n during our period of
severance.

"Then I turned to the Ganapati, and after swathing him as before in the
cotton quilt, so as to deaden the sound of the gong, with my hands
beneath the covering I pressed upon the jewelled eyeballs. I had not
gazed upon the blue diamonds since the day when I had restored the two
stones shown to the banian merchant in Lahore. As the wheels now clicked
and the muffled bell commenced its dulled clangor, the uneasy thought
came to my mind that perhaps the treasure had in the interval been
spirited away by some devilish jugglery. But when at last silence fell,
and I whipped the cloth aside, there reposed the crystal casket, and,
the lid of gold removed, my eyes fastened with grim satisfaction upon
the clustered heap of gems, gleaming in the light of my tiny oil lamp
like drops of rain in a flash of lightning.

"Assured of their safety, I pressed down the cap on the casket, and
bound the crystal ball securely in my waistband.

"Then I turned round to seize an iron hammer which I had brought with me
for the deliberate purpose of smashing the accursed idol to pieces,
partly in revenge, partly to secure the bejewelled eyeballs. But at that
very moment I became possessed with the notion that I was not alone in
the room. My heart beat wildly, and I raised aloft the little lamp.
Nothing but four bare walls, and not even a window through which an
enemy might be peering!

"I breathed again, and grasped the handle of the hammer. Yet my uneasy
dread was still with me, for I paused once more, this time to listen.
Not a sound without, or the whisper of a sound!

"But what was that?--the creak of a timber not louder than if a mouse
had stirred. And, directed by the faint sound, I saw the wooden bolt
that fastened the door on the inside heave, just once, as if by the
pressure of a lever cautiously at work on the other side. The hammer
slipped to the rug from my unnerved fingers.

"Lamp in hand, I stole to the door, on tiptoe, step by step, afraid to
awaken the echo of a footfall. I touched the wooden bolt with a finger
tip; I pressed my ear against the panel. And now, every fibre of my
being at tension, my senses quickened by the unseen but certain presence
of danger, I could hear at the other side of the thin boards the eager
breathing of the fanatic devil of a priest who had come to slay me,
miserably trapped like a panther in a pit. At this thought the very
blood froze in my veins. My hand relaxe