hen,
he said, they take a sudden turn, and descend gradually to a whole
underground palace, which is sometimes temporarily inhabited. Wishing
to leave the world for a while and to spend a few days in isolation, the
Raj-Yogis find perfect solitude in this underground abode. Our president
looked askance at Narayan through his spectacles, but did not find
anything to say. The Hindus also received this information in perfect
silence.

The second cell was exactly like the first one; we easily discovered the
hole in its ceiling, and reached the third cell. There we sat down for a
while. I felt that breathing was becoming difficult to me, but I thought
I was simply out of breath and tired, and so did not mention to my
companions that anything was wrong. The passage to the fourth cell was
almost stopped by earth mixed with little stones, and the gentlemen of
the party were busy clearing it out for about twenty minutes. Then we
reached the fourth cell.

Narayan was right, the cells were one straight over the other, and the
floor of the one formed the ceiling of the other. The fourth cell was
in ruins. Two broken pillars lying one on the other presented a very
convenient stepping-stone to the fifth story. But the colonel stopped
our zeal by saying that now was the time to smoke "the pipe of
deliberation" after the fashion of red Indians.

"If Narayan is not mistaken," he said, "this going up and up may
continue till tomorrow morning."

"I am not mistaken," said Narayan almost solemnly. But since my visit
here I have heard that some of these passages were filled with earth,
so that every communication is stopped; and, if I remember rightly, we
cannot go further than the next story."

"In that case there is no use trying to go any further. If the ruins are
so shaky as to stop the passages, it would be dangerous for us."

"I never said the passages were stopped by the hand of time.... They did
it on purpose...."

"Who they? Do you mean glamour?..."

"Colonel!" said the Hindu with an effort. "Don't laugh at what I say.
... I speak seriously."

"My dear fellow, I assure you my intention is neither to offend you nor
to ridicule a serious matter. I simply do not realize whom you mean when
you say they."

"I mean the brotherhood.... The Raj-Yogis. Some of them live quite close
to here."

By the dim light of the half-extinguished torches we saw that Narayan's
lips trembled and that his face grew pale as he spoke. The colone