ashed or had
corroded away. This rock pillar was perhaps fifty feet high and as
smooth as though it had been worked by man; indeed, I remembered having
remarked to Hans, or Umslopogaas--I forget which--when we passed it on
our inward journey, that there was a column which no monkey could climb.

As we went by it for the second time, the sun had already disappeared
behind the western cliff, but a fierce ray from its sinking orb, struck
upon a storm-cloud that hung over us, and thence was reflected in a
glow of angry light of which the focus or centre seemed to fall upon the
summit of this strange and obelisk-like pinnacle of rock.

At the moment I was out of my litter and walking with Umslopogaas at
the end of the line, to make sure that no one straggled in the oncoming
darkness. When we had passed the column by some forty or fifty yards,
something caused Umslopogaas to turn and look back. He uttered an
exclamation which made me follow his example, with the result that I saw
a very wonderful thing. For there on the point of the pillar, like St.
Simeon Stylites on his famous column, glowing in the sunset rays as
though she were on fire, stood Ayesha herself!

It was a strange and in a way a glorious sight, for poised thus between
earth and heaven, she looked like some glowing angel rather than
a woman, standing as she seemed to do upon the darkness; since the
shadows, save for the faintest outline, had swallowed up the column that
supported her. Moreover, in the intense, rich light that was focussed
on her, we could see every detail of her form and face, for she was
unveiled, and even her large and tender eyes which gazed upwards emptily
(at this moment they seemed very tender), yes, and the little gold studs
that glittered on her sandals and the shine of the snake girdle she wore
about her waist.

We stared and stared till I said inconsequently,

"Learn, Umslopogaas, what a liar is that old Billali, who told me that
She-who-commands had departed from Kor to her own place."

"Perhaps this rock edge is her own place, if she be there at all,
Macumazahn."

"If she be there," I answered angrily, for my nerves were at once
thrilled and torn. "Speak not empty words, Umslopogaas, for where else
can she be when we see her with our eyes?"

"Who am I that I should know the ways of witches who, like the winds,
are able to go and come as they will? Can a woman run up a wall of rock
like a lizard, Macumazahn?"

"Doubtless--