ith more voices
than day. But the golden bow of a young moon, bright and clear, gave a
sufficient light to make out anything moving, save under the black
darkness of the trees.

"What is thy name?" I said suddenly, turning to one of the slaves.

"Suru, father," he replied.

"Well then, Suru, attend," I said. "Remain here, in this open space
beside this small rock, and stir not hence until I send for or call
thee. To fail in thy orders in the smallest particular is death."

But the man sank on the ground at my feet.

"Slay me now, father," he entreated, "for death by one blow of the spear
of the mighty do I prefer to the awfulness and horror of the death which
shall come upon me here alone."

"But death by one blow of the spear shall not be thy portion, oh fool,"
I answered, mocking him. "Ah, ah! No such easy way is thine, oh dog,
oh slave. The stake of impalement shall be thy lot, oh Suru. Think of
it, thou hast never seen it. Ask Jambula here how long a man may live
when seated upon that sharp throne. For days and days may he beg for
death, with blackened face and bursting eyeballs and lolling tongue, and
every nerve and muscle cracking and writhing with the fiery torture.
Why surely the death which this ghost could bring upon thee here would
be mercy compared with such a death as that. But I think I will leave
thee no choice. Bind him, Jambula. Even a bound sentinel is better
than none, though more helpless. If Suru will not keep his watch a free
man he shall keep it bound. Ah, ah!"

That settled all his doubts. As Jambula made a step towards him, Suru
cried out to me to pardon his first hesitation, and to allow him to obey
my orders at any rate unbound. I agreed to this, for he was frightened
enough, and indeed, _Nkose_, as he moved away to take up the position I
had assigned to him, his look was that of one who stands on the brink of
the Pool of the Alligators with the slayers beside him.

Leaving Suru to his solitary post, I moved back with Jambula and the
other slave to near the neck of the narrow passage by which we had
entered the hollow, for I wanted to see whether the thing of dread came
in when night fell, or whether it abode within the place itself. This
we could do, for I chose a position a little way up the hillside,
whence, by the light of the moon, I could command a clear space over
which anything approaching from without could not but pass. So we sat
beneath a cluster of rock