Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/194

 “If I thought he would never return I should stay and drown.”

“You love him so?”

“I love him—yes. I never knew what it was to love till now. I could die for his sake. I can live and suffer if it will help to bring him back.”

“Poor child! He will have no thought of you even should he return.”

She shot toward me a glance so malignant that I was amazed. I should have carried the discussion further, but just then the prayer wheels ceased their click. Padma bent down about ten feet away from the altar, and I saw a  large trap door raised.

I would have pressed forward to see what this meant, but Padma’s eyes caught my movement and he waved me  back; the lamas silently formed themselves into a half  circle about the altar and stood like so many statues, while  the priest, putting a small paper roll into his wheel, ground  the prayer to a finish, wasting five precious seconds, for it  was but a question of a very short time now when the water  must come pouring down the stone steps.

Presently the prayer wheel stopped whirling, and a box containing “joss sticks” was passed around.

Each lama shook out the sticks, seized the one which fell nearest the altar and carefully examined the characters  printed upon it. I wondered what they were doing and beckoned Ah Schow to approach.

“Dat for las’ man,” explained our cook. “He no can go—he die.”

Suddenly a shout went up and I saw a young lama rise from the floor with face as white as death. He did not speak, however, nor did any of his companions. He had drawn the fatal character, whatever it might have been, and  I must do the fellow justice and say that he submitted like  a true man.

Padma now called me and pointed into the open trap. There was no car here, nothing but a square, inclined box, or shute, made of hard-baked clay, polished on the bottom  and sides as smooth as glass.

“This my son,” explained the priest, Ah Schow interpreting, “was constructed ages before the lamasery was built; for know that this shrine stands upon the site of one almost  as old as the world itself. It leads to the cavern, passing