given him, and he spent a great deal of
time playing with them in the courtyard. They were so tame they would
come at his call and light upon his head and shoulders. Sometimes they
flew in through the windows of Duo's apartments which overlooked the
courtyard. Duo scattered peas and grain on the floor for them, and
they came and ate them. Then one day she caught two or three of them.

Soon after Dalim Kumar missed his pigeons and began calling them.

Duo leaned from her window. "Your pigeons are up here," she cried. "If
you want them you must come up and get them."

Suo had forbidden her son to go to Duo's apartments, but he quite
forgot this in his eagerness to regain his pets, and he at once ran up
to the Ranee's apartments.

Duo took him by the wrist and drew him into her room. "You shall have
your pigeons again," said she, "but first there is something you must
tell me."

"What is it?" asked Dalim Kumar.

"I wish to know where your life lies and in what object it is bound
up."

Dalim Kumar was very much surprised. "I do not know what you mean,"
said he. "My life lies within me, in my head and my body and my limbs,
as it is with every one."

"No, that is not so," said Duo. "Has your mother never told you that
your life is bound up in something outside of yourself?"

"No, she has never told me that, and moreover I do not believe it."

"Nevertheless it is so," said Duo. "If you will find out what this
thing is and come and tell me you shall have your pigeons again, and
if you do not do this I will wring their necks."

Dalim Kumar was greatly troubled at the thought of harm coming to his
pigeons. "No, no! You must not do that," he cried. "I will go to my
mother and find out what she knows, and if there is indeed truth in
what you say I will come back at once and tell you the secret. But you
must do nothing to my pigeons while I am gone."

To this Duo agreed. "There is another thing you must promise," said
she. "You must not let your mother know I have asked you anything
about your life. If you do I will wring your pigeons' necks even
though you tell me the secret."

"I will not let her know," promised the boy, and then he hastened away
to his mother's apartments. When he came to the door he began to walk
slowly and with dragging steps. He entered in and threw himself down
among some cushions and closed his eyes.

"What ails you, my son?" asked his mother. "Why do you sit there so
quietly instead of pla