known, who asked
him whether or not he will promise never to reveal what he had seen."

The Mahatma paused.

"Did he promise?" I asked him.

"He refused. What was more, he dared them to make away with him, saying
that the mahout who had accompanied us hither would already have
informed the Maharajah Jihanbihar, who would certainly report to the
Government. And I, standing beside him, confirmed his statement."

"You seem to have acted as prosecuting attorney against yourself!" I
said.

"No, I simply told the truth," he answered. "We who calculate in terms
of eternity and infinity have scant use for untruth. I told the Nine
Unknown the exact truth--that this man Athelstan King might not be
killed, because of the consequences; and that whatever he might say to
certain officers of the Government would be believed. So they let him go
again, and set midnight to-night as the hour of the beginning of my
death."

"Did King know that his refusal to promise entailed your death?" I
asked.

He shook his head.

"Why didn't you tell him?"

"Because it would not have been true, my friend. I had already been
sentenced to death. His promise could make no possible difference to my
fate. They let him go, and ordered me to present myself at midnight; so
I went with him, to preserve him from the cobras in a tunnel through
which he must pass.

"I brought him into this palace by hidden ways, and after I had shown
him the audience hall, where these princesses are to meet, he asked me
to go and find you--that being easier for me than for him, because none
in this palace would be likely to question me, whereas he would be
detected instantly and watched, even if not prevented. And when I had
found you--and you nearly killed me--some one, as you know, locked the
door and shut us in here together. It is all one to me," he added with a
shrug of the shoulders; "I have only until midnight at any event, and it
makes small difference where I spend the intervening hours. Perhaps you
would like to sleep a little? Why not? Sleep, and I will keep watch."

But, badly though I needed sleep, that sort of death-watch did not quite
appeal. Besides, gentle, and honest and plausible though the Gray
Mahatma now seemed, there was still something within me that rebelled at
trusting him entirely. He had been all along too mysterious, and mystery
is what irritates most of us more than anything else. It needs a man
like Athelstan King to recognize the star