Part 10 (2/2)

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

Before we had struggled through it I thoughtwas upon us also, for in places there were deep rapids which nearly swept us away But Leo, aded, 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 overflohen 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 ht have left behind the rise, and would return with it presently to hunt us down At that time we did not knoe 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 so theplain, which led to the first slope of the Mountain three or four miles away Here we expected every es of e had heard socreature 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 a 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, loom, and as ent 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 hu Here was a veritable Valley of Dead Bones, thousands upon thousands of thereat 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 A a path up the opposing cliff, and finding none, until at length we ca which way to turn Then it was that we e experience on the Mountain

The gulf and itsrelics depressed us, so that for awhile ere silent, and, to tell the truth, somewhat afraid Yes, even the horse see its head and shi+vered Close by us lay a pile of bones, the remains evidently of a nu, 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 co 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 huure, apparently that of a woman-but of this I could not be sure-wrapped fro 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, shi+ed 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 a those naked rocks But the creature did not answer, it only continued to beckon

Leo walked up to it to assure himself that ere not the victilided back to its heap of bones and stood there like a ghost of one dead arisen fro evidences of death, or rather a swathed corpse, for that is what it rese it to assure himself of its reality, whereon it lifted its white-wrapped arhtly 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 , ”What shall we do?”

”Follow, I suppose It er from above,” and I nodded toward the mountain crest

”From below, more likely,” Leo uide”

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 ast 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 forain and we after it down a little gorge that grew ever glooallery cut in the rock

Here our guide ca the horse by the bridle, but at this nearer sight of it the brute snorted and reared up, so that it alain the figure struck it on the head in the same passionless, inhuman way that it had struck Leo, whereon the horse tre 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 ere being led by this horrible conductor, and suspected that it uessed that the path was narrow and bordered by soulf, for as ent I heard stones fall, apparently to a considerable depth, while the poor horse lifted its feet gingerly and snorted in abject fear At lengthdaylight, and never was I h 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

Noere 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 alsoevidences of huround 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 ahundreds of fantastic lava boulders strewn about its slopes Before we had gone a mile I heard a shrill whistle, and suddenly fro a number of men, quite fifty of them All we could note at the ti fellows, for the h their cooat skins and carried spears and shi+elds I should iine that they were not unlike the ancient Picts and Scots as they appeared to the invading Ro 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 toplayed, she, if it were a wo 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 es ithin 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 reht of her down on to their faces went those wildstroke had in an instant swept them out of existence Then she let her arreat felloho, I suppose, was the leader of the band, rose and crept towards her with bowed head, sub to us, pointing to the far-off Peak, crossing and uncrossing her white-wrapped ar no word It was evident that the chief understood her, however, for he said soe 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 cauide motioned to us to proceed, and led the way upward as cal had happened

For over two hours ent on thus till our path brought us frorassy declivity, across which it wound its way Here, to our astonish above the fire an earthenware pot, which was on the boil, although we could see no nalled toto the pot in token that ere to eat the food which doubtless she had ordered the wild lad was I to obey her Provision had been reat bundle of green forage

While Leo off-saddled the beast and spread the provender for it, taking with e of the torrent to drink and steep reatly, though by noas sure fros had fortunately only broken or injured the s finished attending to it as well as I was able, I filled the jar ater

Onto where our uide 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 tiht, for it seement of the courtesy If so-and I may have been mistaken-this was all, for the next instant she turned her back on ht I knew, could not drink Neither would she eat, for when Leo tried her afterwards with food she refused it in like fashi+on

Meanwhile he had taken the pot off the fire, and as soon as its contents grew cool enough we fell on the 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 akened 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 soer ravenous

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

The sun sank and ent on through the twilight The twilight died and ent on through the dark, our path lit only by the stars and the faint radiance of the glowing pillar of shty mantle of its snows Fore toiled, whilst a few paces ahead of us walked our unwearying guide If she had seehost, as, clad in her graveyard white, upon which the faint light shi+lided 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 e passed an open patch and through the shadows of a grove, till at length as thea path that ran down it, cae 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 athered several hundred ed in a seed in the celebration of soh In front of theantic, red-bearded irdle about his loins He inging hi upon his hips, and as he swung, shouting so like ”Ho, haha, ho!” When he bent towards the audience it bent towards hihtened himself it echoed his final shout of ”Ho!” in a volu 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 eneral effect of this scene, lit by the bright ht and set in that wild arena, it was never my lot to witness The red-haired, half-naked antic priest, thehis scalp with its claaved its tail and seemed to take a part in the perfor chorus, all helped to make it extraordinarily impressive This struck us the uess its significance, though we iined that itIt was like the fraghtless reality

Now round the open space where these savages were celebrating their worshi+p, or whatever it ht, in which as a gateway Towards this we advanced quite unseen, for upon our side of the wall grew uide led us, till in the thickest of theateway and a little to the right of it, she motioned to us to stop

Then she went to a low place in the wall and stood there as though she were considering the scene beyond It seemed to us, indeed, that she sahat she had not expected and was thereby perplexed or angered Presently she appeared to ain shesilence upon us by placing her swathed hand upon the one How she went, or whither, I cannot say; all we kneas that she was no longer there

”What shall we do nohispered Leo to ain or so else to be done, we stayed, hoping that the horse would not betray us by neighing, or that we ht not be otherwise discovered, since ere certain that if so we should be in danger of death Very soon, however, we forgot the anxieties of our own position in the study of the wild scene before us, which now began to develop a fearful interest

It would seem that what has been described was but preliminary to the drama itself, and that this drama was the trial of certain people for their lives This we could guess, for after awhile the incantation ceased and the crowd in front of the big man with the cat upon his head opened out, while behind hiht had been set to some sunk furnace

Into the space that had thus been cleared were now led seven persons, whose hands were tied behind them They were of both sexes and included an old ure, who appeared to be quite young, scarcely ed in a line where they stood, clearly in great fear, for the old an to sob Thus they were left awhile, perhaps to allow the fire behind thereat fierceness, throwing a vivid light upon every detail of the spectacle

Now all was ready, and a ht a wooden tray to the red-bearded priest, as seated on a stool, the white cat upon his knees, whither we had seen it leap from his head a little while before He took the tray by its handles and at a word from him the cat jumped on to it and sat there Then amidst the most intense silence he rose and uttered so him This done he turned the tray round so that the creature's back was noards hian to walk up and down in front of the a little nearer

Holding out the tray, he presented it at the face of the prisoner on the left, whereon the cat rose, arched its back and began to lift its paws up and down Presently he moved to the next prisoner and held it before hi wory, for in the death-like stillness we could hear it spitting and growling At length it seeirl upon the face, whereon she screamed aloud, a terrible screale word, which we understood, for we had heard one very like it used by the people of the Plain It was ”Witch! Witch! Witch!”

Executioners aiting for the victim to be chosen in this ordeal by cat, rushed forward and seizing the girl began to drag her towards the fire The prisoner as standing by her and e rightly guessed to be her husband, tried to protect her, but his ar One of the executioners knocked him doith a stick For a moment his wife escaped and threw herself upon hi her towards the fire, whilst all the audience shouted wildly