The prostrate savage rose slowly when the movements of the slab had
ceased, and very tenderly he rolled Holman and me over the bed from
which the stone had been lifted. He pushed our bodies against the wooden
post that, fitting into a sliding groove on the body of the stone
centipede, had lifted the thing upright, and to make certain that we
would be in the exact centre of the depression when the stone came back
to its proper resting place, he strapped us carefully to the support
with pieces of ramie fibre, so that we could not move an inch. With
faces turned upward we stared at the carved figure above us, and the
insecure tenure we had upon life at that moment was impressed upon our
minds by the extreme caution which the officiating wizard exercised in
keeping his own body clear of the slab lest his brethren, who were
evidently operating the clumsy mechanism from some place nearby, should
let the stone centipede return to his home without giving him proper
warning.
At last he finished the business to his satisfaction and stepped
backward. My imagination made the thing above me tremble as I looked at
it with eyes of fear.
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