Part 7 (2/2)
”The people weep their tears for her pain; but she heals their hurts with a look. She restores their dead memories of youth to old men--their memories of dead loves. She restores the eyes of girlhood to the elder women, who have long been weary with yearning after dead little ones--after dead men. She has taught the little people who cannot think--the child-hearted people--that Love-the-transcendent can never die!
”Dhoop Ki Dhil? She is youth, eternal! She is motherhood--the divine lotus of the world!”
Turning to face Cadman and Skag, the man said gently:
”The way lies before you. Go swiftly now. Peace.”
And rising softly in the dead hush, he moved away.
Cadman sat long meditating, before he spoke at all; then it was like thinking aloud:
”A mystic brother of the Vindhas--one with the old man outside; not leaving these little semi-primitives alone--identifies himself with them--that's good business!”
”Let's get on!” breathed Skag.
They made the utmost speed possible, till they came to the village that startled them. The childlike care-freedom was gone. Light-heartedness was quenched. Apprehension took its place; low tones, no laughter--a look of helpless suffering like the large-eyed wonder in the face of a grieved child.
They asked about the next village.
”Fear lives there,” they were told.
”What fear?” Cadman asked.
”Do you know the king of all serpents--he who comes over any wall, he who goes through any thatch? He dwells there. He feeds upon the children of men and upon their creatures. He comes only to the edge, but he eats!”
The boy who told them this was so different from other boys they had seen, that Cadman asked him direct:
”Who are you?”
”I am here under a master, doing a certain work in my novitiate,” the boy said simply.
”Will you take us there in the morning?” Cadman asked.
The boy looked at them intently, before he answered:
”It is just inside the nesting-place of all the serpents in the world; but Fear is their king. We who are here to serve, have no weapons; and we cannot overcome malignant things with kindness. If you will deliver the people from that serpent-king, by destroying his evil life, all the snakes will go further back into the jungle. For many generations--if the G.o.ds will, for always--the innocent people will be safe. I will take you there, if you will kill him.”
”We will try,” Cadman said, not even turning to look at Skag.
They found the village in total paralysis of all natural activities. It was like a deadly pall. This was no new terror; it was old devastation--bred into the bone of consciousness.
A little girl came near to watch Cadman, who was getting out his gun.
She had never seen one before. He whispered to her--it seemed not right to speak aloud in this place--and asked her where was Dhoop Ki Dhil. The child shook her head, but answered him:
”Wherever you will see the sun-melted red.”
”What is that?” he wondered.
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