The works of Rudyard Kipling . notthere. My freedom lay before me in the nextfew steps! 88 ^ TPE STRANGE HIDE OF get. My den was nearly as r-^rt a coffin,and the sides had beeo ooth and greasy by t nakedbodies, \- to one Ttie night. isiphitheatrein devils that,lip from the mockedi.; u :, in their mnz. Personally I am not of an imaginative tem-perament,—very few Engineers are,—but onthat occasion I was as completely prostratedv/ith nervous terror as any w^oman. Afterhalf an hour or so, however, I was able oncemore to cnhrily review my chances of escape. tiy^ vtern cnnH w
The works of Rudyard Kipling . notthere. My freedom lay before me in the nextfew steps! 88 ^ TPE STRANGE HIDE OF get. My den was nearly as r-^rt a coffin,and the sides had beeo ooth and greasy by t nakedbodies, \- to one Ttie night. isiphitheatrein devils that,lip from the mockedi.; u :, in their mnz. Personally I am not of an imaginative tem-perament,—very few Engineers are,—but onthat occasion I was as completely prostratedv/ith nervous terror as any w^oman. Afterhalf an hour or so, however, I was able oncemore to cnhrily review my chances of escape. tiy^ vtern cnnH walls was, ofen thoroughlyIt wasthe un- iv run the gauntlet oftiie place was so full of terror for a ^ prepared to undergo any risk in hMving it. Imagine my delight, then,when after creeping stealthily to the river-front I found that the infernal boat was notthere. My freedom lay before me in the nextfew steps! I struggled clear, sweating with terrorMezzogravure by John Andrew & Son after original by W. Kirkpatrick. Copyright, 1909, by The Edinburgh Society MORROWBIE JUKES 89 By walking out to the first shallow pool thatlay at the foot of the projecting left horn ofthe horseshoe, I could wade across, turn theflank of the crater, and make my way a moments hesitation I marchedbriskly past the tussocks where Gunga Dasshad snared the crows, and out in the directionof the smooth white sand beyond. My firststep from the tufts of dried grass showed mehow utterly futile was any hope of escape; foras I put my foot down, I felt an indescribabledrawing, sucking motion of the sand moment and my leg was swallowedup nearly to the knee. In the moonlight thewhole surface of the sand seemed to be shakenwith devilish delight at my struggled clear, sweating with terror and ex-ertion, back to the tussocks behind me and fellon my face. My only means of escape from the semicir-cle was protected with a quicksand! How long I lay I have not the faint
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