, and you pretend you
can still bend her to your will?"

"Nay, Sahib! Through me Kali the Terrible imprinted her will upon the
babe's tender mind those many moons ago!"

Cuxson shook his head.

"You can't make me believe _that_--it's rubbish--like the mango tree
and rope trick--it's impossible, simply _impossible_ to make
strong-minded, level-headed people do things against their will."

In such wise does the westerner account to his own satisfaction for the
mysterious workings of the East.

The old man said no word, but looked steadily between the young man's
eyes.

"If the sahib will look to his right hand!"

Cuxson turned his head and started.

Eyes glaring, tail thrashing the ground, and ears flattened to the
great head, a tiger half crouched.

"The devil!" he ejaculated, as the mouth of the great animal twisted
spasmodically. "Here's a fix."

"The sahib will place his hand upon the tiger's head."

"Not much!"

"The sahib is afraid!"

The quiet scorn of the words struck Cuxson like a whip, and he
stretched out his hand impulsively towards the smooth head with
flattened ears and glaring eyes.

There was not a sound, though the tail swished the ground, and the huge
mouth opened slowly, showing the splendid ivories.

"The sahib, if he is not afraid, will close his hand firmly upon the
throat!"

Cuxson's hand closed gently upon the striped skin; then he exclaimed
sharply on perceiving that the only thing his hand grasped was air.

"Why--what--how the----!"

The old man nodded his head gently, and answered without a smile. "It
was the will of the Black One that the sahib should see the steed upon
which she roams the jungle at night!"

But Cuxson was British, and would not be convinced.

"I don't believe it," he said shortly. "That was a tame animal, which
strays in and out of the temple like a tame cat."

"Will the sahib look at the dust upon the ground. Is there sign of
feet, marks of the body, or the lashing of the tail upon the dust?"

Truly the dust, save for the deer marks, was undisturbed, but Cuxson
shook his head stoutly, and refused to believe the evidence of his own
eyes.

"The sahib will not believe! Then will I make her, the white woman,
see thee, the man she desires as husband, a prisoner in the House of
Kali, covered in blood, and she will hasten forthwith to thee--and to
me!"

Cuxson sprang to his feet with murder in his eyes, but stopped and
flung out his hands as t