my back as she hauled taut. I spun round
and stepped forward to slacken the noose and free myself, and two more
nooses went over my head in swift succession. Another caught my right
foot--another my right hand! More women came, with more ropes. It was
only a matter of seconds before they were almost dragging me asunder as
they hauled, two hags to a rope, and every one of them straining as if
the game were tug-of-war.

There was nothing else to do, and plenty of inducement, so I did it. I
yelled. I sent my voice bellowing through those echoing halls to such
tune that if King were anywhere in the place he would have to hear me.
But it did me no good. They only produced a gag and added that to my
discomfort, shoving a great lump of rubber in my mouth and wrapping a
towel over it so tightly that I could hardly breathe.

Then came Yasmini, gorgeously amused, standing at the top of the steps
where the inner hall was raised a few feet above the outer, and ordering
me blindfolded as well as rendered dumb.

"For if he can see as well as he can roar he will presently know too
much," she explained sarcastically.

So they wrapped another towel over my eyes and pinned it with a cursed
export safety-pin that pierced clean through my scalp. And the harder I
struggled, the tighter they pulled on the ropes and the louder Yasmini
laughed, until I might as well have been on that rack that King and I
saw in the cavern underneath the temple.

"So strong _Ganesha-ji_!" she mocked. "So strong and yet so impotent!
Such muscles! Look at them! Can the buffalo hear, or are his ears
stopped too?"

A woman rearranged the head-towel to make sure that my ears were missing
nothing; after which Yasmini purred her pleasantest.

"O buffalo Ganesha, I would have you whipped to death if I thought that
would not anger Athelstan! What do you mistake me for? Me, who have been
twice a queen! That was a mighty jump from my window; and even as the
buffalo you swam, Ganesha! Buffalo, buffalo! Who but a buffalo would
snatch my Athelstan away from me, and then return alone! What have you
done with him? Hah! You would like to answer that you have done nothing
with him--buffalo, buffalo! He would never have left you willingly, nor
you him--you two companions who share one foolish little bag between
you!

"Does he love you? Hope, Ganesha! Hope that he loves you! For unless he
comes to find you, Ganesha, all the horrors that you saw last night, and
all the d