With the horde of stupefied recruits at their heels, the white people at length entered the village, which nestled against the hillside.  Hundreds of dark, almost naked, savages rushed from the shadows, the news of the great visitation having spread like wildfire.  By the time the halt was made in front of a large, odd-looking structure, her Ladyship was so overcome with excitement that she could hardly stand.  Ridgeway caught her as she staggered from her improvised litter.  Presently she grew stronger, and with her companion entered what was apparently a palace among the squat, queerly built houses.

The chief ordered torches stuck in the ground, and a bright, strong light filled the interior.  They found themselves in a large apartment, twenty by thirty feet in size.  A reed or grass roof provided covering.  This roof, like those in civilized lands, ran to a high point in the centre, the sides being fully twelve feet from the ground.  There were no windows in the walls, but as they did not come within three feet of the roof, there was ample provision for ventilation and light.  The entrance to this structure was through wide portals, reaching from ground to eaves.  There was no floor save the earth, but there were rugs made from the skins of wild animals.  Hugh noticed with a thrill of excitement that among them were tiger and leopard skins.  Directly opposite the entrance stood a rough and peculiarly hewn stone, resembling in a general way the form of a man, colossal, diabolical.

“An idol,” whispered Lady Tennys in awed tones.

“Perhaps it would be wisdom on our part to kneel before the thing,” said Hugh calculatingly.

“I’ll do anything you think best,” she said reluctantly, kneeling for a moment with him before the idol.  Whereupon the chief and his attendants shouted for joy and fell upon their much-used faces.  The populace, thronging about the temple, took up the cry, and all night long they chanted praise to the living gods.  The weird, ghastly figures flitted from end to end of the mad village long after the chief and his party had left the temple to the sole possession of the new divinities.

“I wonder if they expect us to sit up forever as sedately as that old party over there,” mused Hugh, after the savages had withdrawn, greatly to the mystification of their guests.  “We’re evidently left here to make the best of it.  I fancy we are now supposed to be in business as real gods with a steady job in the temple.”

“I am beginning to think we have come to a terrible place, Hugh.  How fierce and wild these people are!  What is to become of us?” asked she, shivering as with a chill.  “How horrible it would be if they brought us here as a sacrifice to this beastly idol.  Is there no way of escape?”

“Nonsense!  We’ve queered this antiquated old fossil forever.  Two real live gods are worth ten thousand stone quarries like that.  If you say so, I’ll have a few of his worshippers take him down and toss him in the river.”