This order was executed without delay. They were soon on the track of the Durga priest, and before long he was their prisoner.
“Ha! my young friend,” said he, with his hateful laugh, recognising Siddha; “and is this the way you repay the interest that I have shown in you? However, let it be; but show me one courtesy, that can cost you nothing. Tell me, who is my betrayer? It can only be Salhana; am I not right?”
“You are,” answered Siddha; and then, turning to his followers, he said, “Forward! take this man outside the camp, and carry out the sentence pronounced by the Emperor.”
“And what is the sentence?” asked Gorakh.
“The halter,” was the reply.
“Good,” he said; “that is in my line.”
It was needless to bind him, for, without the slightest attempt at escape, he calmly walked between two soldiers.
For some time Siddha did not turn to look at him, nor did his guards observe his actions very closely. But as they left the camp, and Siddha turned to give some orders to his followers, he saw the Yogi busied in marking characters on a long leaf that he held in his left hand, and must either have picked up on the road, or have had concealed in his clothes. In another moment he held it high in the air, waving it as though it were a fan.
“Come,” cried Siddha, impatiently, “leave that juggling alone, it can help you no further, and throw that leaf away; we have had enough of your magic.”
Gorakh obeyed, but not before he had laughingly made two more signs in the air. He then threw it on the ground, and they proceeded on their way. A few moments later the lifeless body of the priest hung from the bough of a tree.