"
"--Who violates this, shall be hurled down into the great sky."
"--Let thunder from the Five Regions annihilate him."
Silence followed, broken suddenly by the frenzied squawking of a fowl,
as suddenly cut short. Near the chink, Heywood heard a quick struggling
and beating. Next instant he lay flattened against the wall.
The shutter grated open, a flood of light poured out.
Within reach, in that radiance, a pair of sinewy yellow hands gripped
the neck of a white cock. The wretched bird squawked once more, feebly,
flapped its wings, and clawed the air, just as a second pair of arms
reached out and sliced with a knife. The cock's head flew off upon the
tiles. Hot blood spattered on Heywood's cheek. Half blinded, but not
daring to move, he saw the knife withdrawn, and a huge goblet held out
to catch the flow. Then arms, goblet, and convulsive wings jerked out of
sight, and the shutter slid home.
"Twice they've not seen me," thought Heywood. It was darker, here, than
he had hoped. He rose more boldly to the peep-hole.
Under the arch of swords, the new recruits, now standing upright,
stretched one by one their wrists over the goblet.
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