Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/222

 Five—ten—fifteen minutes passed. We began to grow impatient, and the Doctor was in a dreadful fidget, for  nothing whatever had happened. What we expected was that the lama would become entranced and begin speaking  by what professed to be spirit inspiration. What actually did happen was something of a totally different sort.

Still the tapping of the drum continued, until the strain grew fearful and each tap seemed to burn its way into my  brain like red hot iron. For relief I removed my eyes from the rocking body of the lama and looked at Walla. Her head was bowed low upon her breast. She seemed to be asleep.

“Look! look!” breathed the Doctor before I could move my eyes back to the lama again.

I looked and saw that a change had come; a change the meaning of which, I at least, should be able to recognize  even if the Doctor could not; the body of the lama had  ceased to move and around it a whitish mist was gathering;  this rapidly increased in density until it became a great oblong ball of light, which bounded up and down upon the  sand for a few seconds and then vanished like a flash.

“Children you must not speak!” whispered Padma; “but for your interruption the spirit would have succeeded. No matter; it will come again.”

“Materialization, by Jove!” breathed the Doctor almost inaudibly, but held his tongue after that.

In a moment the light appeared again and this time there was no bounding about. Padma beat his drum faster and faster and then suddenly ceased altogether. As he did so we saw the figure of a man rise at the feet of the lama; sink  back again, rise a second time and stand erect. To our intense astonishment this person was almost a counterpart of Padma himself; not only in point of age and features, but in  dress. Without even glancing in our direction, he walked with firm tread toward the old lama who bowed low before  him; extending his hand he raised Padma, embraced and  kissed him; then side by side they walked together into the  shadows of the cave and disappeared.

I looked at the Doctor triumphantly, only to find him staring at me.

“Just as I saw it at the inn of Zhad-uan” I whispered, forgetting Padma’s injunction of silence; but the Doctor did not answer and for excellent reason. A ball of light, precisely similar to the other, was hovering at my feet.