ccompany you to the land of the Kendah, but let them know that
they do so at their own risk. Learn that it is revealed to us that if
they go in there some of them will pass out again as spirits but not as
men."

"Do you mean that you will murder them?"

"No. We mean that yonder are some stronger than us or any men, who will
take their lives in sacrifice. Not yours, Macumazana, for that, it is
decreed, is safe, but those of two of the others, which two we do not
know."

"Indeed, Harut and Marut, and how am I to be sure that any of us are
safe, or that you do not but trick us to your country, there to kill us
with treachery and steal our goods?"

"Because we swear it by the oath that may not be broken; we swear it by
the Heavenly Child," both of them exclaimed solemnly, speaking with one
voice and bowing till their foreheads almost touched the ground.

I shrugged my shoulders and laughed a little.

"You do not believe us," went on Harut, "who have not heard what happens
to those who break this oath. Come now and see something. Within five
paces of your hut is a tall ant-heap upon which doubtless you have been
accustomed to stand and overlook the desert." (This was true, but how
did they guess it, I wondered.) "Go climb that ant-heap once more."

Perhaps it was rash, but my curiosity led me to accept this invitation.
Out I went, followed by Hans with a loaded double-barrelled rifle, and
scrambled up the ant-heap which, as it was twenty feet high and there
were no trees just here, commanded a very fine view of the desert
beyond.

"Look to the north," said Harut from its foot.

I looked, and there in the bright moonlight five or six hundred yards
away, ranged rank by rank upon a slope of sand and along the crest of
the ridge beyond, I saw quite two hundred kneeling camels, and by each
camel a tall, white-robed figure who held in his hand a long lance to
the shaft of which, not far beneath the blade, was attached a little
flag. For a while I stared to make sure that I was not the victim of an
illusion or a mirage. Then when I had satisfied myself that these were
indeed men and camels I descended from the ant-heap.

"You will admit, Macumazana," said Harut politely, "that if we had meant
you any ill, with such a force it would have been easy for us to take a
sleeping camp at night. But these men come here to be your escort, not
to kill or enslave you or yours. And, Macumazana, we have sworn to
you the oath that may