ew.

Suddenly the Elephant trumpeted aloud as though man had goaded him.

"Let Indra judge. Father of all, speak thou! What of the things we have
heard? Has Krishna lied indeed? Or--"

"Ye know," said the Buck, rising to his feet. "Ye know the Riddle of the
Gods. When Brahm ceases to dream, the Heavens and the Hells and Earth
disappear. Be content. Brahm dreams still. The dreams come and go, and
the nature of the dreams changes, but still Brahm dreams. Krishna has
walked too long upon earth, and yet I love him the more for the tale he
has told. The Gods change, beloved-all save One!"

"Ay, all save one that makes love in the hearts of men," said Krishna,
knotting his girdle. "It is but a little time to wait, and ye shall know
if I lie."

"Truly it is but a little time, as thou sayest, and we shall know. Get
thee to thy huts again, beloved, and make sport for the young things,
for still Brahm dreams. Go, my children! Brahm dreams--and till he wakes
the Gods die not."

"Whither went they?" said the Lascar, awe-struck, shivering a little
with the cold.

"God knows!" said Findlayson. The river and the island lay in full
daylight now, and there was never mark of hoof or pug on the wet earth
under the peepul. Only a parrot screamed in the branches, bringing down
showers of water-drops as he fluttered his wings.

"Up! We are cramped with cold! Has the opium died out? Canst thou move,
Sahib?"

Findlayson staggered to his feet and shook himself. His head swam
and ached, but the work of the opium was over, and, as he sluiced his
forehead in a pool, the Chief Engineer of the Kashi Bridge was wondering
how he had managed to fall upon the island, what chances the day offered
of return, and, above all, how his work stood.

"Peroo, I have forgotten much. I was under the guard-tower watching the
river; and then. . . . Did the flood sweep us away?"

"No. The boats broke loose, Sahib, and" (if the Sahib had forgotten
about the opium, decidedly Peroo would not remind him) "in striving to
retie them, so it seemed to me--but it was darka rope caught the Sahib
and threw him upon a boat. Considering that we two, with Hitchcock
Sahib, built, as it were, that bridge, I came also upon the boat, which
came riding on horseback, as it were, on the nose of this island, and
so, splitting, cast us ashore. I made a great cry when the boat left the
wharf, and without doubt Hitchcock Sahib will come for us. As for the
bridge, so many have d