I could feel the mate twitching at my sleeves as if to warn me that
the offer was, for some reason, an objectionable one. His fears were,
however, unnecessary, for the stranger signified by a shake of the head
that it was impossible for him to accept it.

"My friends and I are very much obliged to you," he said, "but we have
our own reasons for remaining where we are. The hut which we occupy is
deserted and partly ruined, but we Easterns have trained ourselves to
do without most of those things which are looked upon as necessaries in
Europe, believing firmly in that wise axiom that a man is rich, not in
proportion to what he has, but in proportion to what he can dispense
with. A good fisherman supplies us with bread and with herbs, we have
clean, dry straw for our couches; what could man wish for more?"

"But you must feel the cold at night, coming straight from the tropics,"
remarked the captain. "Perhaps our bodies are cold sometimes. We
have not noticed it. We have all three spent many years in the Upper
Himalayas on the border of the region of eternal snow, so we are not
very sensitive to inconveniences of the sort."

"At least," said I, "you must allow me to send you over some fish and
some meat from our larder."

"We are not Christians," he answered, "but Buddhists of the higher
school. We do not recognise that man has a moral right to slay an ox or
a fish for the gross use of his body. He has not put life into them, and
has assuredly no mandate from the Almighty to take life from them save
under most pressing need. We could not, therefore, use your gift if you
were to send it."

"But, sir," I remonstrated, "if in this changeable and inhospitable
climate you refuse all nourishing food your vitality will fail you--you
will die."

"We shall die then," he answered, with an amused smile. "And now,
Captain Meadows, I must bid you adieu, thanking you for your kindness
during the voyage, and you, too, good-bye--you will command a ship of
your own before the year is out. I trust, Mr. West, that I may see you
again before I leave this part of the country. Farewell!"

He raised his red fez, inclined his noble head with the stately grace
which characterised all his actions, and strode away in the direction
from which he had come.

"Let me congratulate you, Mr. Hawkins," said the captain to the mate as
we walked homewards. "You are to command your own ship within the year."

"No such luck!" the mate answered, with