Part 6 (2/2)
To the north, however, this smooth, uided us froreat distance from us, more than a hundred ht in that clear air Many leagues froan to rise in brown and rugged hillocks, fro point that soared full twenty thousand feet into the heavens
Yes, and there upon the nether lip of its crater stood the gigantic pillar, surin rock, whereof the blackness stood out gri snow beneath
We gazed at it with awe, as e ht also prove theireven then that yonder our fate would declare itself I noted further that all those with us did it reverence by bowing their heads as they caught sight of the peak, and by laying the first finger of the right hand across the first finger of the left, a gesture, as we afterwards discovered, designed to avert its evil influence Yes, even Si to inherited superstition of which I should scarcely have suspected him
”Have you ever journeyed to that Mountain?” asked Leo of him
Simbri shook his head and answered evasively
”The people of the Plain do not set foot upon the Mountain A its slopes beyond the river which washes thee men, e are oftentiry they raid our cattle and our crops Moreover, there, when the Mountain labours, run red streaain hot ashes fall that slay the traveller”
”Do the ashes ever fall in your country?” asked Leo
”They have been known to do so when the Spirit of the Mountain is angry, and that is e fear her”
”Who is this Spirit?” said Leo eagerly
”I do not know, lord,” he answered with ih you aze on the old man's waxen face and uneasy eyes For now their horny calh they had beheld soht that haunted him
”You do me too much honour, lord,” he replied; ”my skill and vision do not reach so far But see, here is the landing-stage, where boats await us, for the rest of our journey is by water”
These boats proved to be roo flat bows and sterns, since, although so, not to be roith oars Leo and I entered the largest of them, and to our joy were left alone except for the steersman
Behind us was another boat, in which were attendants and slaves, and some men who looked like soldiers, for they carried bows and swords Now the ponies were taken froreen hide, fastened to iron rings in the prows of the boats, were fixed to the towing tackle hich the animals had been reharnessed Then we started, the ponies, two arranged tande path that was furnished ooden bridges wherever canals or tributary streams entered the ether again at last! Do you remember, Horace, that e entered the land of Kor it was thus, in a boat? The tale repeats itself”
”I can quite believe it,” I answered ”I can believe anything Leo, I say that we are but gnats meshed in a web, and yonder Khania is the spider and Siuards the net But tell me all you remember of what has happened to you, and be quick, for I do not kno long they may leave us alone”
”Well,” he said, ”of course I remember our arrival at that Gate after the lady and the oldof spiders re of yak's hide Not that I need et it Do you know I cut the rope because I felt that I was going mad, and wished to die sane What happened to you? Did you slip?”
”No; I juht begin again together”
”Brave old Horace!” he said affectionately, the tears starting to his grey eyes
”Well, never ht when you said that we should get through, and we have Now for your tale”
”It is interesting, but not very long,” he answered, colouring ”I went to sleep, and when I woke it was to find a beautiful woht that it was-you knoho, and that she kissed me; but perhaps it was all a dream”
”It was no dream,” I answered ”I saw it”
”I am sorry to hear it-very sorry At any rate there was the beautiful woman-the Khania-for I saw her plenty of times afterwards, and talked to her in my best modern Greek-by the way, Ayesha knew the old Greek; that's curious”
”She knew several of the ancient tongues, and so did other people Go on”
”Well, she nursed ht there was nothing h to refuse to talk about our somewhat eventful past I pretended not to understand, said that ere explorers, etc, and kept asking her where you were, for I forgot to say I found that you had gone I think that she grew rather angry with uess, I wanted to know a good deal But I could get nothing out of her except that she was the Khania-a person in authority There was no doubt about that, for when one of those slaves or servants ca to draw the facts out of me, she called to some of her people to throw hi down the stairs very quickly
”Well, I could h why she should be so tenderly interested in a stranger, I don't know-unless, unless-oh! who is she, Horace?”
”If you will go on I will tell you what I think presently One tale at a ti, coht, which upset htto sleep, the Khania came in alone, dressed like a queen I can tell you she looked really royal, like a princess in a fairy book, with a crown on, and her chestnut black hair flowing round her
”Well, Horace, then she began to ht, looked atthat we had known each other in the past-very well indeed I gathered-and i that she wished to continue our friendshi+p I fenced with her as best I could; but aon his back with a very handso him compliments
”The end of it was that, driven to it by her questions and to stop that sort of thing, I told her that I was looking for my wife, whom I had lost, for, after all, Ayesha is ested that I need not look far; in short, that the lost as already found-in herself, who had come to save me from death in the river Indeed, she spoke with such conviction that I grew sure that she was notherself, and felt very much inclined to believe her, for, after all, Ayesha ed now
”Then while I was at my wits' end I remembered the lock of hair-all that remains to us of her,” and Leo touched his breast ”I drew it out and coht of it she becaer than hers, and not in the least like
”Horace, I tell you that the touch of that lock of hair-for she did touch it-appeared to act upon her nature like nitric acid upon shaold It turned it black; all the bad in her carew ale she ht be wicked as we understand it, and was certainly terrible, but she was never either coarse or vulgar, anyis
”Well, from that moment I was sure that whoever this Khaniato do with Ayesha; they are so different that they never could have been the same-like the hair So I lay quiet and let her talk, and coax, and threaten on, until at length she drew herself up and marched from the room, and I heard her lock the door behind her That's all I have to tell you, and quite enough too, for I don't think that the Khania has done with me, and, to say the truth, I ah Now sit still, and don't start or talk loud, for that steersman is probably a spy, and I can feel old Simbri's eyes fixed upon our backs Don't interrupt either, for our time alone may be short”
Then I set to work and told hi I knehile he listened in blank astonishment
”Great Heavens! what a tale,” he exclaimed as I finished ”Noho is this Hesea who sent the letter from the Mountain? And ho is the Khania?”
”Who does your instinct tell you that she is, Leo?”
”Amenartas?” he whispered doubtfully ”The woyptian princess-o? Amenartas re-born?”
I nodded ”I think so Why not? As I have told you again and again, I have always been certain of one thing, that if ere allowed to see the next act of the piece, we should find A part in it; you will remember I wrote as much in that record
”If the old Buddhist monk Kou-en could remember his past, as thousands of them swear that they do, and be sure of his identity continued from that past, why should not this woman, with so much at stake, helped as she is by the wizardry of the Shaman, her uncle, faintly remember hers?
”At any rate, Leo, why should she not still be sufficiently under its influence to cause her, without any fault or seeking of her own, to fall ht with a uh, Horace, and if so I am sorry for the Khania, who hasn't much choice in the matter-been forced into it, so to speak”
”Yes, but uard yourself I believe that this is a trial sent to you, and doubtless there will be more to follow But I believe also that it would be better for you to die than to make any mistake”
”I knoell,” he answered; ”and you need not be afraid Whatever this Khaniaat all-that story is done with I seek Ayesha, and Ayesha alone, and Venus herself shall not tean to speak with hope and fear of that mysterious Hesea who had sent the letter fro the Shaman Simbri to hty from of old” and had ”servants in the earth and air”
Presently the prow of our barge bu round I saw that Si to enter ours This he did, and, placing hihtfall was coive us his coh the dark