end to useless talk, I can tell you."

"But it seems to me," said the colonel, "that that is not the right way
to convert crowds. Dispersing and frightening is not converting."

"Not a bit of it. The masses of our nation require peculiar
treatment.... Let me tell you the end of this story. Disappointed with
the effect of his teachings on the inhabitants of Dehra-Dun, Dayanand
Saraswati went to Patna, some thirty-five or forty miles from there. And
before he had even rested from the fatigues of his journey, he had to
receive a deputation from Dehra-Dun, who on their knees entreated him to
come back. The leaders of this deputation had their backs covered with
bruises, made by the bamboo of the Swami! They brought him back with no
end of pomp, mounting him on an elephant and spreading flowers all along
the road. Once in Dehra-Dun, he immediately proceeded to found a Samaj,
a society as you would say, and the Dehra-Dun Arya-Samaj now counts
at least two hundred members, who have renounced idol-worship and
superstition for ever."

"I was present," said Mulji, "two years ago in Benares, when Dayanand
broke to pieces about a hundred idols in the bazaar, and the same stick
served him to beat a Brahman with. He caught the latter in the hollow
idol of a huge Shiva. The Brahman was quietly sitting there talking to
the devotees in the name, and so to speak, with the voice of Shiva, and
asking money for a new suit of clothes the idol wanted."

"Is it possible the Swami had not to pay for this new achievement of
his?"

"Oh, yes. The Brahman dragged him into a law court, but the judge had to
pronounce the Swami in the right, because of the crowd of sympathizers
and defenders who followed the Swami. But still he had to pay for all
the idols he had broken. So far so good; but the Brahman died of cholera
that very night, and of course, the opposers of the reform said his
death was brought on by the sorcery of Dayanand Saraswati. This vexed us
all a good deal."

"Now, Narayan, it is your turn," said I. Have you no story to tell us
about the Swami? And do you not look up to him as to your Guru?"

"I have only one Guru and only one God on earth, as in heaven," answered
Narayan; and I saw that he was very unwilling to speak. "And while I
live, I shall not desert them."

"I know who is his Guru and his God!" thoughtlessly exclaimed the
quick-tongued Babu. "It is the Takur--Sahib. In his person both coincide
in the eyes of Narayan."