n purr and fizzle of grains of incense. Then the room
filled with smoke--heavy aromatic, and stupefying. Through growing
drowse he heard the names of devils--of Zulbazan, Son of Eblis, who
lives in bazars and paraos, making all the sudden lewd wickedness of
wayside halts; of Dulhan, invisible about mosques, the dweller among
the slippers of the faithful, who hinders folk from their prayers; and
Musboot, Lord of lies and panic. Huneefa, now whispering in his ear,
now talking as from an immense distance, touched him with horrible soft
fingers, but Mahbub's grip never shifted from his neck till, relaxing
with a sigh, the boy lost his senses.

'Allah! How he fought! We should never have done it but for the
drugs. That was his white blood, I take it,' said Mahbub testily. 'Go
on with the dawut [invocation]. Give him full Protection.'

'O Hearer! Thou that hearest with ears, be present. Listen, O
Hearer!' Huneefa moaned, her dead eyes turned to the west. The dark
room filled with moanings and snortings.

From the outer balcony, a ponderous figure raised a round bullet head
and coughed nervously.

'Do not interrupt this ventriloquial necromanciss, my friend,' it said
in English. 'I opine that it is very disturbing to you, but no
enlightened observer is jolly-well upset.'

'..........I will lay a plot for their ruin! O Prophet, bear with the
unbelievers. Let them alone awhile!' Huneefa's face, turned to the
northward, worked horribly, and it was as though voices from the
ceiling answered her.

Hurree Babu returned to his note-book, balanced on the window-sill, but
his hand shook. Huneefa, in some sort of drugged ecstasy, wrenched
herself to and fro as she sat cross-legged by Kim's still head, and
called upon devil after devil, in the ancient order of the ritual,
binding them to avoid the boy's every action.

'With Him are the keys of the Secret Things! None knoweth them besides
Himself He knoweth that which is in the dry land and in the sea!'
Again broke out the unearthly whistling responses.

'I--I apprehend it is not at all malignant in its operation?' said the
Babu, watching the throat-muscles quiver and jerk as Huneefa spoke with
tongues. 'It--it is not likely that she has killed the boy? If so, I
decline to be witness at the trial .....What was the last hypothetical
devil mentioned?'

'Babuji,' said Mahbub in the vernacular. 'I have no regard for the
devils of Hind, but the Sons of Eblis are