aring at it wildly. In the confusion that
followed I saw the victim slip from the hands of her astonished would-be
murderers and run into the darkness, where she vanished. Also I saw
the witch-doctor spring up, still holding the tray on which the cat was
sitting, and heard him begin to shout a perfect torrent of furious abuse
at Leo, who in reply waved his sword and cursed him roundly in English
and many other languages.

Then of a sudden the cat upon the tray, infuriated, I suppose, by the
noise and the interruption of its meal, sprang straight at Leo's face.
He appeared to catch it in mid-air with his left hand and with all his
strength dashed it to the ground, where it lay writhing and screeching.
Then, as though by an afterthought, he stooped, picked the devilish
creature up again and hurled it into the heart of the fire, for he was
mad with rage and knew not what he did.

At the sight of that awful sacrilege--for such it was to them who
worshipped this beast--a gasp of horror rose from the spectators,
followed by a howl of execration. Then like a wave of the sea they
rushed at us. I saw Leo cut one man down, and next instant I was off the
horse and being dragged towards the furnace. At the edge of it I met Leo
in like plight, but fighting furiously, for his strength was great and
they were half afraid of him.

"Why couldn't you leave the cat alone?" I shouted at him in idiotic
remonstrance, for my brain had gone, and all I knew was that we were
about to be thrown into the fiery pit. Already I was over it; I felt
the flames singe my hair and saw its red caverns awaiting me, when of a
sudden the brutal hands that held me were unloosed and I fell backwards
to the ground, where I lay staring upwards.

This was what I saw. Standing in front of the fire, her draped form
quivering as though with rage, was our ghostly-looking guide, who
pointed with her hand at the gigantic, red-headed witch-doctor. But she
was no longer alone, for with her were a score or more of men clad in
white robes and armed with swords; black-eyed, ascetic-looking men, with
clean-shaved heads and faces, for their scalps shone in the firelight.

At the sight of them terror had seized that multitude which, mad as
goaded bulls but a few seconds before, now fled in every direction like
sheep frightened by a wolf. The leader of the white-robed priests, a man
with a gentle face, which when at rest was clothed in a perpetual smile,
was addressing the