l
coughed, rearranged his spectacles and remained silent for a while.

"My dear Narayan," at last said the colonel, "I do not want to believe
that your intention is to make fun of our credulity. But I can't believe
either, that you seriously mean to assure us that any living creature,
be it an animal or an ascetic, could exist in a place where there is no
air. I paid special attention to the fact, and so I am perfectly sure I
am not mistaken: there is not a single bat in these cells, which shows
that there is a lack of air. And just look at our torches! you see how
dim they are growing. I am sure, that on climbing two or three more
rooms like this, we should be suffocated!"

"And in spite of all these facts, I speak the truth," repeated Narayan.
"The caves further on are inhabited by them. And I have seen them with
my own eyes."

The colonel grew thoughtful, and stood glancing at the ceiling in a
perplexed and undecided way. We all kept silent, breathing heavily.

"Let us go back!" suddenly shouted the Akali. "My nose is bleeding."

At this very moment I felt a strange and unexpected sensation, and
I sank heavily on the ground. In a second I felt an indescribably
delicious, heavenly sense of rest, in spite of a dull pain beating in my
temples. I vaguely realized that I had really fainted, and that I should
die if not taken out into the open air. I could not lift my finger; I
could not utter a sound; and, in spite of it, there was no fear in my
soul--nothing but an apathetic, but indescribably sweet feeling of rest,
and a complete inactivity of all the senses except hearing. A moment
came when even this sense forsook me, because I remember that I listened
with imbecile intentness to the dead silence around me. Is this death?
was my indistinct wondering thought. Then I felt as if mighty wings
were fanning me. "Kind wings, caressing, kind wings!" were the recurring
words in my brain, like the regular movements of a pendulum, and
interiorily under an unreasoning impulse, I laughed at these words. Then
I experienced a new sensation: I rather knew than felt that I was lifted
from the floor, and fell down and down some unknown precipice, amongst
the hollow rollings of a distant thunder-storm. Suddenly a loud voice
resounded near me. And this time I think I did not hear, but felt it.
There was something palpable in this voice, something that instantly
stopped my helpless descent, and kept me from falling any further.
This