"So the night passed, and dawn found me still sitting there, the
dead man huddled on the ground not three paces from me. I am a
man who as a rule thinks slowly, but when the light came my mind
was fully made up.
"From the man who had died in Nagpur I had learned more about the
location of the City of Fire than I had confided to Vadi. In
fact, I thought I could undertake to find the way. Upon the most
important point of all, however, I had no information: that is to
say, I had no idea how to obtain entrance to the place; for I had
been given to understand that the way in was a secret known only
to the initiated.
"Nevertheless, I had no intention of turning back; and, although
I realized that from this point onward I must largely trust to
luck, I had no intention of taking unnecessary chances.
Accordingly, I dressed myself in Vadi's clothes, and, being very
tanned at this time, I think I made a fairly creditable native.
"Faintly throughout the night, above the other sounds of the
jungle, I had heard that of distant falling water. Now, my
informant at Nagpur, in speaking of the secret temple, had used
the words:
"'Whoever would see the fire must quit air and pass through
water.'
"This mysterious formula he had firmly declined to translate into
comprehensible English; but during my journey I had been
considering it from every angle, and I had recently come to the
conclusion that the entrance to this mysterious place was in some
way concealed by water.
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