I urged them to move too soon.

Go, ye two, and tell none what ye have seen, for men will only call you fools and liars.

Above all, never seek to learn the secrets, for that means death--and there are such vastly easier deaths! Good-bye." He turned and was gone in a moment, stepping sidewise into the shadows.
We could not find him again, although we hunted until the temple priests came and made it obvious that they would prefer our room to our company.
They did not exactly threaten us, but refused to answer questions, and pointed at the open door, as if they thought that was what we were looking for.
So we sought the sunlight, which was as refreshing after the temple gloom as a cold bath after heat, and turned first of all in the direction of Mulji Singh's apothecary, hoping to find that Yasmini had lied, or had been mistaken about that bag.
But Mulji Singh, although fabulously glad to see us, had no bag nor anything to say about its disappearance.

He would not admit that we had left it there.
"You have been where men go mad, _sahibs_," was all the comment he would make.
"Don't you understand that we'll protect you against these people ?" King insisted.
For answer to that Mulji Singh hunted about among the shelves for a minute, and presently set down a little white paper package on a corner of the table.
"Do you recognize that, _sahib_ ?" he asked.
"Deadly aconite," said King, reading the label.
"Can you protect me against it ?" "You're safe if you let it alone," King answered unguardedly.
"That is a very wise answer, _sahib_," said Mulji Singh, and set the aconite back on the highest shelf in the darkest corner out of reach.
So, as we could get nothing more out of Mulji Singh except a tonic that he said would preserve us both from fever, we sought the telegraph office, making as straight for it as the winding streets allowed.

The door was shut.