Kathlyn had talent bordering on genius.  The idol was an exact replica of the original one; more, there was a subtle beauty now where before there had been a frank repulsiveness.  It satisfied the holy men, and the unveiling was greeted by the villagers with such joy that Kathlyn forgave them and could have wept over them.  She had made a god for them, and they fell down and worshiped it.

Five more days passed.  On the afternoon of the fifth day Kathlyn was feeding the fire.  The holy men sat in the court at their devotions, which consisted in merely remaining motionless.  Kathlyn returned from the fire to see them rise and flee in terror.  She in turn fled, for the lion stood between her and the sarcophagus!  The lion paused, lashing his tail.  The many recent commotions within and without the temple had finally roused his ire.  He hesitated between the holy men and Kathlyn, and finally concluded that she in the fluttering robes would be the most desirable.

There was no particular hurry; besides, he was not hungry.  The cat in him wanted to play.  He loped after Kathlyn easily.  At any time he chose a few swift bounds would bring him to her side.

Beyond the temple lay the same stream by which, miles away, Kathlyn had seen the funeral pyre and about which she had so weird a fantasy.  If this stream was deep there was a chance for life.

CHAPTER VII

QUICKSANDS

When Kathlyn came to the river she swerved toward the broadest part of it.  Twice she stumbled over boulders, but rose pluckily and, bruised and breathless, plunged into the water.  It was swift running and shoulder deep, and she was forced to swim strongly to gain the opposite shore.  She dragged herself up to the bank and, once there, looked back.  What she saw rather astonished her.  She could not solve the riddle at first.  The lion seemed to be struggling with some invisible opponent.  He stood knee deep in the sands, tugging and pulling.  He began to roar.  Even as Kathlyn gazed she saw his chest touch the sand and his swelling flanks sink lower.  Fascinated, she could not withdraw her gaze.  How his mighty shoulders heaved and pulled!  But down, down, lower and lower, till nothing but the great maned head remained in view.  Then that was drawn down; the sand filled the animal’s mouth and stopped his roaring; lower, lower . . .

Quicksands!  The spot where he had disappeared stirred and glistened and shuddered, and then the eternal blankness of sand.

She was not, then, to die?  Should she return to the temple?  Would they not demand of her the restoration of the lion?  She must go on, whither she knew not.  She regretted the peace of the temple in the daytime.  She could see the dome from where she stood.  Like Ishmael, she must go on, forever and forever on.  Was God watching over her?  Was it His hand which stayed the onslaught of the beast and defeated the baser schemes of men?  Was there to be a haven at the end?  She smiled wanly.  What more was to beset her path she knew not, nor cared just then, since there was to be a haven at the end.