ns; and
we cannot overcome malignant things with kindness. If you will deliver
the people from that serpent-king, by destroying his evil life, all the
snakes will go further back into the jungle. For many generations--if
the gods will, for always--the innocent people will be safe. I will take
you there, if you will kill him."

"We will try," Cadman said, not even turning to look at Skag.

They found the village in total paralysis of all natural activities. It
was like a deadly pall. This was no new terror; it was old
devastation--bred into the bone of consciousness.

A little girl came near to watch Cadman, who was getting out his gun.
She had never seen one before. He whispered to her--it seemed not right
to speak aloud in this place--and asked her where was Dhoop Ki Dhil. The
child shook her head, but answered him:

"Wherever you will see the sun-melted red."

"What is that?" he wondered.

"That? That is the long-long, wide-wide cloth that covers all her body.
It is made of so-thick silk" (she showed him six fingers), "that many
times as thick as we know how to make."

"What is the name of the boy who led us here?" he asked next.

"We call him _Dhanah_ and many other names; but he is not a small boy, he
is a man--very wise and sad."

At that moment they heard a voice like golden 'cellos and golden clarions
and golden viols--calling "Koob Soon-n-der, Koob Soon-n-der!" and the boy
came past, running hard.

"Soon!" he shouted.

But Skag was at his heels and Cadman followed close, the short
firing-piece in his hands.

The paths were narrow, the bamboo dense; the boy leaped into a curve and
was lost. They raced after him, till the path broadened at the top of an
elevation. Pausing an instant to listen, they saw--directly in front of
them a little way distant--a tall post; a dark post, seven or eight feet
above the bamboo tops, stiff and straight.

It held their eyes by its strange sheen. It began to lean stiffly toward
one side--as if falling. It straightened and leaned the other way. Then
undulation crept into it, till the top-end followed the outline of a
double loop--like a figure-of-eight.

The snake had chained them this long. Skag recovered with an inward
revulsion that rent him. He plunged down the path, his faculties
surging--thought, feeling, realisation, volition--tearing him.

He met Dhanah carrying an utterly limp girl in his arms--the boy's face
gone grey.

As Skag fled on p