Thus it was that Agno and his ministers found me. Again, I may say their coming added no new horror to these last hours. It is the interminable waiting that wears to a thread a man’s courage. I would, of my own wish, have that which was to come, over quickly. Already was the strain beginning to tell. It would not be an easy death, this I knew, for it was a death of the High Priest’s contriving. It was a death feared by Lah, a death from which she would fain have saved me,—and how? After all, I was glad that the Lord had put temptation from me. Brought face to face with unknown terrors, I felt that my strength might have given way before the trial. I set this down plainly with the rest.

Read on, and see what fair foundation of truth had I for doubting mortal strength in such extremity.

Well, a day had come and gone, and Satan’s chiefest emissary was at hand. The lagging feet of justice quickened. By Agno’s order was I again blindfolded, and by his order was I loosed from my cage.

Supported by two of the priests of Edba,—for my cramped legs refused to do my bidding,—I was half dragged, half led, away.

Still blindfolded, I was laid upon a stone and fastened there securely by a band about my middle, and by thongs that tied me, wrist and ankle, to rings set in the altar’s side.

Then my bandage was taken off, but it was some minutes before my dazzled eyes could see clearly, and then I found, to my surprise, that the High Priest and his followers had vanished. For all I knew to the contrary, I was quite alone. I looked about me, and I saw that I was in a cleared space in the form of a circle. This was guarded by a high and thorny hedge of some tropical plant, strange to me, whose narrow leaves bristled like so many bayonets.

The sun beat pitilessly upon my uncovered head, but I knew from its position that night was not far off. I was bound to a rude granite-hewn altar, and carved upon it in many places, amid a throng of grotesque images, I saw the familiar sign of Edba, the crescent moon.

This altar stood at one side of the circle; directly opposite, was reared a hut shaped like a bee-hive, and made of close-woven branches. There was no door to this strange dwelling, but a thin veil of plaited grasses partly hid the entrance. I strained my eyes in a vain effort to see beyond this curtain. Once or twice a faint rustling from within broke the deathly silence, and that was all. These singular noises made my heart beat faster, for I judged, and rightly, that here was the abode of my enemy, perhaps of my executioner.

The hours wore on. I was giddy from the length of my fast, the horrors of my imprisonment, and the nameless dread of what was to come. A chill crept over me, and though the day was hot, I shivered so that the rings of the altar rattled. I thought I saw two fiery eyes gleam for an instant upon me, from behind the curtain that veiled the entrance to the hut, but when I looked again I knew my own base fears had called up the vision.

I turned my head resolutely away, and scanned the ground about me. As my eyes travelled along the thorny hedge that circled the place, I saw something that gleamed through the green, half hidden by the underbrush. Idly I looked, but the next instant my pulse quickened; for as I gazed, the horrid meaning of the thing leaped to my mind. I had seen the white bones of a mouldering human skeleton.

I set my teeth lest any sound escape me, and some watchful priest staying behind his fellows to gloat over my misery, hear my cry and so have joy over my weakness.

The sun went down, and night fell. A wind arose, and it blew from the silent hut to me, and I smelled the breath of the charnel house, and my stomach turned within me.

But the stars came out, and the moon rode in the sky; a full moon, round and glorious.

Then the curtain of grass was pushed aside, and the Thing that dwelt within leaped into the circle. It was white, with a loathsome whiteness, naked, and painted with spots of red and blue, and it mowed and mumbled and danced uncouthly there in the moonlight.

I watched it with a thick sense of impending horror. It flung its arms wildly about its head and laughed shrilly at its own fantastic shadow.

It rolled over and over on the ground and stretched its limbs in content, while the moonlight bathed them, just as a beast will stretch out comfortably in the warm sunshine.

I moved a little on my bed of stone, and again the rings of the altar rattled.

Then the Thing raised its head, and its eyes rested on me with a look of greed and cunning.

It stopped its hideous play and began to crawl warily but surely towards me.

Nearer it came, and yet nearer. My throat was parched, and I shut fast my lips lest a womanish shriek shame me forever.

At last it reached my resting-place, stood upright, and craftily touched my shackled hands and feet.

Then the Thing, half beast and half human, bent over me, and its teeth met in the flesh of my right arm.

The vengeance of Agno, High Priest of Edba and of Hed, had fallen. The whole sickening knowledge pulsed through my soul, even as the agony of my wound racked my spent body.

My doom was sealed.

I was to be eaten alive by the Mad Man of the Moon, that the gods of the people of the Walled City might be avenged.

Suddenly the Thing let go its hold and raised its shaggy head, and I noted, even in the stupor of horror that had come upon me, that it was listening.

Then a man stepped out from the thorny hedge into the cleared circle—a man naked and quite unarmed.

I saw, as in a dream, the breadth of his massive shoulders, and that he was mighty above his fellows, and as I looked, the truth came to me, and I knew that this was Zobo, the commander of the bodyguard of Lah, the Queen.

The Mad Man of the Moon gave a low snarl, and sprang at the throat of the intruder.

Then began a wrestling match between the two, made terrible by the time and place, by the bestial noises of my would-be murderer, and by the knowledge I somehow had, that this duel was to the death.

Back and forth they strained and fought. I had looked to see my enemy snap like a reed in Zobo’s iron grip, but I soon found the demon the creature served had given it unholy powers. It was supple like a snake, and its muscles were of steel. I saw great drops of sweat stand out upon the bare body of the Queen’s servant, and, too, the veins in his forehead stand out like whipcord, with the strain of the conflict.

The unclean Thing bit, and foamed at the mouth, and strove with a devil’s strength and a man’s cunning for the mastery. Zobo fought with a kind of grim patience; while I, chained hand and foot, waited helpless for the issue.

Suddenly a cloud passed before the moon, and I saw the Mad Man falter. It was only for an instant, but that instant the Keeper of the Seal was quick to seize.

He gripped my foe by the throat, and the two fell, rolling over and over on the hard ground, not far from where I lay.

The man-beast writhed in fury, and tore at the hands that held him, but in vain. I saw his head fall limply back, and his limbs relax. Zobo, with a deep breath, let go his hold, and I beheld on his face a look of mingled fear and loathing for the deed he had done.

Then I looked back on the prostrate form of mine enemy, and I cried out in warning, for the Mad Man had but feigned death.

Quick as thought, the Queen’s soldier turned also, but too late. Izab had seized a stone that lay at hand, and the missile struck Zobo full on the forehead as he tried to rise. The Keeper of the Seal fell backward and was still. I looked to see my enemy rise and trample on the prostrate body, but it was not to be.

The Mad Man’s arms moved once above his head; a hoarse, guttural murmur came from beneath his clenched teeth.

The moon shone forth glorious indeed, but the body of my friend and the body of my foe alike lay motionless.

Then the bayonet thicket was parted yet once more, and the form of a woman thickly veiled and wrapped in a mantle appeared in the open.

With a swift, gliding motion she crossed the space; looked once at me and then towards the quiet bodies in the moonlight.

She passed the Mad Man’s lifeless form and spurned it contemptuously with her foot. Then she turned to where Zobo lay, with upturned face and staring eyes, before her. Motionless as he, she stayed an instant; then, with an indescribably graceful gesture, she took her cloak from her shoulders, and spread it over Edba’s victim.

Once more she faced me, flinging back the veil that shrouded her, and I saw that she was none other than Lah, the Queen.

What happened next is only dimly present in my remembrance. As in a dream, I knew that her lips met mine; that my bonds fell from me at her touch, and that I walked a free man once more, but not firmly, because of weakness, towards the bodies of the dead.

My hand instinctively sought Zobo’s heart; and without surprise, because in my weak state nothing could have surprised me, I found that it still beat, though faintly.

“Come,” said Lah, imperiously; “I have risked more than you dream of to come thus, and at this hour, and to you. My life with your life trembles in the balance. Now,—even at this moment,—Agno himself may come, and then no power of mine could save us. Leave here the body of my servant to die as he would wish, at my command, for me.”

These words I remember sounded in my ears, and more, but I had never yet left a fallen friend in trouble, still less would I desert now one who had all but given his life for mine.

Something of this I said to her, and seeing that I was bent upon my purpose, Lah bade me lift the wounded soldier.

“If you can bear him hence with my aid, not a dozen steps from here in a secret place in the thicket help will meet you,” said the Queen, but as one who grudged to yield her will to mine.

How I did it I never knew. Weakness and long fast had made even my own weight a sore burden, but I steeled my shrinking muscles to their duty, and Lah, with supple strength beyond her sex, helped me in the task.

So, half dragging, half supporting, the unconscious form we went, till at a word from the Queen I halted.

Lah stooped and knocked twice and then twice again upon a block of granite that rose from the ground.

I heard a dull noise sounding distantly from somewhere, and behold, before us, the earth itself had opened.

At Lah’s command I swung myself down into the black depth.

Strong hands seized me; Lah called that she and Zobo followed, and—I knew no more.