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"Who will know?" said one

"The o and symnastics and one of them

was boosted to the back of the elephant to whom this episode was more

or less familiar Another followed; the third was pulled up, and from

the elephant's back they made the top of the wall and disappeared down

into the street Here they paused cautiously, for two guards always

patrolled the front of the coht Presently the

three truants stole away toward the bazaars which in this desert town

occupied but a single street Down they went into a cellar way and the

guru's curse stalked beside them For opium is the handht sounds came from the front of the

compound wall A rifle barrel clattered upon the cobbles Then, over

the wall, near the elephant, a head appeared, then a body This was

repeated four tiht-footed nomads of the desert lowered

theate and

noiselessly unbarred it Outside were five athered about the insensible bodies of the sentries

These nine men were the dancers who had entered the town in advance of

Kathlyn For weeks they had lain in wait for this moment They had

spied upon the three low caste keepers and upon learning of their

nocturnal junkets into the opiuht