ave restrained him, but he said: 'We be both Great
Ones. Neither of us will fail.' Our Sahib looked up to invite the Hajji
to approach before he opened the letter, but the Hajji stood off till
our Sahib had well opened and well read the letter. Then the Hajji said:
'Is it permitted to say farewell?' Our Sahib stabbed the letter on the
file with a deep and joyful breath and cried a welcome. The Hajji said:
'I go to my own place,' and he loosed from his neck a chained heart
of ambergris set in soft gold and held it forth. Our Sahib snatched
it swiftly in the closed fist, down turned, and said 'If thy name be
written hereon, it is needless, for a name is already engraved on my
heart.' The Hajji said: 'And on mine also is a name engraved; but there
is no name on the amulet.' The Hajji stooped to our Sahib's feet, but
our Sahib raised and embraced him, and the Hajji covered his mouth with
his shoulder-cloth, because it worked, and so he went away."

"And what order was in the Service letter?" Stalky murmured.

"Only an order for our Sahib to write a report on some new cattle
sickness. But all orders come in the same make of envelope. We could not
tell what order it might have been."

"When he opened the letter--my son--made he no sign? A cough? An oath?"
Strickland asked.

"None, Sahib. I watched his hands. They did not shake. Afterward he
wiped his face, but he was sweating before from the heat."

"Did he know? Did he know who the Hajji was?" said the Infant in
English.

"I am a poor man. Who can say what a Sahib of that get knows or does not
know? But the Hajji is right. The breed should not be lost. It is not
very hot for little children in Dupe, and as regards nurses, my sister's
cousin at Jull--"

"H'm! That is the boy's own concern. I wonder if his Chief ever knew?"
said Strickland.

"Assuredly," said Imam Din. "On the night before our Sahib went down to
the sea, the Great Sahib--the Man with the Stone Eyes--dined with him in
his camp, I being in charge of the table. They talked a long while and
the Great Sahib said: 'What didst thou think of That One?' (We do not
say Ibn Makarrah yonder.) Our Sahib said: 'Which one?' The Great Sahib
said: 'That One which taught thy man-eaters to grow cotton for thee. He
was in thy District three months to my certain knowledge, and I looked
by every runner that thou wouldst send me in his head.' Our Sahib said:
'If his head had been needed, another man should have been appoint