. Yes, they
went within fifty yards of us, lolloping along upon our spoor and
running all but mute, for now they were too weary to waste their
breath in vain. "Run for it," I said to Leo as soon as they had gone
by, "for they will be back on the scent presently," and we set off to
the right across the line that the hounds had taken, so as not to cut
our own spoor.

About a hundred yards away was a rock, which fortunately we were able
to reach before the pack swung round upon the horses' tracks, and
therefore they did not view us. Here we stayed until following the
loop, they came to the patch of bush and passed behind it. Then we ran
forward again as far as we could go. Glancing backwards as we went, I
saw our two poor, foundered beasts plunging away across the plain,
happily almost in the same line along which we had ridden from the
rise. They were utterly done, but freed from our weights and urged on
by fear, could still gallop and keep ahead of the dogs, though we knew
that this would not be for very long. I saw also that the Khan,
guessing what we had done in our despair, was trying to call his
hounds off the horses, but as yet without avail, for they would not
leave the quarry which they had viewed.

All this came to my sight in a flash, but I remember the picture well.
The mighty, snow-clad Peak surmounted by its column of glowing smoke
and casting its shadow for mile upon mile across the desert flats; the
plain with its isolated rocks and grey bushes; the doomed horses
struggling across it with convulsive bounds; the trailing line of
great dogs that loped after them, and amongst these, looking small and
lonely in that vast place, the figure of the Khan and his horse, of
which the black hide was beflecked with foam. Then above, the blue and
tender sky, where the round moon shone so clearly that in her quiet,
level light no detail, even the smallest, could escape the eye.

Now youth and even middle age were far behind me, and although a very
strong man for my years, I could not run as I used to do. Also I was
most weary, and my limbs were stiff and chafed with long riding, so I
made but slow progress, and to worsen matters I struck my left foot
against a stone and hurt it much. I implored Leo to go on and leave
me, for we thought that if we could once reach the river our scent
would be lost in the water; at any rate that it would give us a chance
of life. Just then too, I heard the belling bay of the hound Master,
and waited for the next. Yes, it was nearer to us. The Khan had made a
cast and found our line. Presently we must face the end.

"Go, go!" I said. "I can keep them back for a few minutes and you may
escape. It is your quest, not mine. Ayesha awaits you, not me, and I
am weary of life. I wish to die and have done with it."

Thus I gasped, not all at once, but in broken words, as I hobbled
along clinging to Leo's arm. But he only answered in a low voice--

"Be quiet, or they will hear you," and on he went, dragging me with
him.

We were quite near the water now, for we could see it gleaming below
us, and oh! how I longed for one deep drink. I remember that this was
the uppermost desire in my mind, to drink and drink. But the hounds
were nearer still to us, so near that we could hear the pattering of
their feet on the dry ground mingled with the thud of the hoofs of the
Khan's galloping horse. We had reached some rocks upon a little rise,
just where the bank began, when Leo said suddenly--

"No use, we can't make it. Stop and let's see the thing through."

So we wheeled round, resting our backs against the rock. There, about
a hundred yards off, were the death-hounds, but Heaven be praised!
/only three of them/. The rest had followed the flying horses, and
doubtless when they caught them at last, which may have been far
distant, had stopped to gorge themselves upon them. So they were out
of the fight. Only three, and the Khan, a wild figure, who galloped
with them; but those three, the black and red brute, Master, and two
others almost as fierce and big.

"It might be worse," said Leo. "If you will try to tackle the dogs,
I'll do my best with the Khan," and stooping down he rubbed his palms
in the grit, for they were wet as water, an example which I followed.
Then we gripped the spears in our right hands and the knives in our
left, and waited.

The dogs had seen us now and came on, growling and baying fearfully.
With a rush they came, and I am not ashamed to own that I felt
terribly afraid, for the brutes seemed the size of lions and more
fierce. One, it was the smallest of them, outstripped the others, and,
leaping up the little rise, sprang straight at my throat.

Why or how I do not know, but on the impulse of the moment I too
sprang to meet it, so that its whole weight came upon the point of my
spear, which was backed by my weight. The spear entered between its
forelegs and such was the shock that I was knocked backwards. But when
I regained my feet I saw the dog rolling on the ground before me and
gnashing at the spear shaft, which had been twisted from my hand.

The other two had jumped at Leo, but failed to get hold, though one of
them tore away a large fragment from his tunic. Foolishly enough, he
hurled his spear at it but missed, for the steel passed just under its
belly and buried itself deep in the ground. The pair of them did not
come on again at once. Perhaps the sight of their dying companion made
them pause. At any rate, they stood at a little distance snarling,
where, as our spears were gone, they were safe from us.

Now the Khan had ridden up and sat upon his horse glowering at us, and
his face was like the face of a devil. I had hoped that he might fear
to attack, but the moment I saw his eyes, I knew that this would not
be. He was quite mad with hate, jealousy, and the long-drawn
excitement of the hunt, and had come to kill or be killed. Sliding
from the saddle, he drew his short sword--for either he had lost his
spear or had brought none--and made a hissing noise to the two dogs,
pointing at me with the sword. I saw them spring and I saw him rush at
Leo, and after that who can tell exactly what happened?

My knife went home to the hilt in the body of one dog--and it came to
the ground and lay there--for its hindquarters were paralysed,
howling, snarling and biting at me. But the other, the fiend called
Master, got me by the right arm beneath the elbow, and I felt my bones
crack in its mighty jaws, and the agony of it, or so I suppose, caused
me to drop the knife, so that I was weaponless. The brute dragged me
from the rock and began to shake and worry me, although I kicked it in
the stomach with all my strength. I fell to my knees and, as it
chanced, my left hand came upon a stone of about the size of a large
orange, which I gripped. I gained my feet again and pounded at its
skull with the stone, but still it did not leave go, and this was well
for me, for its next hold would have been on my throat.

We twisted and tumbled to and fro, man and dog together. At one turn I
thought that I saw Leo and the Khan rolling over and over each other
upon the ground; at another, that he, the Khan, was sitting against a
stone looking at me, and it came into my mind that he must have killed
Leo and was watching while the dog worried me to death.

Then just as things began to grow black, something sprang forward and
I saw the huge hound lifted from the earth. Its jaws opened, my arm
came free and fell against my side. Yes! the brute was whirling round
in the air. Leo held it by its hind legs and with all his great
strength whirled it round and round.

/Thud!/

He had dashed its head against the rock, and it fell and lay still, a
huddled heap of black and red. Oddly enough, I did not faint; I
suppose that the pain and the shock to my nerves kept me awake, for I
heard Leo say in a matter-of-fact voice between his gasps for breath--

"Well, that's over, and I think that I have fulfilled the Shaman's
prophecy. Let's look and make sure."

Then he led me with him to one of the rocks, and there, resting
supinely against it, sat the Khan, still living but unable to move
hand or foot. The madness had quite left his face and he looked at us
with melancholy eyes, like the eyes of a sick child.

"You are brave men," he said, slowly, "strong also, to have killed
those hounds and broken my back. So it has come about as was foretold
by the old Rat. After all, I should have hunted Atene, not you, though
now she lives to avenge me, for her own sake, not mine. Yellow-beard,
she hunts you too and with deadlier hounds than these, those of her
thwarted passions. Forgive me and fly to the Mountain, Yellow-beard,
whither I go before you, for there one dwells who is stronger than
Atene."

Then his jaw dropped and he was dead.



CHAPTER XII

THE MESSENGER

"He is gone," I panted, "and the world hasn't lost much."

"Well, it didn't give him much, did it, poor devil, so don't let's
speak ill of him," answered Leo, who had thrown himself exhausted to
the ground. "Perhaps he was all right before they made him mad. At any
rate he had pluck, for I don't want to tackle such another."

"How did you manage it?" I asked.

"Dodged in beneath his sword, closed with him, threw him and smashed
him up over that lump of stone. Sheer strength, that's all. A cruel
business, but it was his life or mine, and there you are. It's lucky I
finished it in time to help you before that oven-mouthed brute tore
your throat out. Did you ever see such a dog? It looks as large as a
young donkey. Are you much hurt, Horace?"

"Oh, my forearm is chewed to a pulp, but nothing else, I think. Let us
get down to the water; if I can't drink soon I shall faint. Also the
rest of the pack is somewhere about, fifty or more of them."

"I don't think they will trouble us, they have got the horses, poor
beasts. Wait a minute and I will come."

Then he rose, found the Khan's sword, a beautiful and ancient weapon,
and with a single cut of its keen edge, killed the second dog that I
had wounded, which was still yowling and snarling at us. After this he
collected the two spears and my knife, saying that they might be
useful, and without trouble caught the Khan's horse, which stood with
hanging head close by, so tired that even this desperate fight had not
frightened it away.

"Now," he said, "up you go, old fellow. You are not fit to walk any
farther;" and with his help I climbed into the saddle.

Then slipping the rein over his arm he led the horse, which walked
stiffly, on to the river, that ran within a quarter of a mile of us,
though to me, tortured as I was by pain and half delirious with
exhaustion, the journey seemed long enough.

Still we came there somehow, and, forgetting my wounds, I tumbled from
the horse, threw myself flat and drank and drank, more, I think, than
ever I did before. Not in all my life have I tasted anything so
delicious as was that long draught of water. When I had satisfied my
thirst, I dipped my head and made shift to jerk my wounded arm into
it, for its coolness seemed to still the pain. Presently Leo rose, the
water running from his face and beard, and said--

"What shall we do now? The river seems to be wide, over a hundred
yards, and it is low, but there may be deep water in the middle. Shall
we try to cross, in which case we might drown, or stop where we are
till daylight and take our chance of the death-hounds?"

"I can't go another foot," I murmured faintly, "much less try to ford
an unknown river."

Now, about thirty yards from the shore was an island covered with
reeds and grasses.

"Perhaps we could reach that," he said. "Come, get on to my back, and
we will try."

I obeyed with difficulty, and we set out, he feeling his way with the
handle of the spear. The water proved to be quite shallow; indeed, it
never came much above his knees, so that we reached the island without
trouble. Here Leo laid me down on the soft rushes, and, returning to
the mainland, brought over the black horse and the remaining weapons,
and having unsaddled the beast, knee-haltered and turned it loose,
whereon it immediately lay down, for it was too spent to feed.

Then he set to work to doctor my wounds. Well it proved for me that
the sleeve of my garment was so thick, for even through it the flesh
of my forearm was torn to ribbons, moreover a bone seemed to be
broken. Leo collected a double handful of some soft wet moss and,
having washed the arm, wrapped it round with a handkerchief, over
which he laid the moss. Then with a second handkerchief and some
strips of linen torn from our undergarments he fastened a couple of
split reeds to serve as rough splints to the wounded limb. While he
was doing this I suppose that I slept or swooned. At any rate, I
remember no more.

Sometime during that night Leo had a strange dream, of which he told
me the next morning. I suppose that it must have been a dream as
certainly I saw or was aware of nothing. Well, he dreamed--I use his
own words as nearly as possible--that again he heard those accursed
death-hounds in full cry. Nearer and nearer they came, following our
spoor to the edge of the river--all the pack that had run down the
horses. At the water's brink they halted and were mute. Then suddenly
a puff of wind brought the scent of us upon the island to one of them
which lifted up its head and uttered a single bay. The rest clustered
about it, and all at once they made a dash at the water.

Leo could see and hear everything. He felt that after all our doom was
now at hand, and yet, held in the grip of nightmare, if nightmare it
were, he was quite unable to stir or even to cry out to wake and warn
me.

Now followed the marvel of this vision. Giving tongue as they came,
half swimming and half plunging, the hounds drew near to the island
where we slept. Then, suddenly Leo saw that we were no longer alone.
In front of us, on the brink of the water, stood the figure of a woman
clad in some dark garment. He could not describe her face or
appearance, for her back was towards him.

All he knew was that she stood there, like a guard, holding some
object in her raised hand, and that suddenly the advancing hounds
caught sight of her. In an instant it was as though they were
paralysed by fear--for their bays turned to fearful howlings. One or
two of those that were nearest to the island seemed to lose their
footing and be swept away by the stream. The rest struggled back to
the bank, and fled wildly like whipped curs.

Then the dark, commanding figure, which in his dream Leo took to be
the guardian Spirit of the Mountain, vanished. That it left no
footprints behind it I can vouch, for in the morning we looked to see.

When, awakened by the sharp pangs in my arm, I opened my eyes again,
the dawn was breaking. A thin mist hung over the river and the island,
and through it I could see Leo sleeping heavily at my side and the
shape of the black horse, which had risen and was grazing close at
hand. I lay still for a while remembering all that we had undergone
and wondering that I should live to wake, till presently above the
murmuring of the water I heard a sound which terrified me, the sound
of voices. I sat up and peered through the reeds, and there upon the
bank, looking enormous in the mist, I saw two figures mounted upon
horses, those of a woman and a man.

They were pointing to the ground as though they examined spoor in the
sand. I heard the man say something about the dogs not daring to enter
the territory of the Mountain, a remark which came back to my mind
again after Leo had told me his dream. Then I remembered how we were
placed.

"Wake!" I whispered to Leo. "Wake, we are pursued."

He sprang to his feet, rubbing his eyes and snatching at a spear. Now
those upon the bank saw him, and a sweet voice spoke through the mist,
saying--

"Lay down that weapon, my guest, for we are not come to harm you."

It was the voice of the Khania Atene, and the man with her was the old
Shaman Simbri.

"What shall we do now, Horace?" asked Leo with something like a groan,
for in the whole world there were no two people whom he less wished to
see.

"Nothing," I answered, "it is for them to play."

"Come to us," called the Khania across the water. "I swear that we
mean no harm. Are we not alone?"

"I do not know," answered Leo, "but it seems unlikely. Where we are we
stop until we are ready to march again."

Atene spoke to Simbri. What she said we could not hear, for she
whispered, but she appeared to be arguing with him and persuading him
to some course of which he strongly disapproved. Then suddenly both of
them put their horses at the water and rode to us through the
shallows. Reaching the island, they dismounted, and we stood staring
at each other. The old man seemed very weary in body and oppressed in
mind, but the Khania was strong and beautiful as ever, nor had passion
and fatigue left any trace upon her inscrutable face. It was she who
broke the silence, saying--

"You have ridden fast and far since last we met, my guests, and left
an evil token to mark the path you took. Yonder among the rocks one
lies dead. Say, how came he to his end, who has no wound upon him?"

"By these," answered Leo, stretching out his hands.

"I knew it," she answered, "and I blame you not, for fate decreed that
death for him, and now it is fulfilled. Still, there are those to whom
you must answer for his blood, and I only can protect you from them."

"Or betray me to them," said Leo. "Khania, what do you seek?"

"That answer which you should have given me this twelve hours gone.
Remember, before you speak, that I alone can save your life--aye, and
will do it and clothe you with that dead madman's crown and mantle."

"You shall have your answer on yonder Mountain," said Leo, pointing to
the peak above us, "where I seek mine."

She paled a little and replied, "To find that it is death, for, as I
have told you, the place is guarded by savage folk who know no pity."

"So be it. Then Death is the answer that we seek. Come, Horace, let us
go to meet him."

"I swear to you," she broke in, "that there dwells not the woman of
your dreams. I am that woman, yes, even I, as you are the man of
mine."

"Then, lady, prove it yonder upon the Mountain," Leo answered.

"There dwells there no woman," Atene went on hurriedly, "nothing
dwells there. It is the home of fire and--a Voice."

"What voice?"

"The Voice of the Oracle that speaks from the fire. The Voice of a
Spirit whom no man has ever seen, or shall see."

"Come, Horace," said Leo, and he moved towards the horse.

"Men," broke in the old Shaman, "would you rush upon your doom?
Listen; I have visited yonder haunted place, for it was I who
according to custom brought thither the body of the Khan Atene's
father for burial, and I warn you to set no foot within its temples."

"Which your mistress said that we should never reach," I commented,
but Leo only answered--

"We thank you for your warning," and added, "Horace, watch them while
I saddle the horse, lest they do us a mischief."

So I took the spear in my uninjured hand and stood ready. But they
made no attempt to hurt us, only fell back a little and began to talk
in hurried whispers. It was evident to me that they were much
perturbed. In a few minutes the horse was saddled and Leo assisted me
to mount it. Then he said--

"We go to accomplish our fate, whatever it may be, but before we part,
Khania, I thank you for the kindness you have shown us, and pray you
to be wise and forget that we have ever been. Through no will of mine
your husband's blood is on my hands, and that alone must separate us
for ever. We are divided by the doors of death and destiny. Go back to
your people, and pardon me if most unwillingly I have brought you
doubt and trouble. Farewell."

She listened with bowed head, then replied, very sadly--

"I thank you for your gentle words, but, Leo Vincey, we do not part
thus easily. You have summoned me to the Mountain, and even to the
Mountain I shall follow you. Aye, and there I will meet its Spirit, as
I have always known I must and as the Shaman here has always known I
must. Yes, I will match my strength and magic against hers, as it is
decreed that I shall do. To the victor be that crown for which we have
warred for ages."

Then suddenly Atene sprang to her saddle, and turning her horse's head
rode it back through the water to the shore, followed by old Simbri,
who lifted up his crooked hands as though in woe and fear, muttering
as he went--

"You have entered the forbidden river and now, Atene, the day of
decision is upon us all--upon us and her--that predestined day of ruin
and of war."

"What do they mean?" asked Leo of me.

"I don't know," I answered; "but I have no doubt we shall find out
soon enough and that it will be something unpleasant. Now for this
river."

Before we had struggled through it I thought more than once that the
day of drowning was upon us also, for in places there were deep rapids
which nearly swept us away. But Leo, who waded, leading the Khan's
horse by the bridle, felt his path and supported himself with the
spear shaft, so that in the end we reached the other bank safely.

Beyond it lay a breadth of marshy lands, that doubtless were
overflowed when the torrent was in flood. Through these we pushed our
way as fast as we could, for we feared lest the Khania had gone to
fetch her escort, which we thought she might have left behind the
rise, and would return with it presently to hunt us down. At that time
we did not know what we learned afterwards, that with its bordering
river the soil of the Mountain was absolutely sacred and, in practice,
inviolable. True, it had been invaded by the people of Kaloon in
several wars, but on each occasion their army was destroyed or met
with terrible disaster. Little wonder then they had come to believe
that the House of Fire was under the protection of some unconquerable
Spirit.

Leaving the marsh, we reached a bare, rising plain, which led to the
first slope of the Mountain three or four miles away. Here we expected
every moment to be attacked by the savages of whom we had heard so
much, but no living creature did we see. The place was a desert
streaked with veins of rock that once had been molten lava. /I/ do not
remember much else about it; indeed, the pain in my arm was so sharp
that I had no eyes for physical features. At length the rise ended in
a bare, broad donga, quite destitute of vegetation, of which the
bottom was buried in lava and a debris of rocks washed down by the
rain or melting snows from slopes above. This donga was bordered on
the farther side by a cliff, perhaps fifty feet in height, in which we
could see no opening.

Still we descended the place, that was dark and rugged; pervaded,
moreover, by an extraordinary gloom, and as we went perceived that its
lava floor was sprinkled over with a multitude of white objects. Soon
we came to the first of these and found that it was the skeleton of a
human being. Here was a veritable Valley of Dead Bones, thousands upon
thousands of them; a gigantic graveyard. It seemed as though some
great army had perished here.

Indeed, we found afterwards that this was the case, for on one of
those occasions in the far past when the people of Kaloon had attacked
the Mountain tribes, they were trapped and slaughtered in this gully,
leaving their bones as a warning and a token. Among these sad
skeletons we wandered disconsolately, seeking a path up the opposing
cliff, and finding none, until at length we came to a halt, not
knowing which way to turn. Then it was that we met with our first
strange experience on the Mountain.

The gulf and its mouldering relics depressed us, so that for awhile we
were silent, and, to tell the truth, somewhat afraid. Yes, even the
horse seemed afraid, for it snorted a little, hung its head and
shivered. Close by us lay a pile of bones, the remains evidently of a
number of wretched creatures that, dead or living, had been hurled
down from the cliff above, and on the top of the pile was a little
huddled heap, which we took for more bones.

"Unless we can find a way out of this accursed charnel-house before
long, I think that we shall add to its company," I said, staring round
me.

As the words left my lips it seemed to me that from the corner of my
eye I saw the heap on the top of the bones stir. I looked round. Yes,
it was stirring. It rose, it stood up, a human figure, apparently that
of a woman--but of this I could not be sure--wrapped from head to foot
in white and wearing a hanging veil over its face, or rather a mask
with cut eye-holes. It advanced towards us while we stared at it, till
the horse, catching sight of the thing, shied violently and nearly
threw me. When at a distance of about ten paces it paused and beckoned
with its hand, that was also swathed in white like the arm of a mummy.

"What the devil are you?" shouted Leo, and his voice echoed drearily
among those naked rocks. But the creature did not answer, it only
continued to beckon.

Leo walked up to it to assure himself that we were not the victims of
some hallucination. As he came it glided back to its heap of bones and
stood there like a ghost of one dead arisen from amidst these grinning
evidences of death, or rather a swathed corpse, for that is what it
resembled. Leo followed with the intention of touching it to assure
himself of its reality, whereon it lifted its white-wrapped arm and
struck him lightly on the breast. Then as he recoiled it pointed with
its hand, first upwards as though to the Peak or the sky, and next at
the wall of rock which faced us.

He returned to me saying, "What shall we do?"

"Follow, I suppose. It may be a messenger from above," and I nodded
toward the mountain crest.

"From below, more likely," Leo muttered, "for I don't like the look of
this guide."

Still he motioned with his hand to the creature to proceed. Apparently
it understood, for it turned to the left and began to pick its way
amongst the stones and skeletons swiftly and without noise. We
followed for several hundred yards till it reached a shallow cleft in
the rock. This cleft we had seen already, but as it appeared to end at
a depth of about thirty feet, we passed on. The figure entered here
and vanished.

"It must be a shadow," said Leo doubtfully.

"Nonsense," I answered, "shadows don't strike one. Go on."

So he led the horse up the cleft, to find that at the end it turned
sharply to the right and that the form was standing there awaiting us.
Forward it went again and we after it down a little gorge that grew
ever gloomier till it terminated in what might have been a cave, or a
gallery cut in the rock.

Here our guide came back to us apparently with the intention of taking
the horse by the bridle, but at this nearer sight of it the brute
snorted and reared up, so that it almost fell backwards upon me. As it
found its feet again the figure struck it on the head in the same
passionless, inhuman way that it had struck Leo, whereon the horse
trembled and burst into a sweat as though with fear, making no further
attempt to escape or to disobey. Then it took one side of the bridle
in its swathed hand and, Leo clinging to the other, we plunged into
the tunnel.

Our position was not pleasant, for we knew not whither we were being
led by this horrible conductor, and suspected that it might be to meet
our deaths in the darkness. Moreover, I guessed that the path was
narrow and bordered by some gulf, for as we went I heard stones fall,
apparently to a considerable depth, while the poor horse lifted its
feet gingerly and snorted in abject fear. At length we saw daylight,
and never was I more glad of its advent, although it showed us that
there /was/ a gulf on our right, and that the path we travelled could
not measure more than ten feet in width.

Now we were out of the tunnel, that evidently had saved us a wide
detour, and standing for the first time upon the actual slope of the
Mountain, which stretched upwards for a great number of miles till it
reached the snow-line above. Here also we saw evidences of human life,
for the ground was cultivated in patches and herds of mountain sheep
and cattle were visible in the distance.

Presently we entered a gully, following a rough path that led along
the edge of a raging torrent. It was a desolate place, half a mile
wide or more, having hundreds of fantastic lava boulders strewn about
its slopes. Before we had gone a mile I heard a shrill whistle, and
suddenly from behind these boulders sprang a number of men, quite
fifty of them. All we could note at the time was that they were
brawny, savage-looking fellows, for the most part red haired and
bearded, although their complexions were rather dark, who wore cloaks
of white goat skins and carried spears and shields. I should imagine
that they were not unlike the ancient Picts and Scots as they appeared
to the invading Romans. At us they came uttering their shrill,
whistling cries, evidently with the intention of spearing us on the
spot.

"Now for it," said Leo, drawing his sword, for escape was impossible;
they were all round us. "Good-bye, Horace."

"Good-bye," I answered rather faintly, understanding what the Khania
and the old Shaman had meant when they said that we should be killed
before we ascended the first slope of the Mountain.

Meanwhile our ghastly-looking guide had slipped behind a great
boulder, and even then it occurred to me that her part in the tragedy
being played, she, if it were a woman at all, was withdrawing herself
while we met our miserable fate. But here I did her injustice, for she
had, I suppose, come to save us from this very fate which without her
presence we must most certainly have suffered. When the savages were
within a few yards suddenly she appeared on the top of the boulder,
looking like a second Witch of Endor, and stretched out her arm. Not a
word did she speak, only stretched out her draped arm, but the effect
was remarkable and instantaneous.

At the sight of her down on to their faces went those wild men, every
one of them, as though a lightning stroke had in an instant swept them
out of existence. Then she let her arm fall and beckoned, whereon a
great fellow who, I suppose, was the leader of the band, rose and
crept towards her with bowed head, submissive as a beaten dog. To him
she made signs, pointing to us, pointing to the far-off Peak, crossing
and uncrossing her white-wrapped arms, but so far as I could hear,
speaking no word. It was evident that the chief understood her,
however, for he said something in a guttural language. Then he uttered
his shrill whistle, whereon the band rose and departed thence at full
speed, this way and the other, so that in another minute they had
vanished as quickly as they came.

Now our guide motioned to us to proceed, and led the way upward as
calmly as though nothing had happened.

For over /two/ hours we went on thus till our path brought us from the
ravine on to a grassy declivity, across which it wound its way. Here,
to our astonishment, we found a fire burning, and hanging above the
fire an earthenware pot, which was on the boil, although we could see
no man tending it. The figure signalled to me to dismount, pointing to
the pot in token that we were to eat the food which doubtless she had
ordered the wild men to prepare for us, and very glad was /I/ to obey
her. Provision had been made for the horse also, for near the fire lay
a great bundle of green forage.

While Leo off-saddled the beast and spread the provender for it,
taking with me a spare earthen vessel that lay ready, I went to the
edge of the torrent to drink and steep my wounded arm in its ice-cold
stream. This relieved it greatly, though by now I was sure from
various symptoms that the brute Master's fangs had fortunately only
broken or injured the small bone, a discovery for which I was thankful
enough. Having finished attending to it as well as I was able, I
filled the jar with water.

On my way back a thought struck me, and going to where our mysterious
guide stood still as Lot's wife after she had been turned into a
pillar of salt, I offered it to her, hoping that she would unveil her
face and drink. Then for the first time she showed some sign of being
human, or so I thought, for it seemed to me that she bowed ever so
little in acknowledgment of the courtesy. If so--and I may have been
mistaken--this was all, for the next instant she turned her back on me
to show that it was declined. So she would not, or for aught I knew,
could not drink. Neither would she eat, for when Leo tried her
afterwards with food she refused it in like fashion.

Meanwhile he had taken the pot off the fire, and as soon as its
contents grew cool enough we fell on them eagerly, for we were
starving. After we had eaten and drunk, Leo re-dressed my arm as best
he could and we rested awhile. Indeed, I think that, being very tired,
we began to doze, for I was awakened by a shadow falling on us and
looked up to see our corpse-like guide standing close by and pointing
first to the sun, then at the horse, as though to show us that we had
far to travel. So we saddled up and went on again somewhat refreshed,
for at least we were no longer ravenous.

All the rest of that day we journeyed on up the grassy slopes, seeing
no man, although occasionally we heard the wild whistle which told us
that we were being watched by the Mountain savages. By sundown the
character of the country had changed, for the grass was replaced with
rocks, amongst which grew stunted firs. We had left the lower slopes
and were beginning to climb the Mountain itself.

The sun sank and we went on through the twilight. The twilight died
and we went on through the dark, our path lit only by the stars and
the faint radiance of the glowing pillar of smoke above the Peak,
which was reflected on to us from the mighty mantle of its snows.
Forward we toiled, whilst a few paces ahead of us walked our
unwearying guide. If she had seemed weird and inhuman before, now she
appeared a very ghost, as, clad in her graveyard white, upon which the
faint light shimmered, never speaking, never looking back, she glided
on noiselessly between the black rocks and the twisted, dark-green
firs and junipers.

Soon we lost all count of the road. We turned this way and turned that
way, we passed an open patch and through the shadows of a grove, till
at length as the moon rose we entered a ravine, and following a path
that ran down it, came to a place which is best described as a large
amphitheatre cut by the hand of nature out of the rock of the
Mountain. Evidently it was chosen as a place of defence, for its
entrance was narrow and tortuous, built up at the end also, so that
only one person could pass its gateway at a time. Within an open space
and at its farther side stood low, stone houses built against the
rock. In front of these houses, the moonlight shining full upon them,
were gathered several hundred men and women arranged in a semicircle
and in alternate companies, who appeared to be engaged in the
celebration of some rite.

It was wild enough. In front of them, and in the exact centre of the
semi-circle, stood a gigantic, red-bearded man, who was naked except
for a skin girdle about his loins. He was swinging himself backwards
and forwards, his hands resting upon his hips, and as he swung,
shouting something like "/Ho, haha, ho!/" When he bent towards the
audience it bent towards him, and every time he straightened himself
it echoed his final shout of "/Ho!/" in a volume of sound that made
the precipices ring. Nor was this all, for perched upon his hairy
head, with arched back and waving tail, stood a great white cat.

Anything stranger, and indeed more fantastic than the general effect
of this scene, lit by the bright moonlight and set in that wild arena,
it was never my lot to witness. The red-haired, half-naked men and
women, the gigantic priest, the mystical white cat, that, gripping his
scalp with its claws, waved its tail and seemed to take a part in the
performance; the unholy chant and its volleying chorus, all helped to
make it extraordinarily impressive. This struck us the more, perhaps,
because at the time we could not in the least guess its significance,
though we imagined that it must be preliminary to some sacrifice or


 


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