t was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of
preparation or purification that was called "Putting-off-the-Past."
Although she had been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.

"They call you, Asika," said Alan.

"Yes, yes, they call me," she replied, springing up. "Leave me, Vernoon,
till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart so heavy in
me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I summoned but might
not look on, and they were good visions. They showed that the woman
who loved you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other deeper things.
Surely he would not dare to lie to me, knowing that if he did I would
flay him living and throw him to the vultures. Why, then, is my heart
so heavy in me? Would you escape me, Vernoon? Nay, you are not so cruel,
nor could you do it except by death. Moreover, man, know that even in
death you cannot escape me, for there be sure I shall follow you and
claim you, to whose side my spirit has toiled for ages, and what is
there so strong that it can snatch you from my hand?"

She looked at him a moment, and seizing his hand burst into a flood of
tears, and seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it
again and again.

"Go now," she said, "go, and let my love go with you, through lives and
deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as it
shall, Vernoon."

So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.

During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart.
What could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he and Jeekie
had considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of the Gold House
fortress, what hope had they of making their way through the crowded,
tortuous town where, after the African fashion, peopled walked about all
night, every one of whom would recognize the white man, whether he were
masked or no? Besides, beyond the town were the river and the guarded
walls and gates and beyond them open country where they would be cut off
or run down. No, to attempt escape was suicide. Suicide! That gave him
an idea, why should he not kill himself? It would be easy enough, for
he still had his revolver and a few cartridges, and surely it was
better than to enter on such a life as awaited him as the plaything of a
priestess of a tribe of fetish-worshipping savages.

But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old
Jeekie, who would certainly be killed also? Besi