had already endured--all weighed on me with the sense of impending
doom. I summoned all my fortitude to my aid. I told myself that Ringan
believed in me, and that I had the assurance that God would not see me
cast down. But such courage as I had was now a resolve rather than any
exhilaration of spirits. A brooding darkness lay on me like a cloud.

Presently the hush grew deeper, and from the tent a man came. I could
not see him clearly, but the flickering light told me that he was very
tall, and that, like the Indians, he was naked to the middle. He stood
behind the altar, and began some incantation.

It was in the Indian tongue which I could not understand. The voice was
harsh and discordant, but powerful enough to fill that whole circle of
hill. It seemed to rouse the passion of the hearers, for grave faces
around me began to work, and long-drawn sighs came from their lips.

Then at a word from the figure four men advanced, bearing something
between them, which they laid on the altar. To my amazement I saw that
it was a great yellow panther, so trussed up that it was impotent to
hurt. How such a beast had ever been caught alive I know not. I could
see its green cat's eyes glowing in the dark, and the striving of its
muscles, and hear the breath hissing from its muzzled jaws.

The figure raised a knife and plunged it into the throat of the great
cat. The slow lapping of blood broke in on the stillness. Then the
voice shrilled high and wild. I could see that the man had marked his
forehead with blood, and that his hands were red and dripping. He
seemed to be declaiming some savage chant, to which my neighbours began
to keep time with their bodies. Wilder and wilder it grew, till it
ended in a scream like a seamew's. Whoever the madman was, he knew the