Dacha seemed as though he were about to say something, a word of doom mayhap. I measured the distance between me and himself with my eyes, calculating where I should aim to put a bullet through his large head and give the god a sacrifice which it did not expect. Indeed, had he spoken such a word, without doubt I should have done it, for as you fellows know I am handy with a pistol, and probably, as a result, never have lived to tell you this story. At this juncture, however, the victim waved her arms and said in a loud, clear voice: “I claim the ancient right to make my prayer to the god before I am given to the god.” “Speak on,” said Dacha, “and be swift.” She turned and curtseyed to the hideous idol, then wheeled about again and addressed it in form although really she was speaking to the audience. “O Fiend Heu-Heu,” she said in a voice filled with awful scorn and bitterness, “whom my people worship to their ruin, I who was stolen from my people come to thee because I would have none of yonder high-priest and therefore must pay the price in blood. So be it, but ere I come I have something to tell thee, O Heu-Heu, and something to tell these priests who grow fat in wickedness. Hearken! A spirit is in me, giving me sight. I see this place a sea of water, I see flames bursting through the water, turning thy hideous effigy to dust and burning up thy evil servants, so that not one of them remains. The Prophecy! The Prophecy! Let all who hear me bethink them of the ancient prophecy, for at length its hour is fulfilled.” Then she stared towards Hans and myself, waving her arms, and I thought was about to address us. If so, she changed her mind and did not. So far the priests and the congregation had listened in the silence of amazement, or perhaps of fear. Now, however, a howl of furious execration broke from them, and when it died down I heard Dacha shouting: “Let this blaspheming witch be slain. Let the sacrifice be accomplished!” The two savages stepped towards her, and now I saw that what they held in their hands were coils of rope with which doubtless she was to be bound. If so, she was too swift for them, for with a great bound she sprang upon the table where lay the body of the Hairy woman and the box of matches. Next instant I saw a knife flashing in her hand; I suppose it had been concealed somewhere in her dress. She lifted it and plunged it to her heart, crying as she did so: “My blood be on you, Priests of Heu-Heu!” Then she fell down there upon the table and was still. In the hush that followed I heard Hans say: “That was a brave lady, Baas, and doubtless all she said will come true. May I shoot that priest, Baas, or will you?” “No,” I began, but before I could get out another word my voice was overwhelmed by a tumult of shouts, “The god has been robbed of his sacrifice and is hungry. Let the strangers be offered to the god.” These and other like things said the shouts.