f the wilds, piping and
fluting, in place of the reclining maiden. The sweeping scrolls of a
great halo encircled her whole person. Then how could I tell what this
nearly obliterated carving had been? I groped for the answer and could
not find it. I doubted--

"Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root
That takes the reason captive?"

Memory rushed over me like the sea over dry sands. A girl--there had
been a girl--we had stood with clasped hands to hear a strange music,
but in spite of the spiritual intimacy of those moments I could not
recall her face. I saw it cloudy against a background of night and
dream, the eyes remote as stars, and so it eluded me. Only her presence
and her words survived; "We meet in the Ninth Vibration. All here is
true." But the Ninth Vibration itself was dream-land. I had never heard
the phrase--I could not tell what was meant, nor whether my apprehension
was true or false. I knew only that the night had taken her and the dawn
denied her, and that, dream or no dream, I stood there with a pang of
loss that even now leaves me wordless.

A bird sang outside in the acacias, clear and shrill for day, and this
awakened my senses and lowered me to the plane where I became aware of
cold and hunger, and was chilled with dew. I passed down the tumbled
steps that had been a stately ascent the night before and made my way
into the jungle by the trail, small and lost in fern, by which we had
come. Again I wandered, and it was high noon before I heard mule bells
at a distance, and, thus guided, struck down through the green tangle
to find myself, wearied but safe, upon the bridle way that leads to Fagu
and the far Shipki. Two coolies then directed me to The House in the
Woods.

All was anxiety there. Ali Khan had arrived in the night, having found
his way under the guidance of blind flight and fear. He had brought the
news that I was lost in the jungle and amid the dwellings of demons. It
was, of course, hopeless to search in the dark, though the khansamah and
his man had gone as far as they dared with lanterns and shouting,
and with the daylight they tried again and were even now away. It was
useless to reproach the man even if I had cared to do so. His ready plea
was that as far as men were concerned he was as brave as any (which
was true enough as I had reason to know later) but that when it came to
devilry the Twelve Imaums themselves would think twice