e--foretold that the Hills would make me strong. They strengthened
me to do evil, to forget my Search. I delighted in life and the lust
of life. I desired strong slopes to climb. I cast about to find them.
I measured the strength of my body, which is evil, against the high
Hills, I made a mock of thee when thy breath came short under Jamnotri.
I jested when thou wouldst not face the snow of the pass.'

'But what harm? I was afraid. It was just. I am not a hillman; and I
loved thee for thy new strength.'

'More than once I remember'--he rested his cheek dolefully on his
hand--'I sought thy praise and the hakim's for the mere strength of my
legs. Thus evil followed evil till the cup was full. Just is the
Wheel! All Hind for three years did me all honour. From the Fountain
of Wisdom in the Wonder House to'--he smiled--'a little child playing
by a big gun--the world prepared my road. And why?'

'Because we loved thee. It is only the fever of the blow. I myself am
still sick and shaken.'

'No! It was because I was upon the Way--tuned as are si-nen [cymbals]
to the purpose of the Law. I departed from that ordinance. The tune
was broken: followed the punishment. In my own Hills, on the edge of
my own country, in the very place of my evil desire, comes the
buffet--here!' (He touched his brow.) 'As a novice is beaten when he
misplaces the cups, so am I beaten, who was Abbot of Such-zen. No
word, look you, but a blow, chela.'

'But the Sahibs did not know thee, Holy One?'

'We were well matched. Ignorance and Lust met Ignorance and Lust upon
the road, and they begat Anger. The blow was a sign to me, who am no
better than a strayed yak, that my place is not here. Who can read the
Cause of an act is halfway to Freedom! "Back to the path," says the
Blow. "The Hills are not for thee. Thou canst not choose Freedom and
go in bondage to the delight of life."'

'Would we had never met that cursed Russian!'

'Our Lord Himself cannot make the Wheel swing backward. And for my
merit that I had acquired I gain yet another sign.' He put his hand in
his bosom, and drew forth the Wheel of Life. 'Look! I considered this
after I had meditated. There remains untorn by the idolater no more
than the breadth of my fingernail.'

'I see.'

'So much, then, is the span of my life in this body. I have served the
Wheel all my days. Now the Wheel serves me. But for the merit I have
acquired in guiding thee upon th