of the chief Mervyn recognised the tall, somewhat remarkablelooking man who had joined the rest at prayer. This one sat eyeing him,an embodiment of Eastern stateliness, in snowy flowing garments, thefolds of his turban arranged round the conical _kulla_ which just peepedabove it, with an almost mathematical nicety. Mervyn took note ofsomething else. Behind him, two tall, ferocious looking Gularzai haddrawn up, standing so as to bar effectually the way by which he had beenushered in. So this was to be his death chamber, he thought? Well, thesooner it was over the better.
"Salaam, brothers," he began, but only by way of saying something.
"It is not `salaam,'" ["salaam"--Peace] answered the distinguishedlooking stranger, speaking in a very deep chested tone. "You joined theBrethren of the Night whose sign is the Five Pointed Star--were madeblood-brother with them, and--were false to them."
"Therein is not truth," answered Mervyn, who had expected this as anopening of the proceedings.
"Not truth?" went on the speaker. "In thine English home the Sign wasdelivered to thee; in thine English home--the long house with thecornering wings which shelter the centre, and which stands beneath thebroad end of the water."
But that Mervyn had learned to be astonished at nothing, he might wellhave felt surprised. Here was an exact description of Heath Hover, andyet the only man who had seen it, and who bore the terrible andmysterious Sign, had died within its walls, and the method of his deathhe alone in all England knew. And now here in this far Easternwilderness was another--were others--who knew.
"The Sign was not delivered to me," he answered.
"Not delivered?" repeated the other slowly, and fixing upon his face aglance that seemed to burn, so glowing was it with fell, vengefulintent. "Not delivered? It was delivered not once only, but twice."
Now, indeed, the listener's self possession all but betrayed the shockthis announcement could not but cause him. How well he recalled thatlovely summer morning when he had looked out to behold the two girlscoming down the sluice path and Melian carrying the deadly shining thingin her white, unsuspecting fingers--and his own frost of horror at thesight. So all that time he had been shadowed, his every movement keenlywatched from the recesses of those hanging woods--not as he had thoughtby honest English Nashby and his random, all-at-sea suspicions, but bythis deadly Brotherhood, whose ranks, in an ill-starred moment, andmoved chiefly by curiosity, he had joined. Yet how on earth could theiremissary or emissaries have hung about the Plane woods all that timeundetected by keepers, or unseen and uncommented on by the surroundingrustic population? Of a truth the problem was a record one forstiffness of solution. But he answered:
"It was not delivered once, nor yet twice. It was not delivered atall."
The fierce, copper-hued, shaggy faces, the gleaming eyes reflected inthe firelight, were bent still more threateningly upon the speaker. Thelatter, in sheer hopeless desperation, was probing behind his very brainto try and make out a case for himself, and at the same time realisingits utter hopelessness; His remorseless indicter went on.
"The first who delivered thee the sign thou didst kill."
"That did I not. On the very contrary, I saved him--saved him from theicy death. Listen brothers." And then Mervyn went on to give thenarrative of the events of that wild, sleet-tossed winter night, when wefirst saw him. He told it graphically and well, speaking in the Pushtuwith, as had happened throughout all the dialogue, an odd word here andthere of a coined language peculiar to the Brotherhood, thrown in.
"Now? Did I not save him from certain death?" he concluded, lookingwith an anxiety which he hoped did not appear, into the fierce facesthat ringed him round. But his heart sank within him, as he realisedthat any hopes he might have entertained on that score were doomed; forno sign of softening could he trace. On the contrary, the set grimnesson every countenance seemed to deepen.
"Not knowing him--then," supplied the stranger, who seemed to haveconstituted himself--or been constituted--judge in chief, or presidentof the proceedings. "Afterwards--that was made good." And his eyesagain seemed fixed with a deeper, more compelling glow, upon those ofthe Englishman.
Mervyn stood as though petrified. The words, the mesmeric glance seemedto take him out of himself--to take him back; back to--something.Mechanically he raised a nerveless hand, and passed it over his eyes.He saw--yes, assuredly he saw himself in dreamland, as it were. Thenext words aroused him--brought him to himself--thoroughly, completely.And they were spoken by Allah-din Khan.
"Thou double traitor," said the chief, in deep, growling tones. "Forthe act of disobedience thine end should have been sure--sure butswift--the Point of the Star. For this it shall be long, and lingering.Look."
Following the out-darted finger, Mervyn did look, and--
For the first time he became aware of a curious object which stoodwithin the grisly vault, and that not far behind him. It was a long,coffin-shaped thing, and now, as two of those who had been seated therearose, and, kindling torches from the fire, approached it, he saw thatit took on another shape, that of a long, lounge bath in fact. It wasraised from the floor on metal feet, and the thing itself was made ofmetal, but of such ancient and strange manufacture that the BritishMuseum, say, would probably have given a very large sum to possess. Asthe flare of the torches gleamed upon this he could see something else.The fronting side of the structure was engraved with subjects of ahideous and revolting nature--that of human beings in process of beingdone to death under every circumstance of prolonged torment, and one ofthem, and the most prominent, by means of just such an implement asthis. For there reproduced, was an exact facsimile of it. A fire wasrepresented as burning underneath, and out of it the head and shouldersof a man appeared--the open mouthed, staring expression on the faceconveying the indescribable and ghastly agony which the sufferer wasundergoing.
Mervyn stared at the thing, and his blood froze. Here was his own faterepresented. To lie for hours in that dreadful bath undergoing aprocess of slow boiling, this was what it meant. He had heard of thisbeing done, knew that it actually was done. The cold sweat poured fromhis forehead, and he looked wildly in front for a means of putting aquick end to his existence. He had expected the quick, painless death,which his guest had died under his own roof at Heath Hover--but this!Allah-din Khan's deep voice broke through the terror of the spell thatwas on him.
"Use no art to avoid this, double traitor, for it is thee or another.If not thee, then the sun-crowned woman who is with thee shall lieyonder. By the tomb of the Prophet it shall be so."
A mist rose before his eyes and he swayed. The very fiend from Hell wasspeaking, of a surety. He wondered whether he could overcome hismomentary faintness, lest they should think he had eluded them, andproceed to put their hellish threat into immediate execution. GreatHeaven! was this some awful, shocking nightmare from which he shouldpresently wake? Was ever any one confronted with such an alternative?Death he had expected, but these hours perhaps of fiendish torture? Butit was himself or Melian. These devils were not to be balked.
Now he saw that there were piles of kindling wood standing beside thehorrid implement. The ring of diabolical faces confronting him lookedterrific in the fell, ruthless purpose, which he read therein. But forthe alternative he would have made a frenzied dash at the nearest weaponand died fighting. Now, the alternative utterly disarmed him. He wouldmake one appeal.
"Give me the Star, that I may die by it," he said. "I have a right to."
"Thou art no longer of its Brotherhood, double traitor," answeredAllah-din Khan. "For thee, the boiling fat."
At a sign from him one of the two who had been mounting guard over theentrance advanced, and tearing out handfuls from the stacks of kindlingwood, began to arrange them beneath the grim receptacle. The victimwatched the process with a sort of dazed, numbed attention.
And then, as he looked again at the ring of his tormentors, something hesaw made him wonder whether his head was going round with him, orwhether his reeling brain h
ad actually and indeed given way beneath theshock.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
AT FAULT.
The hitherto glowering, menacing countenances, had all of a sudden takenon a heavy, vacuous expression. The stare of the fierce eyes had becomedull and lack-lustre. Even the forms were swaying. And then--whatmarvel was this? The whole group seemed to collapse as one man,subsiding to the ground. There they lay, breathing with a heavy,stertorous kind of snore. All save one.
This was the stranger who had taken so vindictive and ruthless a part inthe questioning. He still kept his upright seat, and over his face hadcome no change. Now he arose, and strode over to the man who kept theentrance, deftly manoeuvring between him and the latter.
The Gularzai stared at the towering, authoritative form, but saidnothing.
"Take this, brother,