ing that means blood spurting
through your veins after a spell of lethargy. The bolt was a long time
drawing, as if some one were afraid of making too much noise, and I had
plenty of time to make sure that my trap was in working order.

And when the door opened gingerly at last, a head inserted itself, my
noose fell, and I hauled taut, I don't know which was most
surprised--myself or the Gray Mahatma! I jerked the noose so tight that
he could not breathe, let alone argue the point. I reckon I nearly
hanged him, for his neck jammed against the door, and I did not dare let
go for fear he might withdraw himself and collapse on the wrong side. I
wanted him _in_side, and in a hurry.

He was about two-thirds unconscious when I seized him by his one long
lock of hair and hauled him in, shutting the door again and leaning my
weight against it, while I pried the noose free to save him from sure
death. Those cotton ropes don't render the way a hemp one would. And
while I was doing that a sickening, utterly unexpected sound announced
that somebody outside the door had cautiously shot the bolt again! The
Mahatma and I were both prisoners!

I sat the old fellow down on a cushion in a corner and chafed his neck
until the blood performed its normal office of revivifying him. And as
he slowly opened first one eye and then the other, instead of cursing me
as I expected, he actually smiled.

"The quality of your mercy was rather too well strained," he said in
English, "but I thank you for the offer nevertheless!"

"Offer?" I answered. "What offer have I made you?"

"A very friendly offer. But the penalty of being in the secret of our
sciences is that we may not die, except in the service of the cause.
Therefore, my friend, your goodwill fell on barren ground, for if you
had succeeded in killing me my obligation would have been held to pass
to you, and you would have suffered terribly."

"Who locked the door on us just now?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he answered, smiling whimsically.

"Very well," I said, "suppose you work one of your miracles! You and
King disappeared a while ago simply perfectly from right alongside me.
Can you repeat the process here and spirit me away?"

He shook his head.

"My friend, if your eyes had not been fixed on things unworthy of
consideration such as an elephant's rump and the theft of sugar-cane,
you would have seen us go."

"How did you persuade King to leave me standing there without a w