صفحة 99 من 134

He was half inclined to blame the Priests for it all, for he knew

something of the power of magic and its psychologic effect. The

more he reasoned the farther he wandered from a solution. Now he

mused, "If that had been the beautiful Vestal, Sarthia, I could

understand why she would be so powerfully attracted to the

Temple, but Nu-nah, who had never entered the Holy Sanctuary

except for those sacred Rites that are administered to all who

are supposed to be bordering on the land of the spiritual world;

only those two nights, to his knowledge, had she ever been in the

Sacred Sanctuary; there was something in those ceremonies that he

had not as yet understood; there must have been some mystical,

magical power employed to restore the frail, feeble, unconscious

Nu-nah to life and health and, to him."

He thought and reasoned until his brain was on fire, and still no

solution of the mystery was presented to his understanding.