You know
that the gravel-drive opens up so as to form a broad stretch immediately
in front of the house. Just in the centre of this clear space there
stood three men looking up at the house.
"The moon shone full upon them, glistening on their upturned eyeballs,
and by its light I could see that they were swarthy-faced and
black-haired, of a type that I was familiar with among the Sikhs and
Afridis. Two of them were thin, with eager, aesthetic countenances,
while the third was kinglike and majestic, with a noble figure and
flowing beard."
"Ram Singh!" I ejaculated.
"What, you know of them?" exclaimed Mordaunt in great surprise.
"You have met them?"
"I know of them. They are Buddhist priests," I answered, "but go on."
"They stood in a line," he continued, "sweeping their arms upwards and
downwards, while their lips moved as if repeating some prayer or
incantation. Suddenly they ceased to gesticulate, and broke out for the
third time into the wild, weird, piercing cry which had roused me from
my slumber. Never shall I forget that shrill, dreadful summons swelling
and reverberating through the silent night with an intensity of sound
which is still ringing in my ears.
"As it died slowly away, there was a rasping and creaking as of keys and
bolts, followed by the clang of an opening door and the clatter of
hurrying feet. From my window I saw my father and Corporal Rufus Smith
rush frantically out of the house hatless and unkempt, like men who are
obeying a sudden and overpowering impulse.
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