he put to me a question which literally made me hold my
breath.

"'Do you know anything of the significance of the term Fire-Tongue?' he
asked.

"I am not accustomed to any display of feeling in public, and I replied
in what I think was an ordinary tone:

"'In what connection, Sir Charles?'

"'Well,' said he, watching me oddly, 'I know you have travelled in
India, and I wondered if you had ever come in contact with the legend
which prevails there, that a second Zoroaster has arisen, to preach the
doctrine of eternal fire.'

"'I have heard it,' I replied, guardedly.

"'I thought it possible,' continued Sir Charles, 'and I am tempted to
tell you of a curious experience which once befell me during the time
that I was a guest of my late friend Colonel Banfield in Delhi. My
reputation as an osteologist was not at that time so fully established
as it later became, but I already had some reputation in this branch
of surgery; and one evening a very dignified Hindu gentleman sought an
interview with me, saying that a distinguished native noble, who was
a guest of his, had met with a serious accident, and offering me a fee
equivalent to nearly five hundred pounds to perform an operation which
he believed to be necessary.

"'I assured him that my services were at his disposal, and blankly
declined to accept so large a fee. He thereupon explained that the
circumstances were peculiar. His friend belonged to a religious cult of
an extremely high order. He would lose caste if it became known that he
had been attended by a Christian surgeon; therefore my visit must be a
secret one.

"'It made no difference,' I replied. 'I quite understood; and he might
rely upon my discretion.

"'Accordingly I was driven in a car which was waiting to some house upon
the outskirts of the city and conducted to a room where the patient
had been carried. I saw him to be a singularly handsome young man,
apparently about twenty-three years of age. His features were flawless,
and he possessed light ivory skin and wavy jet-black hair. His eyes,
which were very dark and almond-shaped, had a strange and arresting
beauty. But there was something effeminate about him which repelled
me, I cannot say in what way; nor did I approve of the presence of many
bowls of hyacinths in the room.

"'However, I performed the operation, which, although slight, demanded
some skill, and with the nature of which I will not trouble you. Intense
anxiety was manifested b