"I was like to faint, but I dared not disobey, and the man's screeching followed us all down the empty corridors and halls, until we shut the first great door on it.
"It may have gone on for hours, alone in that awful emptiness. The creature was a reptile, but the thought sickened my heart.
"And from that hour till his death, five months later, he rotted and maddened in his dreadful tomb."
* * * * *
There was more, but I pushed the ghastly confession from me at this point in uncontrollable loathing and terror. Was it possible—possible, that injured vanity could so falsify its victim's every tradition of decency?
"Oh!" I muttered, "what a disease is ambition! Who takes one step towards it puts his foot on Alsirat!"
It was minutes before my shocked nerves were equal to a resumption of the task; but at last I took it up again, with a groan.
* * * * *
"I don't think at first I realized the full mischief the Governor intended to do. At least, I hoped he only meant to give the man a good fright and then let him go. I might have known better. How could he ever release him without ruining himself?
"The next morning he summoned me to attend him. There was a strange new look of triumph in his face, and in his hand he held a heavy hunting-crop. I pray to God he acted in madness, but my duty and obedience was to him.