-ridden
province dangled in mid-air.

"In case of a rush," said Brown quietly, "all but two of you let go! The
remainder seize your rifles and fire independently. The two men on the
rope, haul taut, and make fast to the tree-trunk. This tree's as good a
place to die as anywhere, but he dies first! Understand?"

The fakir rolled his eyes, and tried to make some sort of signal with
his free arm.

"Just a wee shade tighter!" ordered Brown. "I'm not sure, but I think
he's seeing reason!"

The fakir gurgled. No one but a native, and he a wise one, could have
recognized a meaning in the guttural gasp that he let escape him.

"He says 'All right! sahib!'" translated the Beluchi.

"Good!" said Brown. "Ease away on the rope; men! And now! You all heard
what I told him. If he says 'Hookum hai!' you all let go the rope, and
fall flat. But keep hold of your rifles!"

The fakir's voice, rose in a high-pitched, nasal wail, and from the
darkness all around them there came an answering murmur that was like
the whispering of wind through trees. By the sound, there must have been
a crowd of more than a hundred there, and either the crowd was sneaking
around them to surround them at close quarters, or else the crowd was
growing.

"Keep awake, men!" cautioned Brown.

"Aye, aye, sir! All awake, sir!"

"Listen, now! And if he says one word except what I told him he might
say, tip me the wink at once."

Brown swung the Beluchi out in front of him where he could hear the
fakir better.

"I'll hang you, remember, after I've hanged him, if anything goes
wrong!"

"He is saying, sahib, exactly what you said."

"He'd better! Listen now! Listen carefully! Look out for tricks!"

The fakir paused a second from his high-pitched monologue, and a murmur
from the darkness answered him.

"Stand by to haul tight, you men!"

"All ready, sir!"

The rope tightened just a little--just sufficiently to keep the fakir
cognizant of its position. The fakir howled out a sort of singsong
dirge, which plainly had imperatives in every line of it. At each
short pause for breath he added something in an undertone that made the
Beluchi strain his ears.

"He says, sahib, that they understand. He says, 'Now is the time!' He
says now he will order 'Hookum hai!' He says, 'Are you ready?' He says,
sahib,--he says it, sahib,--not I--he says, 'Thou art a fool to stare
thus! Thou and thy men are fools! Stare, instead, as men who are
bewitched!'"

"Try t