also a strong
disinclination to move hand or foot; in fact, he remembered laughing
stupidly, and pulling out his cigarette case with the intention of
soothing a distinct sense of irritation aroused by something which
hammered incessantly upon his inner consciousness, warning him to be on
the look out.

He remembered also looking once or twice in the direction of the temple
door with the feeling that someone was on the point of coming out
towards him, and then he had slipped contentedly to the ground, yawned,
and gone to sleep.

All the sounds of a jungle dawn had greeted him on his awaking: a
monkey had swung itself up to the top of the ruined wall where it had
sat grimacing at him; an adjutant bird had clapped at his boot with its
huge bill as it stalked past him towards the door; and he had found
himself bound by waist and wrists to a stout ring in a wall which still
held traces of brilliant colouring.

CHAPTER XLI

"And unto wizards that peep and that mutter."--_The Bible_.

Like some infuriated bull he had fought and tugged at his chains and
shouted for deliverance, until clouds of birds flew skywards in fright,
and blood had spurted from his finger-tips and stained the shirt about
his middle.

Thongs of hide sound inadequate against the strength of a man, but
steel chains are weak compared with them for resistance, and to strive
against them simply results in pure agony if they have been thoroughly
soaked by the Indian dew which almost amounts to rain, and dried by the
Indian sun which almost amounts to a furnace.

Of course, in a properly constructed novel he would have been left in a
position which would have enabled him to gnaw the hide with his strong
white teeth, or rub it until it wore through against some sharp stone.

But this he could not do because his wrists were bound behind, leaving
the space of a foot or two between his waist and the wall; and when he
leant back he had the tragic outline of a modern Prometheus bound; when
he strained forward, that of one of Muller's pupils undergoing
treatment for the development of the chest.

Neither could he, contort himself as he might, have brought his teeth
within gnawing distance of deliverance; moreover, ruins exposed for
centuries to the soft manipulation of a jungle climate, show no sharp
stones; they are rounded and polished by the passage of time, soft
feet, and that which crawls upon its belly.

At length, however, peace quite stra