those poor creatures fell under the fascination and drooped with heads to
the ground. Now for the first time I caught sight of an oblong object
rising a couple of feet above the ground in the center of the circle. I
was wondering what it might be when the spinning priests, who had
gradually drawn closer to the ring of worshipers, dived into the circle,
and, catching each a native in his arms, ran with their captives to the
curious object that I have just described.

"It's a sacrificial stone!" exclaimed Edmund. "They're going to kill them
as an offering to the earth and her child the moon."

I was frozen with horror at the sight, but just as the second priest
reached the altar, where the first victim had already been pinned with
the sharp point of the sacrificial staff, his captive, suddenly
recovering his senses, and terrified by the awful fate confronting him,
uttered a cry, wrenched himself loose, and, running like the wind, leaped
over the circle and disappeared in the darkness. The fugitive passed
close by us, and Jack shouted as he darted past:

"Good boy!"

The enraged priest was after him like lightning, and as he came near us
his awful eyes seemed to emit actual flames. But the runner had vanished.
Without an instant's hesitation the priest shot out his great arm and
caught _me_ by the throat! In another second I felt myself carried in a
bound, as if a tiger had seized me, over the drooping heads of the
worshipers and toward the horrible altar.