All these thoughts ran through Colin's mind as he gazed at the grotesque, ungainly lump of gold fashioned after the king of beasts. His first thoughts of terror had passed. His senses were numbed to the horrors of his surroundings. He found himself hoping that when the supreme moment came the end would be sharp, and that he would meet it with the fortitude of his race.
Presently Colin noticed a certain liveliness on the part of Umkomasi and his supporters. They were keenly regarding a circular patch of moonlight that fell upon the floor of the cave, within a foot or so of the base of the sacrificial altar.
The beam streamed through a small aperture in the roof of the cave, and its significance in connection with the hideous rites was plain. In a few minutes—in a quarter of an hour at the most—that patch of moonlight would fall upon the golden idol.
That would be the signal for the terrible paw to fall, to crush beneath its weight the victims of the idol's vengeance.
It was not on the occasion of every full moon that these conditions occurred, otherwise Colin and his chum would have been haled to their deaths twenty-eight days previously. But that did not alter the fact that the most unpleasant time had arrived when the earth's satellite followed an orbit that took it immediately in line with the axis of the shaft through the roof of the sacrificial cave.
Then Colin found himself wondering what would happen if an eclipse darkened the moon. He had heard of an opportune eclipse proving a means of salvation to travellers in peril of their lives at the hands of savages.
But it was a forlorn hope. There was not so much as a partial darkening of the moon. Even if there were it would take at least a couple of hours to effect total obscuration, and by that time....
Umkomasi gave an order. From a recess in the cave half-a-dozen men bounded forward with ropes in their hands.
Throwing the coil over their shoulders, the six stalwart natives heaved and strained at the sacrificial stone, dragging it from under the idol. The paw of the golden lion was now motionless, poised in the air ready to descend upon the stone when it was replaced with its living victim.
These preparations made, the six men look inquiringly at Umkomasi. The Chief gave no sign. He was carefully observing the slow progress of that patch of silvery light across the floor of the cave.