way ye came, that way shall ye depart. Food for ye I have not, nor
would I give it if I had." I turned to Denviers and said in a low
tone:--

"What shall we do, Frank? I don't think our opportunity of seeing what
may transpire will be as good within the hut as without it. Whatever the
solution is to this affair, if we are outside we shall see this Kachyen
dragged away, and may further watch the approach of whatever caused
those strange marks which we observed."

"One thing is clear," said my companion, "we will attempt to save this
intended victim, at all events. I expect that if we tried we could get
him away easily enough, but that plan would not be of much service. We
must attack this being, whatever it is, with which this Maw-Sayah is
leagued. How I should like to hand him over as a victim instead of that
trembling captive by the door. It shows to what extent this juggler has
acquired power over this tribe, for I notice that his captive is
unbound, and is certainly a much finer built man than the other."

"It wants less than an hour to dusk, sahibs," said Hassan, who had
listened carefully to our remarks; "if we were to station ourselves a
little away from the hut we could see what took place, and if the Nat
were mortal we might attack it."

Denviers shrugged his shoulders at the Arab's supposition as he
responded:--

"There is little doubt, Hassan, that the Nat would smart if that keen
blade of yours went a little too near it, but I think your plan is a
good one, and we will adopt it, as it falls in with what has already
been said." We gave a final look at the crafty face of the man who was
still seated by the fire, and then brushing past the captive we made for
the open village again.

"I feel sorry for this Kachyen," said Denviers. "He will have a dreadful
five minutes of it, I expect; but it is our only way of preventing, if
possible, such an affair from occurring again." On leaving the hut we
stationed ourselves almost opposite to it, and then began to keep watch.
What we should see pass up the avenue we could only surmise, but our
suppositions certainly did not lead us to imagine in the faintest degree
the sight which before long was destined to completely startle us.

III.

The grey dusk was becoming night when among the dark stems of the trees
we saw some black form move over the ground. We could scarcely
distinguish it as it crawled over the bamboo logs and made a rasping
noise as it clung to t