Holding out the tray, he presented it at the face of the prisoner on the left, whereon the cat rose, arched its back and began to lift its paws up and down.  Presently he moved to the next prisoner and held it before him awhile, and so on till he came to the fifth, that young woman of whom I have spoken.  Now the cat grew very angry, for in the death-like stillness we could hear it spitting and growling.  At length it seemed to lift its paws and strike the girl upon the face, whereon she screamed aloud, a terrible scream.  Then all the audience broke out into a shout, a single word, which we understood, for we had heard one very like it used by the people of the Plain.  It was “Witch!  Witch! Witch!”

Executioners who were waiting for the victim to be chosen in this ordeal by cat, rushed forward and seizing the girl began to drag her towards the fire.  The prisoner who was standing by her and whom we rightly guessed to be her husband, tried to protect her, but his arms being bound, poor fellow, he could do nothing.  One of the executioners knocked him down with a stick.  For a moment his wife escaped and threw herself upon him, but the brutes lifted her up again, haling her towards the fire, whilst all the audience shouted wildly.

“I can’t stand this,” said Leo, “it’s murder—­coldblooded murder,” and he drew his sword.

“Best leave the beasts alone,” I answered doubtfully, though my own blood was boiling in my veins.

Whether he heard or not I do not know, for the next thing I saw was Leo rushing through the gate waving the Khan’s sword and shouting at the top of his voice.  Then I struck my heels into the ribs of the horse and followed after him.  In ten seconds we were among them.  As we came the savages fell back this way and that, staring at us amazed, for at first I think they took us for apparitions.  Thus Leo on foot and I galloping after him, we came to the place.

The executioners and their victim were near the fire now—­a very great fire of resinous pine logs built in a pit that measured about eight feet across.  Close to it sat the priest upon his stool, watching the scene with a cruel smile, and rewarding the cat with little gobbets of raw meat, that he took from a leathern pouch at his side, occupations in which he was so deeply engaged that he never saw us until we were right on to him.

Shouting, “Leave her alone, you blackguards,” Leo rushed at the executioners, and with a single blow of his sword severed the arm of one of them who gripped the woman by the nape of the neck.

With a yell of pain and rage the man sprang back and stood waving the stump towards the people and staring at it wildly.  In the confusion that followed I saw the victim slip from the hands of her astonished would-be murderers and run into the darkness, where she vanished.  Also I saw the witch-doctor spring up, still holding the tray on which the cat was sitting, and heard him begin to shout a perfect torrent of furious abuse at Leo, who in reply waved his sword and cursed him roundly in English and many other languages.