to visit him
until the thongs were unfastened and his somewhat prescribed liberty
restored.

"Only until the shadows fall, sahib," the old man said as he gathered
the hide thongs in his hands. "Tonight is the night of the full moon
and the white woman is even now approaching."

"Leonie---I mean the mem-sahib--is in the _jungle_--with whom?"

"Verily, sahib, with the man who loves her!"

"Oh, my _God_!" said Cuxson slowly. "How do you know?"

"_We_ need no wires or poles to carry us news, sahib! We have a surer
way, aye, and a quicker one. Struggle not to-night, sahib, when I tie
you to the ring in the wall. Bound you must be, for the Black One has
spoken; and it is her pleasure that I shall lift my will from you, even
as I did by mischance yesterday. India has suffered through this white
woman; my people have been tormented by her, and Kali, the Black One,
has commanded that the sufferings of the land shall be wiped out in the
white woman's blood, and the torments of the people in your torments."

It has been said that Jan Cuxson was plodding to a degree akin to
slowness.

He was! But you may be sure that if an idea came to him even at the
eleventh hour it would be a good idea and would be developed until it
reached an advanced stage of perfection.

Some time after the priest had departed he drew the piece of metal,
which proved to be the broken blade of a knife, from under the fallen
stone, slipped it into his pocket, and was as well content as his
harassed mind and overwrought imagination would allow him to be.

CHAPTER XLV

"Behold, thou art fair, my beloved,
thou art fair!"--_S. of Solomon_.

"Yea! he is altogether lovely."--_S. of Solomon_.

With her bearer's hand to balance her, Leonie stepped off the gangway
into the rocking, canoe-shaped boat, made in the dim past by digging
out the interior of some tree trunk, and in the bows of which were
huddled the coolies with her luggage.

Two bronze-hued rowers, nude save for the loin cloth, paddled the boat
round the bends of the narrow creek with a dexterity due to habit; and
then by chance or misfortune wedged her firmly into a glutinous
mud-bank from out of which it took the five men two hours and every
ounce of their united strength to push her.

It is not wise to wade waist or knee deep in a Sunderbunds creek, and
clear a boat with a yo-heave-ho, for fear of some festive mugger, which
means alligator, lurking in the mu