Evening star., 1917-05-27

nades of an Italian cloister. huge
silk hung screen cut off part of the
central arch.
Somehow 1 got the impression that
had been patched and jerked together
on the spur of the moment, to serve a
certain aim which had to be achieved
in hurry.
The only thing of taste and value was
an ancient temple gong of immense
stand. A tall Manchu, dressed in mag
niflcent plum -colored robes, stood be-
side it. His face, it seemed to me, was
strangely familiar, and light gossa-
mer scrap of remembrance came to my
mind. But I had no time to finish and
register my cropping thought. For at
that moment Mascasenhas stepped
through the colonnado to the left of the
painted screen which cut the hall in
two.
The AIanchu stepped up close to Mas
casenhas. Then he turned. Pointing at
tthe screen without utterinS 4 word,
he walked up to it, and the Goanese
followed.
The Manchu stopped. He lifted his
muscular arms and nipped off the
f1imsy painted silk which covered the
wooden frame of the screen.
There. in front of me. barred by the
torn, crumpled screen, I beheld once
moro the giant black basalt statue of
Doorgha, the dread Indian goddess OF
destruction. 1t was the sister to the
statue I had seen at Benares, and to
the one I had seen in the temple of
Marlyle-Roi. Here were the thick,
biood-red lips adrip with the auivering
flesh of human sacrifices. Here were
the glaring, fiendish eyes, the choking,
strangling fingers. the whole hideous.
bloated body in it's stony passion of
hatred and destruction. Here was again
the beastly emblem of the mysteries
and the cruelties of life which spells
religion to one-fourth of Asia.
I shuddered as 1 thought of the
things it had stood for, and at the mo-
ment I absolved Christianity of all the
injustice and Intolerance it had been
responsible for in the past.
Mascasenhas fell to his knees in
front Of the black idol.
He rubbed his forehead in the dust;
lifted his arms in a supplicating ges-
ture; gave strange. strangled cry.
kowtowed again and again, while the
Manchu stood like a statue, watching
him.
In there was Cajetano Maria Mascas-
enhas. a Goanese half-caste. a nervous
superstitious man. neurotic, mix
ture of strange and warning bloods.
soaked in the horrible belief that his
Khan, the dead master-ministrant of
the Gods of the Invincibly Strong
Arms.
1t was clear to me that that sneering
Manchu in there, whoever he was.
knew all about Mascasenhas, and that
the half-caste into a heavy, hypnotic
trance.
In that trance the Manchu was
kneading and twisting the mans soul
and brain and latent energies as he
willed: and would presently be trying
tn a
ruthless leader which the dead Hus-
sain Khan had been.
Mascasenhas jumped up. His eyes
were now wide open. They glared and
glistened like rubyburning charcoal.
His fingers were clawing convulsive-
ly at his clothes. His legs and arms be-
gan to move In rhythmic gyrations
His voice came up from his throat in a
deep. inhuman gurgle.
Suddenly he broke into a chant,
recognized the words. Once before I
had heard them:
Hail. Mother! Hail, the three-eyed
goddess of destructiveness. three-eyed
goddess of horrid form. Hail, malign
image of death and hate! Listen, thou
to my Matra!
[ acted without thinking. In there
was a Manchu. working on my servant.
my friend. my brother. white with the
cold, inhuman deviltries of his Mon
golian brain. And here was l. a white
man. an American. strong and
I struck the window with all my
strength. The glass shivered into
hundred Jagged pieces. Hot blood
squirted from my lacerated hands.
But I did not feel it; had not time to
feel 1t. I pulled myself up with a
effort.
Then l jumped through the window
into TIE temple. Landing on all fours,
1 picked myself up and made for the
Manchu with a rush. every muscle of
my body punched for combat.
But the Manchu, in spite of his huge
bulk, side-stepped me gently. without
any apparent effort. He mumbled in
his voluminous sleeves for second. /
turned and whirled. But before / could
reach him he had me covered with
vicious automatic.
I recognised him then. 1t was the
same Manchu who, back in San Fran
cisco, hal lured me into the joss house
and had attempted to assassinate me
there. Then his eyes had been hidden
by huge, shell-rimmed spectacles. To-
night they were free of them.
And they were blue, bright blue!
l gave a cry of rage and despair.
This man-why-it was he who had
entered my apartment in the Hotel
'e~andra--who had killed the rajput