lding me down the while. Again
they lifted me until I stood upright on the cutting edge of the
prismatic log; two men seized one leg and two the other, and stretched
them apart as far as they could possibly go. Then rope after rope was
wound round my feet and ankles, and I was made fast as before to the
log.

As my legs were much farther apart this time, the pain in the muscles of
my legs when they proceeded to knock me down backward was even greater
than it had been on the previous occasion. But before I had time to feel
it in full, the Lamas, now as ferocious as they were at first, dragged
my manacled arms backward from under my body and tied a rope to the
chain of the handcuffs. This done, they passed the rope through a hole
in the top of a high post behind me, and by tugging at it, strained my
arms upward in a way that, had I been less supple, would certainly have
broken them. When all their strength combined could not stretch me
another inch without tearing my body to pieces, they made the rope fast,
and I remained half suspended, and feeling as if all the bones of my
limbs were getting pulled out of their sockets. The weight of the body
naturally tending to settle down would, I felt, every moment increase
the suffering of this terrible torture, which was really a primitive
form of the rack.

Mansing was likewise suspended opposite me. His feet were tied to the
log to which my own were fastened, only not quite so wide apart.

The pain was at first intense, the tendons of the legs and arms being
dreadfully strained, and the spinal column bent so as to be nearly
broken in two. The shoulder-blades, forced into close contact, pressed
the vertebrae inward, and caused excruciating pains along the lumbar
vertebrae, where the strain was greatest.

As if this were not sufficient, a cord was tied from Mansing's neck to
mine, the object of which was to keep our necks stretched in a most
uncomfortable position.

It began to rain heavily. We were left out in the open. The rags to
which our clothes had been reduced in our struggle when we were first
seized were drenched. Half naked and wounded, we were alternately numbed
with cold and burning with fever. A guard encircled us, having with them
two watch-dogs tied to pegs. The soldiers were apparently so confident
of our inability to escape that they drew their heavy blankets over
their heads and slept. One of them in his slumber moved and pushed his
sword outside the blanke