All peered over the rail, eager with anticipation.  No explosion followed, but the most astonishing thing happened.  All at once, without any preliminary disturbance, the ground became white.  A perfect silence fell on the Haram and the city for perhaps half a mile on all sides of the sacred enclosure Haram and streets, roof-tops, squares all looked as if suddenly covered with deep snow.

This whiteness, however, was not snow, but was produced by the ihrams of the pilgrims now coming wholly to view.

Instead of gazing down on the heads of the multitude—­all bare heads, as the Prophet commands for pilgrims—­the Legionaries now found themselves looking at their whole bodies.  Every pilgrim in sight had instantaneously fallen to the earth, on the gravel of the Haram, along the raised walks from the porticoes to the Ka’aba, on the marble tiling about the Ka’aba itself, even in the farthest visible streets.

The white-clad figures lay piled on each other in grotesque attitudes and heaps.  Even the stone tank at the north-west side of the Ka’aba, under the famous Myzab, or Golden Waterspout on the Ka’aba roof, was heaped full of them; and all round the sacred Zem Zem well they lay in silent windrows, reaped down by some silent, invisible force.

In the remote suburbs and out on the plain, the Legionaries’ binoculars could still see a swarming of white figures; but all the immediate vicinity was now wholly silent, motionless.  To and fro the Master swept his glasses, and nodded with satisfaction.

“You have now fifteen minutes, men,” said he, “before the paralyzing shock of that silent detonation—­that noiseless release of molecular energies which does not kill nor yet destroy consciousness in the least—­will pass away.  So—­”

“You mean to tell me, my Captain, those pilgrims are still conscious?” demanded Leclair, amazed.

“Perfectly.  They will see, hear, and know all you do.  I wish them to.  The effect will be salutary, later.  But they cannot move or interfere.  All you have to look out for is the incoming swarm of fanatics already on the move.  So there is no time to be lost.  Into the nacelle, and down with you!”

“But if they try to rush us you can drop the other bomb, can’t you?” demanded the major, as they all clambered into the nacelle.

The Master smiled, as he laid his hands on top of the basket and cast his eyes over the equipment there, noting that machine-guns, pick-axes, crowbars, and all were in position.

“The idea does you credit, Major,” said he.  “The fact that the other bomb would of course completely paralyze you and your men, here, is naturally quite immaterial.  Let us have no more discussion, please.  Only fourteen minutes, thirty seconds now remain before the Hujjaj will begin to recover their muscular control.  You have your work cut out for you, the next quarter-hour!”

The Master raised his hand in signal to Grison, at the electric winch A turn of a lever, and the nacelle rose from the metals of the lower gallery.  It swung over the trap and was steadied there, a moment, by many hands.  The raiding-party leaped in.