The Mad Man of the Moon
Thus it was that Agno and his ministers found me. Again, I may say their
coming added no new horror to these last hours. It is the interminable
waiting that wears to a thread a man’s courage. I would, of my own wish,
have that which was to come, over quickly. Already was the strain
beginning to tell. It would not be an easy death, this I knew, for it
was a death of the High Priest’s contriving. It was a death feared by
Lah, a death from which she would fain have saved me,—and how? After
all, I was glad that the Lord had put temptation from me. Brought face
to face with unknown terrors, I felt that my strength might have given
way before the trial. I set this down plainly with the rest.
Read on, and see what fair foundation of truth had I for doubting mortal
strength in such extremity.
Well, a day had come and gone, and Satan’s chiefest emissary was at
hand. The lagging feet of justice quickened. By Agno’s order was I again
blindfolded, and by his order was I loosed from my cage.
Supported by two of the priests of Edba,—for my cramped legs refused to
do my bidding,—I was half dragged, half led, away.
Still blindfolded, I was laid upon a stone and fastened there securely
by a band about my middle, and by thongs that tied me, wrist and ankle,
to rings set in the altar’s side.
Then my bandage was taken off, but it was some minutes before my dazzled
eyes could see clearly, and then I found, to my surprise, that the High
Priest and his followers had vanished. For all I knew to the contrary, I
was quite alone. I looked about me, and I saw that I was in a cleared
space in the form of a circle. This was guarded by a high and thorny
hedge of some tropical plant, strange to me, whose narrow leaves
bristled like so many bayonets.
The sun beat pitilessly upon my uncovered head, but I knew from its
position that night was not far off. I was bound to a rude granite-hewn
altar, and carved upon it in many places, amid a throng of grotesque
images, I saw the familiar sign of Edba, the crescent moon.
This altar stood at one side of the circle; directly opposite, was
reared a hut shaped like a bee-hive, and made of close-woven branches.
There was no door to this strange dwelling, but a thin veil of plaited
grasses partly hid the entrance. I strained my eyes in a vain effort to
see beyond this curtain. Once or twice a faint rustling from within
broke the deathly silence, and that was all. These singular noises made
my heart beat faster, for I judged, and rightly, that here was the abode
of my enemy, perhaps of my executioner.
The hours wore on. I was giddy from the length of my fast, the horrors
of my imprisonment, and the nameless dread of what was to come. A chill
crept over me, and though the day was hot, I shivered so that the rings
of the altar rattled. I thought I saw two fiery eyes gleam for an
instant upon me, from behind the curtain that veiled the entrance to the
hut, but when I looked again I knew my own base fears had called up the
vision.
I turned my head resolutely away, and scanned the ground about me. As my
eyes travelled along the thorny hedge that circled the place, I saw
something that gleamed through the green, half hidden by the underbrush.
Idly I looked, but the next instant my pulse quickened; for as I gazed,
the horrid meaning of the thing leaped to my mind. I had seen the white
bones of a mouldering human skeleton.
I set my teeth lest any sound escape me, and some watchful priest
staying behind his fellows to gloat over my misery, hear my cry and so
have joy over my weakness.
The sun went down, and night fell. A wind arose, and it blew from the
silent hut to me, and I smelled the breath of the charnel house, and my
stomach turned within me.
But the stars came out, and the moon rode in the sky; a full moon, round
and glorious.
Then the curtain of grass was pushed aside, and the Thing that dwelt
within leaped into the circle. It was white, with a loathsome whiteness,
naked, and painted with spots of red and blue, and it mowed and mumbled
and danced uncouthly there in the moonlight.
I watched it with a thick sense of impending horror. It flung its arms
wildly about its head and laughed shrilly at its own fantastic shadow.
It rolled over and over on the ground and stretched its limbs in
content, while the moonlight bathed them, just as a beast will stretch
out comfortably in the warm sunshine.
I moved a little on my bed of stone, and again the rings of the altar
rattled.
Then the Thing raised its head, and its eyes rested on me with a look of
greed and cunning.
It stopped its hideous play and began to crawl warily but surely towards
me.
Nearer it came, and yet nearer. My throat was parched, and I shut fast
my lips lest a womanish shriek shame me forever.
At last it reached my resting-place, stood upright, and craftily touched
my shackled hands and feet.
Then the Thing, half beast and half human, bent over me, and its teeth
met in the flesh of my right arm.
The vengeance of Agno, High Priest of Edba and of Hed, had fallen. The
whole sickening knowledge pulsed through my soul, even as the agony of
my wound racked my spent body.
My doom was sealed.
I was to be eaten alive by the Mad Man of the Moon, that the gods of the
people of the Walled City might be avenged.
Suddenly the Thing let go its hold and raised its shaggy head, and I
noted, even in the stupor of horror that had come upon me, that it was
listening.
Then a man stepped out from the thorny hedge into the cleared circle—a
man naked and quite unarmed.
[Illustration]
I saw, as in a dream, the breadth of his massive shoulders, and that he
was mighty above his fellows, and as I looked, the truth came to me, and
I knew that this was Zobo, the commander of the bodyguard of Lah, the
Queen.
The Mad Man of the Moon gave a low snarl, and sprang at the throat of
the intruder.
Then began a wrestling match between the two, made terrible by the time
and place, by the bestial noises of my would-be murderer, and by the
knowledge I somehow had, that this duel was to the death.
Back and forth they strained and fought. I had looked to see my enemy
snap like a reed in Zobo’s iron grip, but I soon found the demon the
creature served had given it unholy powers. It was supple like a snake,
and its muscles were of steel. I saw great drops of sweat stand out upon
the bare body of the Queen’s servant, and, too, the veins in his
forehead stand out like whipcord, with the strain of the conflict.
The unclean Thing bit, and foamed at the mouth, and strove with a
devil’s strength and a man’s cunning for the mastery. Zobo fought with a
kind of grim patience; while I, chained hand and foot, waited helpless
for the issue.
Suddenly a cloud passed before the moon, and I saw the Mad Man falter.
It was only for an instant, but that instant the Keeper of the Seal was
quick to seize.
He gripped my foe by the throat, and the two fell, rolling over and over
on the hard ground, not far from where I lay.
The man-beast writhed in fury, and tore at the hands that held him, but
in vain. I saw his head fall limply back, and his limbs relax. Zobo,
with a deep breath, let go his hold, and I beheld on his face a look of
mingled fear and loathing for the deed he had done.
Then I looked back on the prostrate form of mine enemy, and I cried out
in warning, for the Mad Man had but feigned death.
Quick as thought, the Queen’s soldier turned also, but too late. Izab
had seized a stone that lay at hand, and the missile struck Zobo full on
the forehead as he tried to rise. The Keeper of the Seal fell backward
and was still. I looked to see my enemy rise and trample on the
prostrate body, but it was not to be.
The Mad Man’s arms moved once above his head; a hoarse, guttural murmur
came from beneath his clenched teeth.
The moon shone forth glorious indeed, but the body of my friend and the
body of my foe alike lay motionless.
Then the bayonet thicket was parted yet once more, and the form of a
woman thickly veiled and wrapped in a mantle appeared in the open.
With a swift, gliding motion she crossed the space; looked once at me
and then towards the quiet bodies in the moonlight.
She passed the Mad Man’s lifeless form and spurned it contemptuously
with her foot. Then she turned to where Zobo lay, with upturned face and
staring eyes, before her. Motionless as he, she stayed an instant; then,
with an indescribably graceful gesture, she took her cloak from her
shoulders, and spread it over Edba’s victim.
Once more she faced me, flinging back the veil that shrouded her, and I
saw that she was none other than Lah, the Queen.
What happened next is only dimly present in my remembrance. As in a
dream, I knew that her lips met mine; that my bonds fell from me at her
touch, and that I walked a free man once more, but not firmly, because
of weakness, towards the bodies of the dead.
My hand instinctively sought Zobo’s heart; and without surprise, because
in my weak state nothing could have surprised me, I found that it still
beat, though faintly.
“Come,” said Lah, imperiously; “I have risked more than you dream of to
come thus, and at this hour, and to you. My life with your life trembles
in the balance. Now,—even at this moment,—Agno himself may come, and
then no power of mine could save us. Leave here the body of my servant
to die as he would wish, at my command, for me.”
These words I remember sounded in my ears, and more, but I had never yet
left a fallen friend in trouble, still less would I desert now one who
had all but given his life for mine.
Something of this I said to her, and seeing that I was bent upon my
purpose, Lah bade me lift the wounded soldier.
“If you can bear him hence with my aid, not a dozen steps from here in a
secret place in the thicket help will meet you,” said the Queen, but as
one who grudged to yield her will to mine.
How I did it I never knew. Weakness and long fast had made even my own
weight a sore burden, but I steeled my shrinking muscles to their duty,
and Lah, with supple strength beyond her sex, helped me in the task.
So, half dragging, half supporting, the unconscious form we went, till
at a word from the Queen I halted.
Lah stooped and knocked twice and then twice again upon a block of
granite that rose from the ground.
I heard a dull noise sounding distantly from somewhere, and behold,
before us, the earth itself had opened.
At Lah’s command I swung myself down into the black depth.
Strong hands seized me; Lah called that she and Zobo followed, and—I
knew no more.