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Aghori capered in the moonlight; while the crowd swayed back and forward on the slope below and bayed in unison. Leaping high in the air, he would swing his ohain repeatedly between his naked thighs-mercilessly belabouring his own back and loins in his ectasy; while the orowd called on Kali by her hundred names to hearken to them and to vouchsafe a sign: 'Oh Bloody Toothed One! Answer us. Oh Horrible One! Hearken unto us.' Naked and ashsmeared, his antios called to mind the leper's dance in about the best short story Kipling ever wrote. For you remember how the Silver Man danced naked with his shadow, while Strickland was heating the gun-barrels?1...

"And all this time, by my side, within a few inches of me, lay the cruel black surface of the mud, momentarily at rest. How long would it be before I went down for ever in its choking embrace?

"Then came a point where I have never been quite clear what happened. I suppose the elimax had been reached and the time for my star turn had arrived. For there was a sudden forward rush of the orowd. But, at the same moment, I heard shriek even above the din, and next moment the mud was heaving sluggishly. The Aghori had disappeared beneath its surface. I had a vague impression that some one had pushed him from behind. But he may have

slipped-I can't be certain. Anyway, in his place, the Speechless Mystic was now standing by my side.

"And that Aghori fairly stirred up Chandragup, for he had been quiet enough up till then; but now he gave us one of your 'paroxysmal eruptions' with a vengeance. First there was a heaving and gulping, as if he had swallowed something that simply wouldn't agree with him, and then all at once his whole orater was aflame-for all the world like a colossal Christmas pudding.

"The pilgrims had got their answer. And they didn't seem to like it. Back they went to the bottom of the hill; while the Speechless Mystic hauled me after them-to a safe distanoe. But he wasn't speechless any longer. He talked to them like a father-pointing out to them the error of their ways, and the punishment that had befallen the Aghori. It was a very chastened audience, with most of the religion frightened out of it. And, a few minutes later, as the last flames were flickering out, we two found ourselves alone.

"Then, as soon as the strain was over, I realised how absolutely done I was, and there and then on the side of the volcano I fell asleep. But my sleep seemed scarcely to have lasted a moment before I found myself being shaken back to consciousness; and I woke to find the Speechless Mystic

"The Mark of the Beast."

bending over me. Ismal, too, had reappeared from somewhere, and was standing at the bottom of the slope holding a camel. Dawn was just breaking, and it was bitterly oold; I was chilled to the bone and so stiff that to move was torture. However, despite my protests, I was promptly bundled on to the camel. Then Ismal set off towards the shore with the nose-rope in his hand. "I was much too miserable to question his movements. That ride was a nightmare. A baggage-camel with a pack saddle is bad enough at the best of times; in my then state, the tortures of the Inquisition as nothing to it. At last, more dead than alive, I rolled off at the door of one of the very huts that I had seen on first landing, the huts of the Ichthyophagoi.

"And in that hut I lived for five days-slowly recovering, while I waited for a boat to take me back to Karachi. My host was a great strapping fisherman called Billoo, and no one could have looked after me better. In fact, I ran some risk of being killed by kindness; for I was plied with delicious soles of Billoo's catching and with succulent Makran dates from Mrs Billoo's storeeupboard, and cosseted with broth of mountain-sheep fallen to Ismal's jezail; while the Speechless Mystic massaged my battered limbs as only an Indian can.

"And, lying on the hot dry sand in the shadow of the blanket awning, while the

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breeze blew cool through the soreens of tamarisk, I first learnt the inward history of that heotie night.

"For I had many talks with the Speechless Mystic. His is a profession in which it is always war-time, and he has been risking his life for the last dozen years in as many different countries. In San Franoisce and in London, in Geneva and in Japan, he has carried his life in his hand to watch the innermost circles of the Indian anarchists. For he is perhaps the leading Indian agent of the C.I.D.1

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"The War he spent in Berlin. But no sooner did he get back to India for some well-earned leave than he found himself recalled to headquarters in connection with the Bolshevik menace from Central Asia. Well, as he figured it out to me, in dealing with Bolshevik propaganda you have two main main objects in view-to stop as many agents as possible from getting into India, and to catch the rest after they get there.

"As regards the first of these objects, the northern passes of India are fairly easy to watch, and 80 are the regular seaports. But just look at the map and you will see that Makran is a weak point. For any ruffian can board a coasting dhow, say in the Persian Gulf, and land unquestioned somewhere in Makran. And, from there, it is a matter of ne great diffieulty to filter through over the border into Sind, for the ad

1 Criminal Investigation Department of India.

ministration of a country like Southern Baluchistan is bound to be pretty sketchy.

"Now suppose your Belshevik agent has managed to reach India, Where does the best field for his labours lie? Where better than at the great centres of pilgrimage? For at these religious fairs thousands — in some cases, hundreds of thousands — of pilgrims collect from the four corners of India; so seed sown there is sown broadcast. And the pilgrims are then just in the right frame of mind, too, to be carried away by the pernicious doctrines of any self-styled saint or reformer.

"So it was with these considerations before his mind that my friend was sent to Southern Baluchistan, with orders to keep a special watch on Nani Mai. He travelled to the shrine in the disguise of an ascetic, and there he found Strewal Peter already in possession.

go quietly to their homes-to spread his teachings in preparation for The Day.

"But he made a mistake very common with agitators. He overrated his powers of control over the forces that he was generating. And before he realised it his leadership was gene, and the Aghori ruled the meb. So then Peter decided that the time had come for him to seek pastures new; for he had no wish to share in the limelight of an untimely murder.

"But-my friend remarked 'do not fear; he will not escape us. For every policeand levy-post is warned. And he has given me much useful information, such the names of their agents under training at Tashkend and Merv and Askabad, with the routes they mean to follow. Oh yes, we have done very well. But you, sir, you had an uncommonly narrow shave.'

"With that verdict I entirely agree. And, if ever any one asks me to visit Chandragup, I shall think of the reply of Sinan bin Selama, the Arab, when appointed by the Caliph to command the Makran Expeditionary Foree: Thou showest me the road to Makran

"The rest of the tale is briefly told. My friend soon saw that Strewal Peter was the very man he was after. So he took care to pal up with him, and to listen reverently to his teachings. When the pilgrims arrived, the work of propaganda at once began. And in his pose of Yogi, Strewal Peter but what a difference lies know well how to combine religious arguments with all the subtle doctrines of the Soviet to kindle fanaticism against British rule. But at this stage mere murder was no part of Peter's programme; for he wanted his hearers to

between an order and its execution! I will never enter the country, for its name alone terrifies me.' He knew a thing or two, did Sinan; and Makran has not altered greatly for the better during the twelve hundred odd years since his day."

CURIOUS MISUNDERSTANDING WITH REGARD TO THE TEMPERANCE (SCOTLAND) ACT, 1913.

BY LYDIA MILLER MACKAY.

NOT long ago two simple Scottish electers, having been deluged by leaflets either advooating or denouncing Prohibition in view of the Local Option poll expected next November, and having heard much talk and many arguments in and out and round about the Temperance (Scotland) Act, 1913, took the extreme and, as it would now almost appear, the unusual step of expending 2d. in the purchase of a copy of the Aot, and reading it over fer themselves. To their amazement they found that it had nothing whatever to do with Prohibition, and that, so far from those who framed it having apparently so extreme a step in view, it seems to have been drawn up with caution that has long been associated with our national character,

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I think it is G. K. Chesterton who, in order to prove how our senses may deceive us under the influence of a preconceived idea, once wrote a fantastio tale of an old gentleman who was murdered on the top flat of some London mansions. The murder, it was proved by circumstantial evidence, must have been committed and the body removed within a few minutes of midday, and the case was the more puzzling because the porter and several other persons

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swore stoutly that they had watched the door of the flats during the whole of the time in question, and that no human being had gone in or out. After a long period of bewilderment, the mystery was solved by some clever amateur who came to the assistance of the law and discovered that the deed had been done by the postman. This supposedly harmless official had called at the usual hour, and, contrary to all precedent, had taken away the body of the old gentleman with the mails in his post-bag. So little, however, had the witnesses associated the thought of murder with a postman, and so sure had they unconsciously been that a post-bag could contain nothing more mysterious than letters and newspapers, that they had not even seen the postman in this new and unexpected character.

Exactly the contrary seems to have happened in connection with this Temperanee Aet. So sure has the publie been that it contains Prohibition, that the shadowy form of this gigantie spectre has been seen flitting in and out of pages where assùredly it is not.

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Experts here and there have, doubtless, put the facts plainly, but these faots seem, for the most part, to have fallen on unheeding ears. Let us, then, rid our minds of all preconceived ideas, and see what the Aot really contains.

Words and names are often so loosely applied as to befog the imagination, and a definition may clear the air.

Prohibition, as demonstrated across the Atlantic, means that the manufacture, sale, importation, or distribution of alcoholic drink is entirely forbidden. The wealthy classes may still be able to have wine on their tables from cellars stocked under the old system, but no one, from end to end of the United States, can now buy a single glass of spirits without patting himself into opposition to the law.

Under the "No License Resolution" of the Seottish Act, on the other hand, the wholesale trade in liquor is allowed to go on pretty much as it did before, and hotels, inns, and clubs will still be allowed to sell alcoholic liquors to their guests, or to any one taking a meal on their premises. With a doctor's order liquor may be bought at a chemist's; restaurants may provide spirits, wine, or ale with meals, and the well-todo person need not be under any apprehension that his eellar will be interfered with; for, providing that he buys not less than two gallons at a time, his liberty to drink may even degenerate into license, without any interference from the

Aot. If, then, the No-License Resolution is not Prohibition, what is it, and why has it been the Nemesis of the "Trade" and the hope of the Temperance Party for the last seven years? On what, exactly, are we asked to vote in November?

We are to have three options put before us. (Here are the exaet words of the ballet paper.)

1. No Change Resolution.

(Means that the powers and discretion of the licensing court shall remain unchanged.) 2. Limiting Resolution.

(Means that the number of certificates for the sale of excisable liquors shall be reduced by one quarter in accordance with the provisions of the Act.)

3. No-License Resolution.

(Means that no certifieate for the sale of exoisable liquors shall be granted except for inns, hotels, or restaurants, in special cases, in accordance with the provisions of the Act.)

With the first two options we are not here concerned, but as to the third, half the story of the meaning of the Resolution depends on the little word "except," and the exceptions above mentioned seem to the writer to clear our post-bag from any suspicion of containing the body of that much-murdered old gentleman, "Prohibition."

And now for the more particular meaning of the

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