Afterwards | Page 7

of the moment; and the minor things of life were forgotten in the onrush of the vital things, the things which matter....
"Now, Dr. Anstice"--Anstice's professional instinct, so long in abeyance, warned him that the man's self-control was only, so to speak, skin-deep; and a quite unexpected and inexplicable rush of pity overwhelmed him as the cold voice went on speaking--"I think you will realize that I should like to hear your account of--of the affair that took place in that accursed Temple."
"I quite realize that." Anstice spoke slowly. "And I am ready to answer any questions you may like to ask."
"I--I think----" For a second Cheniston wavered, then spoke more humanly. "Won't you sit down? I should like, if I may, to hear the whole story from the beginning."
"I see. Well, you are quite within your rights in wishing to hear the story. No, I won't sit down, thanks. It won't take very long to tell."
Cheniston moved a step backwards and sat down on the edge of the bed, pushing the mosquito curtain impatiently aside. Then he took out his cigarette case, and, still with his steel-blue eyes on the other man's face, selected a cigarette which he held, unlighted, as he listened.
Standing in the middle of the floor, his hands in the pockets of his coat, Anstice began his story, and in spite of the fact that this man had robbed him of all that he held dear in life, Cheniston was forced to admit that at least he was proving himself no coward.
"When we set off on that fatal picnic"--Anstice took it for granted that his hearer knew the details of the occasion--"Miss Ryder and I went on ahead. We were both well mounted, and she was, as you know, a fearless horsewoman. We very soon out-distanced the others, and had gone a good way when Miss Ryder suggested we should visit a certain Temple of which it seems she had heard a great deal from a native servant. Had I known then, as I know now, the reputation of the place, and the intense hatred which the priests felt for any of the white races since that unlucky American affair"--he realized suddenly that he appeared to be excusing himself, and his manner hardened--"well, I can only regret that I allowed Miss Ryder to set foot in the place."
"You went?"
"Yes. It was only a few miles off the track, and we were so far ahead of the party that we should easily have had time to get to our original destination for lunch. Well, we went on, found the Temple, apparently deserted----"
"Apparently?" The question shot out like steel. "There was someone there?"
"Yes. We both realized at the same moment that we were not alone. You must understand that the place is half in ruins--it's a clever subterfuge of the priests to keep out intruders by pretending there is nothing there of interest. Most people turn back after a perfunctory look round; but in reality if one penetrates through one or two passages one comes to the Temple proper, where Heaven knows what rites go on."
"You reached it?"
"Yes. Thinking the place was merely a ruin I went on quite comfortably ... and suddenly we found ourselves in a sort of Holy of Holies ... a queer, pillared place with an enormous idol in a kind of recess--an altar, I suppose." His voice was tense. "It was at that moment we both realized someone was watching us, malignantly, from some unseen vantage-point. I turned to Miss Ryder to suggest, as quietly as possible, that we should retrace our steps, and found her, very pale, staring ahead of her with horror in her face."
"She had seen--something?"
"Yes. Afterwards she told me it was the glitter of the man's eyes ... he was looking through a kind of hole in the embroidered drapery behind the idol ... that had attracted her attention; and she was only too ready to fall in with my suggestion."
"You were--prevented?"
"Yes. As we turned towards the opening we found we were too late. Three tall fellows--priests, I suppose they were--had come up behind us, and as we moved they seized us ... two men held my arms--the third----" His voice broke.
"He--held Miss Ryder?"
"Yes. He wasn't rough with her." The words, which happened to be untrue, sounded painfully inadequate in his own ears. "They gave us no time to explain anything, but took us before the Chief Priest, or someone of the kind, and stated that we had been found desecrating the Temple by our unhallowed presence."
"You explained that you had done it in ignorance?"
"Of course. But"--he smiled rather cynically--"they had evidently heard that before. You know the Americans who got into trouble there had really laid a plot to carry away some memento of their visit, and they thought