He
jumped once, twice, thrice, but each time fell backward instead of
forward. My friends, he hesitated again; at the eleventh hour he was
encouraged, but undecided--he was not equal to the test. So, with a
great weight on his heart, he descended the winding stairs of the
minaret. He had reached his zenith only in desire, and was now on his
decline.

Lamenting, like a weak mortal that he was, for not having followed, he
again entered the hall he had just left, with the intention, no doubt,
of departing.

But the charm of the place was on him again, and as he stood the
curtain moved, and the old man advanced; and as before, the silence
was unbroken. Again did each take his place beside a box, again did
the old man salaam, with the simultaneous response of the others.
Again did they gesture as if talking to invisible beings of some
calamity which had befallen them which they all regretted.

The old man went and opened the box that stood alone. From this he
took, what? the identical bag of gold that had been dropped into the
Bosphorus some hours ago. The spokesman came forward and took it from
the hand of the old man. The Dervish now no longer believed that _he_
was _he_ himself, and that these things were taking place. He
understood not, he knew not.

Coming forward, the spokesman thus addressed the spell-bound Dervish,
his voice giving a strange echo, as if his words were emphasized by a
hundred invisible mouths:

"Friend and brother in the flesh, but weak of the spirit, thou hast
proved thyself unworthy to impart that which thou hast not
thyself,--Faith! Thine actions hitherto, of seeming conviction, have
not been for the eye of the Almighty, the All-seeing, the All-powerful
alone, but for the approbation of mankind. To get this approbation
thou hast soared out of thine element; the atmosphere is too rarified,
thou canst not live, thou must return!

"Get thee back into the world, back to thy brothers; thou canst not be
one of us. One hundred and thirty-nine in the spirit have regretfully
judged thee as lacking in faith, and not having a sheltered apartment
within thyself, thou canst not shelter others. No man can bequeath
that which he hath not. Go thy way, and in secret build thee a wall,
brick by brick, action by action; let none see thy place but the eye
that seeth all, lest a side, when all but completed, fall, and thou
art again exposed to the four winds. Take thy money, thine all, and
when hesitation int