I will know that he has not," explained the old taxidermist.
"Is there anything there to fill an honest man with fear?" asked a chieftain. "What have you seen?"
"It was not so much what I saw, though that was bad enough, as what I heard," said I-Gos.
"Tell us! What heard and saw you?"
"I saw the dead O-Mai," said I-Gos. The others shuddered.
"And you went not mad?" they asked.
"Am I mad?" retorted I-Gos.
"And you will go again?"
"Yes."
"Then indeed you are mad," cried one.
"You saw the dead O-Mai; but what heard you that was worse?" whispered another.
"I saw the dead O-Mai lying upon the floor of his sleeping chamber with one foot tangled in the sleeping silks and furs upon his couch. I heard horrid moans and frightful screams."
"And you are not afraid to go there again?" demanded several.
"The dead cannot harm me," said I-Gos. "He has lain thus for five thousand years. Nor can a sound harm me. I heard it once and live—I can hear it again. It came from almost at my side where I hid behind the hangings and watched the slave Turan before I snatched the woman away from him."
