ran the regal
missive, had been suddenly and mysteriously attacked by a dangerous malady,
but confidently anticipated relief from Ananda's merits and incantations.

Ananda resumed his thigh-bone and his skull, and ruefully began to thump
the latter with the former, in dismal expectation of the things that were
to come. But the spell seemed to have lost its potency. Nothing more
unearthly than a bat presented itself, and Ananda was beginning to think
that he might as well desist when his reflections were diverted by the
apparition of a tall and grave personage, wearing a sad-coloured robe, and
carrying a long wand, who stood by his side as suddenly as though just
risen from the earth.

"The caldron is ready," said the stranger.

"What caldron?" demanded Ananda.

"That wherein thou art about to be immersed."

"I immersed in a caldron! wherefore?"

"Thy spells," returned his interlocutor, "having hitherto failed to afford
his majesty the slightest relief, and his experience of their efficacy on a
former occasion forbidding him to suppose that they can be inoperative, he
is naturally led to ascribe to their pernicious influence that aggravation
of pain of which he has for some time past unfortunately been sensible. I
have confirmed him in this conjecture, esteeming it for the interest of
science that his anger should fall upon an impudent impostor like thee
rather than on a discreet and learned physician like myself. He has
consequently directed the principal caldron to be kept boiling all night,
intending to immerse thee therein at daybreak, unless he should in the
meantime derive some benefit from thy conjurations."

"Heavens!" exclaimed Ananda, "whither shall I fly?"

"Nowhere beyond this cemetery," returned the physician, "inasmuch as it is
entirely surrounded by the royal forces."

"Wherein, then," demanded the agonized apostle, "doth the path of safety
lie?"

"In this phial," answered the physician. "It contains a subtle poison.
Demand to be led before the king. Affirm that thou hast received a
sovereign medicine from the hands of benignant spirits. He will drink it
and perish, and thou wilt be richly rewarded by his successor."

"Ayaunt, tempter!" cried Ananda, hurling the phial indignantly away. "I
defy thee! and will have recourse to my old deliverer--_Gnooh Imdap Inam
Mua!"_

But the charm appeared to fail of its effect. No figure was visible to his
gaze, save that of the physician, who seemed to re