Still he did not return the thing, fearing lest he
should give offence.
At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound
of a groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great eyes
rolling as though in an extremity of fear.
"Oh my golly! Major," he ejaculated, pointing to the wall, "look there."
Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long
rows of gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
"Come and see," said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table on
which lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of
the vault or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like
Jeekie he was afraid.
For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other, were
what looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At first
until the utter stillness undeceived him, he thought that they _must_ be
men. Then he understood that this was what they had been; now they were
corpses wrapped in sheets of thin gold and wearing golden masks with
eyes of crystal, each mask being beaten out to a hideous representation
of the man in life.
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