should have sought with passion for one sight of the beloved face across
the waters of death and sought in vain. I thought of those Buddhist
words of Seneca--"The soul may be and is in the mass of men drugged and
silenced by the seductions of sense and the deceptions of the world.
But if, in some moment of detachment and elation, when its captors and
jailors relax their guard, it can escape their clutches, it will seek at
once the region of its birth and its true home."

Well--the shell must break before the bird can fly, and the time drew
near for the faithful servant to seek his lord. My message reached him
in time and gladdened him.

I turned then to Clifden's letter.

"Dear Olesen, you will have forgotten me, and feeling sure of this I
should scarcely have intruded a letter into your busy life were it not
that I remember your good-nature as a thing unforgettable though so many
years have gone by. I hear of you sometimes when Sleigh comes up the
Sind valley, for I often camp at Sonamarg and above the Zoji La and
farther. I want you to give a message to a man you know who should
be expecting to hear from me. Tell him I shall be at the Tashigong
Monastery when he reaches Gyumur beyond the Shipki. Tell him I have the
information he wants and I will willingly go on with him to Yarkhand
and his destination. He need not arrange for men beyond Gyumur. All
is fixed. So sorry to bother you, old man, but I don't know Ormond's
address, except that he was with you and has gone up Simla way. And of
course he will be keen to hear the thing is settled."

Amazing. I remembered the message I had heard and this man's words
rang true and kindly, but what could it mean? I really did not question
farther than this for now I could not doubt that I was guided. Stronger
hands than mine had me in charge, and it only remained for me to set
forth in confidence and joy to an end that as yet I could not discern. I
turned my face gladly to the wonder of the mountains.

Gladly--but with a reservation. I was leaving a friend and one whom I
dimly felt might one day be more than a friend--Brynhild Ingmar. That
problem must be met before I could take my way. I thought much of what
might be said at parting. True, she had the deepest attraction for me,
but true also that I now beheld a quest stretching out into the unknown
which I must accept in the spirit of the knight errant. Dare I then
bind my heart to any allegiance which would pledge me to a