a mighty young tiger in his full
strength had come after them, falling bodily down upon them and being
full of fright and fury, had turned upon them to destroy them,
beholding his master's face, the beast had become subject to him in the
instant and had sat quietly before him the whole night, without moving
to hurt them. What man will require more than this?"

"For Heaven's sake! What a tale. But Ayah, what sort of man is he?"

"Who will be able to know what sort of man? Is it not enough?"

"We require much more than that."

"Lady, I--who am not as you are--I have not bathed since dawn. Surely
calamity will fall on me, if I set my tongue to the nature of such an
one."

"If he is holy, then he will be willing to help."

"The knowledge of him among men is that he _is that_."

"Then, Ayah, I will take the danger of calamity away from you, for I
have need. Speak."

"It is known that he resembles the most high masters themselves, in
that he is _always kind_. And yet there was a strange saying, that he
permitted his friend Cadman Sahib to destroy the head of a mighty
serpent who had feasted upon the creatures and children of a Grass
Jungle village. Now these things could not both be true at the same
time, unless he had taken a vow to protect the children of men. In
that case his presence in the land was a benediction beyond the
benediction of twenty years of full rains. He might even be one of the
high gods, incarnated to serve Vishnu the Great Preserver, if what they
said was true, that he had been recognised by Neela Deo, the Blue
god--king of all the elephants--in _his own place_."

"Then, Ayah, fasten it all into one word."

"That he is a very great mystic. Not one of the yogis who are unclean
and scrap-fed, but a true mystic; a master and an adept in one of the
greatest of all powers."

"_Have no fear_. I alone shall carry the burden of speaking."

Since there are few more potent benedictions than "Have no fear," the
ayah withdrew in deep content.

While Skag sat in the tent next day, the police commissioner's wife
said to him:

"I have learned that you are a wonder man."

"That is a mistake."

"Is it true that you and a friend spent the night in a pit-trap with a
living, unchained tiger and that he did not hurt you?"

"A part of the night, yes."

"Will you explain it on any ordinary grounds?"

"Maybe not quite ordinary. I travelled several years with a circus in
America; and I lea