Afterwards | Page 8

we were after loot of some kind, too, I suppose."
"They wouldn't listen?"
"Oh, yes, they listened all right while I tried, with Miss Ryder's help, to explain. She knew a few words of their tongue, and somehow a situation of that sort sharpens one's wits to the extent of helping one to understand a strange lingo. The upshot was we were blindfolded"--he saw Cheniston wince at the thought of the indignity to the girl he had loved--"and led away. Later we were placed in a conveyance of some sort, a bullock cart, I imagine, and driven for hours over some of the worst ground I've ever struck."
"Well?" The interest of the story was gripping the other man through all his horror, and his tone had lost its hostility for the moment. "And then?"
"Finally we were released, led into a small hut, our eyes were unbandaged, and we were informed that our fate was being deliberated, and the result would be made known to us at sunset."
"And at sunset----"
"At sunset we were sent for to the presence of a still more important personage, another High Priest, I suppose. We were taken into a kind of presence chamber, across the large courtyard, and found our friends of the morning, kow-towing to this still higher potentate. He didn't waste words on us. Through the miserable creature who had interpreted for us earlier, he made us understand that the penalty for setting foot in their holy place was death--by strangulation as a general rule----"
Cheniston's lips turned white, and his cigarette dropped to the floor; but though Anstice saw his agitation he paid no attention.
"But in consideration of the fact that we were English and one of us was a woman"--Cheniston uttered an involuntary exclamation--"our sentence was that we should be shot in the courtyard at sunrise."
"One moment." Cheniston's voice was harsh, and he moistened his lips before he spoke. "Weren't you armed? Couldn't you have--have made a fight for it?"
For the first time Anstice lost control of himself. The dark blood rushed to his brow and his eyes flashed with anger.
"Good God, man, do you suppose if I'd been armed we should have submitted tamely? As a matter of fact, the brutes who attacked us in the first place seized my revolver before I had a chance to draw it ... and though I'm pretty tough, when it came to a struggle with those Indian devils they were like steel--iron--anything you choose to compare them with."
"I know--their muscles are marvellous--especially the Hill-men." His tone held a note of apology. "Of course, if you had had half a chance--but"--suddenly his voice changed, grew suspicious--"you had a revolver, in the end?"
"Yes. Miss Ryder's. They did not suspect her of carrying a weapon, you see, and it was a tiny one her uncle had given her, more as a toy than as a serious protection."
"She couldn't get at it to use it?"
"No. We were bound as well as blindfolded, you know." He spoke grimly. "Luckily Miss Ryder had the presence of mind to say nothing about it till we were alone in the hut, our hands untied. Then she gave it to me, and we found to our dismay that there was only one cartridge left."
"How was that?" He spoke quickly, but there was no suspicion in his tone now.
"Miss Ryder explained that she had been practising shooting with her uncle and had forgotten to reload. But"--he paused--"even had it been fully charged, I'm afraid our fate would have been unchanged."
Cheniston rose suddenly, took a few aimless steps across the floor, and then sank down on the bed again almost in his former position. In front of him Anstice stood motionless, his hands, clenched now, still in his pockets, his eyes the only live feature in the grey pallor of his face.
"Well!" Suddenly he threw back his head with a restless gesture, as though the strain of the interview was beginning to tell on him. "After hearing our sentence we were taken back to our hut, there to await the moment of sunrise--of our death."
"They gave you no food?" The question was almost futile in its triviality; but Anstice answered it quite naturally.
"Oh, yes, we were given food of a sort. Luckily I had a little flask of brandy, and once--at midnight--I persuaded Miss Ryder to take a few drops. She was splendidly brave throughout."
There was a short silence. Both men felt that the crux of the interview was at hand; and each, in his way, was preparing himself for it.
"Well?" It was Cheniston who spoke first. "The night wore on, I suppose, and you saw no hope of escape? But didn't you guess your absence would be remarked upon?"
"Of course. And we hoped against hope that someone would remember the Temple."
"They did--in the end?"
"Yes, and made all