"Away with her that she may seek her Lord in his own place," cried Nam.

"Away with her, her day is done," echoed the multitude. Then, before
Juanna could interfere, before she could even speak, for, be it
remembered, she alone understood all that was said, the two priests who
guarded the doomed woman rent the robe from her and with one swing of
their strong arms hurled her backwards far into the pool of seething
waters.

She fell with a shriek and lay floating on their surface, flung this way
and that by the eddy of the whirlpool just where the moonlight beat most
brightly. All who could of the multitude bent forward to see her end,
and overcome by a fearful fascination, Leonard threw himself on his
face, and, craning his head over the stone of the idol's hand, watched
also, for the girl's struggling shape was almost immediately beneath
him. Another minute and he would have foregone the hope of winning the
treasure which he had come so far to seek, not to have yielded to the
impulse.

For as he stared, the waters beneath the feet of the idol were agitated
as a pond is agitated by the rush of a pike when he dashes at his prey.
Then for an instant the light gleamed upon a dull enormous shape, and
suddenly the head of a crocodile reared itself out of the pool. The head
of a crocodile, but of such a crocodile as he had never heard or dreamed
of, for this head alone was broader than the breast of the biggest man,
its dull eyes were the size of a man's fist, its yellow fangs were like
the teeth of a lion, and from its lower jaw hung tentacles or lumps
of white flesh which at that distance gave it the appearance of being
bearded like a goat. Also, the skin of this huge reptile, which could
not have measured less than fifty feet in length by four feet in depth,