In such wise does the westerner account to his own satisfaction for the mysterious workings of the East.
The old man said no word, but looked steadily between the young man's eyes.
"If the sahib will look to his right hand!"
Eyes glaring, tail thrashing the ground, and ears flattened to the great head, a tiger half crouched.
"The devil!" he ejaculated, as the mouth of the great animal twisted spasmodically. "Here's a fix."
"The sahib will place his hand upon the tiger's head."
The quiet scorn of the words struck Cuxson like a whip, and he stretched out his hand impulsively towards the smooth head with flattened ears and glaring eyes.
There was not a sound, though the tail swished the ground, and the huge mouth opened slowly, showing the splendid ivories.
"The sahib, if he is not afraid, will close his hand firmly upon the throat!"
Cuxson's hand closed gently upon the striped skin; then he exclaimed sharply on perceiving that the only thing his hand grasped was air.
The old man nodded his head gently, and answered without a smile. "It was the will of the Black One that the sahib should see the steed upon which she roams the jungle at night!"
But Cuxson was British, and would not be convinced.
"I don't believe it," he said shortly. "That was a tame animal, which strays in and out of the temple like a tame cat."
"Will the sahib look at the dust upon the ground. Is there sign of feet, marks of the body, or the lashing of the tail upon the dust?"
Truly the dust, save for the deer marks, was undisturbed, but Cuxson shook his head stoutly, and refused to believe the evidence of his own eyes.
"The sahib will not believe! Then will I make her, the white woman, see thee, the man she desires as husband, a prisoner in the House of Kali, covered in blood, and she will hasten forthwith to thee--and to me!"
Cuxson sprang to his feet with murder in his eyes, but stopped and flung out his hands as though to thrust aside some obstacle.
"O babe in wisdom! Behold, thou shalt not be bound, yet shalt thou not stir beyond yon temple wall until she come, and with her the son of princes who yearns for her; then shall I lift my will from thee and tie thee to the wall that thou mayst behold the double sacrifice of _love_ and _life_ made to Kali the Terrible."