ady considered and determined among us. He shall never
learn from us."

"Why are you all good to me?"

"Because by the hand of our master, who is our father and our mother,
our bodies live; but by the grace of thy soul our hearts are glad. _It
is better to have joy in the heart one day than to endure upon the
fatness which grows out of a full stomach for ten years._"

"Oh, Ayah, don't tell me things like that, because they are never to be
forgotten."

"That is a great saying, oh Flower-of-Life. A saying come down from
many generations. My people have found in it much food. The most poor
among us go empty many days by the strength in it. And it is known
that holy men have lived long years of holy life, without any
satisfaction to the body at all, dwelling in that courage by which the
unutterable of suffering may be endured, entirely by the _memory of one
day_."

The ayah's voice finished in the tones of ceremony; and she moved
smoothly from the room, unconscious that she had not been dismissed.

The following evening, after the police commissioner had gone down, the
ayah brought report concerning the stranger. His name was Sanford
Hantee Sahib. He was an American Sahib. He did not consort with any
of his own people, nor with Europeans. Of all human beings he had only
one friend and associate, Cadman Sahib, who was a great man among
men--as was well known by even the ignorant. Cadman Sahib had been
heard to call him "Skag," but Cadman Sahib would permit no one to call
him by that title excepting himself; therefore it was a sealed title,
to pronounce which few are worthy. Five days ago Sanford Hantee Sahib
had come by train from far in the interior, beyond the Grass Jungle
country, to meet an Indian Sahib of high rank in the railway service,
at Poona. It was an appointment personal to himself; no one knew the
purpose. Also, why Cadman Sahib had not come together with him was not
known, unless--

"Oh, Ayah! I don't care a bit about Cadman Sahib--_will_ you be good
enough. What about the man? Now go on."

"Most illustrious lady, the thing is an exaltation. I am poor and
ignorant. My head is at your feet. One like I am should not approach
power like his save turning fresh from a bath."

"Ayah dear! I am prepared."

"He has the power to control all wild animals. So great is his power
that not long ago, when he and his so-fortunate friend Cadman Sahib had
both fallen into a tiger pit-trap and