of Hlo-hlo. Thangobrind knew this, but he was no common jeweller and
hoped to outwit Hlo-hlo, perceiving not the trend of ambition and lust
and that they are vanity.

How nimbly he threaded his way thought he pits of Snood!--now like a
botanist, scrutinising the ground; now like a dancer, leaping from
crumbling edges. It was quite dark when he went by the towers of Tor,
where archers shoot ivory arrows at strangers lest any foreigner
should alter their laws, which are bad, but not to be altered by mere
aliens. At night they shoot by the sound of the strangers' feet. O,
Thangobrind, was ever a jeweller like you! He dragged two stones
behind him by long cords, and at these the archers shot. Tempting
indeed was the snare that they set in Woth, the emeralds loose-set in
the city's gate; but Thangobrind discerned the golden cord that
climbed the wall from each and the weights that would topple upon him
if he touched one, and so he left them, though he left them weeping,
and at last came to Theth. There all men worship Hlo-hlo; though they
are willing to believe in other gods, as missionaries attest, but only
as creatures of the chase for the hunting of Hlo-hlo, who wears Their
halos, so these people say, on golden hooks along his hunting-belt.
And from Theth he came to the city of Moung and the temple of
Moung-ga-ling, and entered and saw the spider-idol, Hlo-hlo, sitting
there with Dead Man's Diamond glittering on his lap, and looking for
all the world like a full moon, but a full moon seen by a lunatic who
had slept too long in its rays, for there was in Dead Man's Diamond a
certain sinister look and a boding of things to happen that are better
not mentioned here. The face of the spider-idol was lit by that fatal
gem; there was no other light. In spite of his shocking limbs and that
demoniac body, his face was serene and apparently unconscious.