rticular fad, he had not; and thank
goodness! for it would have been simply appalling to have had to end
the book with the hero looking like a woolly hearthrug.

His fad which saves the situation was that when travelling either for
hours or for days his safety razor invariably travelled in his pocket;
and the old priest had smiled when he caught him in the act of
lathering his face, less successfully, it is true, than more, with a
finger tip smeared in ghee, which is clarified fat; and had come back
later with a handful of stuff which looked for all the world and felt
almost as sticky as French almond rock, a certain vegetable root,
slightly acid of smell, which lathers beautifully in hot or cold water,
and which, in some districts, the natives use as soap.

He was simply in an agony of mind.

He had stormed, and threatened, and pleaded in turn, and offered the
whole of his kingdom in exchange for her safety--all of which had made
about as much impression upon the priest as a few snowflakes would upon
the Himalayas.

His one and only attempt at escape, which had taken place twenty-four
hours before, had been a dire failure.

Roaming around the courtyard outside his chamber, which seemed
curiously near, and yet cut off from the rest of the temple, he had
heard the tinkle of silver anklets, the sound of a native woman's
high-pitched laugh, and the bleating of a goat.

And the thought struck him that if a woman had come to seek counsel of
the priest she must have come through the jungle by some safe road
known to the native, and she would have to go back by the same road;
and if he could only find the way into the temple itself, and watch her
from the shadows, what would be easier than to follow her and reach
Leonie in time to save her from the disaster and death threatening her.

Although the thought of the death straight to which Leonie was coming,
blindfolded by the curse upon her, made his blood run cold and turned
his heart to stone at the knowledge of his own impotence, the picture
of what might happen to her at the hands of the native crazed with
religion and love well-nigh drove him frantic.

He was absolutely at the priest's mercy.

A stronger will than his own allowed him to wander so far and no
farther; indeed, he had been powerless even to reach the block of
stones from behind which the priest appeared when upon visiting bent,
and around which he disappeared when he went to worship before his god.