his lips echoed the words "La illaha illallah illahi laho." He
was deep in a trance, the curtains of his eyes half-dropped, looking as one
that is dead; and the voice with which he spoke was not the voice of Fateh
Muhammad, "La illaha illallah illahi laho"! and as the words died away one
that was present passed two green limes into his left hand and asked for a
sign. "I am fain to journey to Lahore, starting on Tuesday next. Will it be
well," he said; and after a pause came the answer "Set not forth on
Tuesday, for the stars be against thy journeying; but send thine agent on
Thursday and go thyself, if need be, two days later." As the message died
away, the trap-door in the floor was slowly tilted upwards and through the
opening crawled an obvious member of the Dhobi class. He slid forward
almost to the feet of the dreaming youth and, placing as before two green
limes in his hand, spoke saying "Master, my wife hath written from our
country, bidding me to go unto her nor tarry by the road. But there is work
toward here and the purse is light. Is it that I should go?" "La illaha
illallah illahi laho!" "Aye, go unto her, lest evil haply befall thee; for
much is there that is hid from thine eyes."

Thus the seance went forward. For twenty minutes or more odd waifs and
strays of humanity crawled in through the trap-door, obtained their message
of good or ill, and departed into the shadows as silently as they had come.
Among them were several women, one of whom sought a cure for her sick
child, whimpering over the symptoms of his malady. "Meningitis, I expect,"
muttered my friend the doctor; but the answer came swift and sure "Bind
thou the 'tawiz' round his brows and carry him to the shrine of Miran
Datar, whence cometh thy help." "La illaha illallah illahi laho!"

The end came suddenly. After the last visitor had vanished through the
floor there was dead silence for three minutes, while Fateh Muhammad
wrestled with the spirit within him; and then with chest heaving and hands
convulsively grasping the heavy air, he fell prone upon his face and lay
still. The two old women moved forward and commenced making passes over his
body, murmuring the while some charm, and as they waved the seven-knotted
handkerchief above his head he regained consciousness and sat slowly up,
"breathing like one that hath an evil dream" and bearing upon his features
the signs of deathly fatigue. By this time the attic was almost clear of
smoke; the gu