last words. Soon after his soul took its flight into
the unseen.

Then I went out into the night alone. One by one the events of the day
flashed through my mind, until I was sick and dizzy.

I was terribly excited; but beneath the excitement was a dull, aching
pain. For hours I walked the headland and tried to realise that my
father was dead, that I should hear his voice no more; but realisation
was impossible. I had seen him ride away in the morning, a handsome,
robust, man in the prime of life, and now----.

In my grief for him everything else had for the time been forgotten.
Everything had been dispelled by this great calamity, and what was
hardest of all to bear was that I was not sure that my father
was--somewhere. I could not think of him as being in hell. I could
not think of God, father, and hell at the same time, but was he
anywhere?

"Father," I cried, "let me know that you are somewhere! Let me hear
you speak, if only a word; only to know that all is well."

The night was very still. Not a breath of wind stirred, the harvest
moon was just sinking into the sea, and the water was all aglow with
its light. But I heard no voice. Even the sea made no noise, so still
were its waters.

"Ah!" I cried, "my father is gone, for ever gone, and I am cursed with
the curse of my people."

Was it fancy? Was it the voice of man or the voice of God that I heard
in answer to my despairing cry? Fancy it could not be, for it was past
midnight and I stood alone on the great headland. Surely God spoke to
me, for there, alone in the silence, I heard my father's last words
repeated. How they came I know not, but this I know, in tones sweeter
than thought can fancy came the glorious message, "There is no curse,
God is love."

After that I was able to think and connect, link by link, the events of
the evening.

And all this was but the twilight which told of the coming night.

CHAPTER XI

THE CALL TO RENOUNCE

Whereat Siddartha turned,
And lo! the moon shone by the crab! the stars
In that same silver order long foretold
Stood in range to say, "This is the right!--Choose thou
The way of greatness or the way of good;
To reign a King of Kings, or wander lone,
Crownless, and homeless that the world be helped."
--_The Light of Asia._

After this I went back to my room, and tried to realise the true
position of matters. One by one I thought over the events of the