s evil, heaven born, just as good begets good. The Colonel
Sahib did wrong. And who shall deny some of these gurus a supernatural
power? I have seen; I know."

"But once you said that we should eventually escape, all of us."

"And I still say it, Mem-sahib. What is written is written,"
phlegmatically.

Wearily she turned toward her tent, but paused to touch the head of her
sleeping father as she passed. Her occidental mind would not and could
not accept as possibilities these mysterious attributes of the oriental
mind. That a will could reach out and prearrange a man's misfortunes
was to her mind incredible, for there were no precedents. She never
had witnessed a genuine case of hypnotism; those examples she had seen
were miserable buffooneries, travesties, hoodwinking not even the
newsboys in the upper gallery. True, she had sometimes read of such
things, but from the same angle with which she had read the Arabian
Nights--fairy stories.

Yet, here was her father, thoroughly convinced of the efficacy of the
guru's curse; and here was Ahmed, complacently watching the effects,
and not doubting in the least that his guru would in the end prove the
stronger of the two.

One of the elephants clanked his chains restlessly. He may have heard
the prowling of a cat. Far beyond the fire, beyond the sentinel, she
thought she saw a naked form flash out and back of a tree. She stared
intently at the tree for a time; but as she saw nothing more, she was
convinced that her eyes had deceived her. Besides her body seemed dead
and her mind too heavy for thought.

Umballa, having satisfied himself that the camp would not break till
morning, slunk away into the shadows. He had failed again; but his
hate had made him strong. He was naked except for a loin clout. His
beard and hair were matted, the latter hanging over his eyes. His body
was smeared with ashes. Not even Ahmed would have recognized him a
yard off. He had something less than nine hours to reach the cape
before they did; and it was necessary that he should have accomplices.
The fishermen he knew to be of predatory habits, and the promise of
gold would enmesh them.

The half island which constituted the cape had the shape of a miniature
volcano. There was verdure at the base of its slope and trees lifted
their heads here and there hardily. It was a mile long and half a mile
wide; and in the early morning it stood out like a huge sapphire
against the r