“God of my forefathers, God of my lost people, I will hide naught from thee,” he said.  “I who fear nothing else, fear death.  The priest-fool yonder with his new faith, has spoken blundering words of judgment and damnation which, though I do not believe them, yet stick in my heart like arrows.  I will stamp out his faith, and with this ancient sword of thine drive back the new gods into the darkness whence they came.  Yet what if some water of Truth flows through the channel of his leaden lips, and what if because I have ruled and will rule as thou didst decree, therefore, in some dim place of souls, I must bear these burdens of terror and of doom which I have bound upon the backs of others!  Nay, it cannot be, for what power is there in all the universe that dares to make a slave of Oro and to afflict him with stripes?

“Yet this can be and mayhap will be, that presently I lose my path in the ways of everlasting darkness, and become strengthless and forgotten as are those who went before me, while my crown of Power shines on younger brows.  Alas!  I grow old, since aeons of sleep have not renewed my strength.  My time is short and yet I would not die as mortals must.  Oh!  God of my people, whom I have served so well, save me from the death I dread.  For I would not die.  Give me a sign; give me the ancient, sacred sign!”

So he spoke, lifting his proud and splendid head and watching the statue with wide, expectant eyes.

“Thou dost not answer,” he cried again.  “Wouldst thou desert me, Fate?  Then beware lest I set up some new god against thee and hurl thee from thine immemorial throne.  While I live I still have powers, I who am the last of thy worshippers, since it seems that my daughter turns her back on thee.  I will get me to the sepulchre of the kings and take counsel with the dust of that wizard who first taught me wisdom.  Even from the depths of death he must come to my call clad in a mockery of life, and comfort me.  A little while yet I will wait, and if thou answer not, then Fate, soon I’ll tear the sceptre from thy hand, and thou shalt join the company of dead gods.”  And throwing aside the sword, again Oro laid down his head upon the ground and stretched out his arms in the last abasement of supplication.

“Come,” whispered Yva, “while there is yet time.  Presently he will seek this place to descend to the sepulchre, and if he learns that we have read his heart and know him for a coward deserted of his outworn god, surely he will blot us out.  Come, and be swift and silent.”

We crept out of the chapel, Yva leading, and along the circle of the great dome till we reached the gates.  Here I glanced back and perceived that Oro, looking unutterably small in that vastness, looking like a dead man, still lay outstretched before the stern-faced, unanswering Effigy which, with all his wisdom, he believed to be living and divine.  Perhaps once it was, but if so its star had set for ever, like those of Amon, Jupiter and Baal, and he was its last worshipper.