He shuddered and tried to obey. The Voice rang imperative.
"Stretch forth thine arms for the testing!"
Somehow, mechanically, he succeeded in raising his arms and holding them rigid before him. Alarmed by the movement, the cobra turned with a hiss, waving his poisonous head. But the Virginian made no offer to withdraw his hands. His eyes were wide and staring and his face livid.
A subdued murmur came from the men clustered round the idols, in semi-darkness.
The Bell boomed forth like an organ.
"O hooded Death…. O Death, who art trained to my service! Thou before whom all men stand affrighted! Thou who canst look into their hearts and read them as a scroll that is unrolled … Look deep into the heart of my Chosen! Judge if he be worthy or wanting, judge if he be false or true … Judge him, O Death!"
Before Amber the great serpent was oscillating like a pendulum, its little tongue playing like forked red lightning, its loathsome red eyes holding his own. Terror gripped his heart, and his soul curdled. He would have cried out, but that his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth. He could not have moved had he willed to.
"Look well, O Death, and judge him!"
The dance of the Hooded Death changed in character, grew more frenzied; the white writhing coils melted into one another in dizzying confusion; figure merged into figure like smoke…. The suspense grew intolerable.
"Hast thou judged him, O Death?"