and began to whirl him round and round in the air, gently
at first but with a motion that grew ever more rapid, until the bright
chains on the victim's breast flashed in the sunlight like a silver
wheel. Then he hurled him to the ground, where the poor king lay a mere
shattered pulp that had been human.

Now the priestess was standing in front of the beast-god, apparently
quite without fear, though her two attendants had fallen back. Ragnall
sprang forward as though to drag her away, but a dozen men leapt on to
him and held him fast, either to save his life or for some secret reason
of their own which I never learned.

Jana looked down at her and she looked up at Jana. Then he screamed
furiously and, shooting out his trunk, snatched the Ivory Child from her
hands, whirled it round as he had whirled Simba, and at last dashed it
to the stone pavement as he had dashed Simba, so that its substance,
grown brittle on the passage of the ages, shattered into ten thousand
fragments.

At this sight a great groan went up from the men of the White Kendah,
the women dressed as goddesses shrieked and tore their robes, and Harut,
who stood near, fell down in a fit or faint.

Once more Jana screamed. Then slowly he knelt down, beat his trunk and
the clattering metal balls upon the ground thrice, as though he were
making obeisance to the beautiful priestess who stood before him,
shivered throughout his mighty bulk, and rolled over--dead!

The fighting ceased. The Black Kendah, who all this while had been
pressing into the court of the temple, saw and stood stupefied. It was
as though in the presence of events to them so pregnant and terrible men
could no longer lift their swords in war.

A voice called: "The god is dead! The king is dead! Jana has slain Simba
and has himself been slain! Shattered is the Child; spilt is the blood
of Jana! Fly, People of the Black Kendah; fly, for the gods are dead and
your land is a land of ghosts!"

From every side was this wail echoed: "Fly, People of the Black Kendah,
for the gods are dead!"

They turned; they sped away like shadows, carrying their wounded with
them, nor did any attempt to stay them. Thirty minutes later, save for
some desperately hurt or dying men, not one of them was left in the
temple or the pass beyond. They had all gone, leaving none but the dead
behind them.

The fight was finished! The fight that had seemed lost was won!

I dragged myself from the ground. As