ad Shiraz known the legend of the wise wolf who changed from man to
beast, he might have supposed that some such change was taking place in
Leh Shin. His trembling lips dribbled, his head jerked as though
supported by wires, and his eyebrows twitched violently as though he had
no control over their movements. He had forgotten Shiraz and was
thinking only of the tribulation he had suffered and of the man whose
gross form inhabited his whole mental world. Shaking like a leaf, he got
off his bed and stood on the earth floor.

"May he be eaten by mud-sores," he said savagely. "May he die by his own
hand, and so, as is the Teaching, be shut out of peace, and return to
earth as a scorpion, to be crushed again into lesser life by a stone."

"By the will of Allah, who alone is great, there will be an end of thy
troubles," said Shiraz non-committally as he got up. "Thou hast suffered
much. Be it requited to thee as thou wouldst have it fall in the hour
that is already written; for no man may escape his destiny, though he be
fleet of foot as the antlered stag."

"Son of a Prophet, thy words are full of wisdom."

"Let it comfort thine affliction," said Shiraz, with the air of a man
making a gift.

"Yet I would hasten the end." He gave a strange, soundless laugh that
startled Shiraz, who looked at him sideways. "And mark this, O wise one,
mine enemy hath already felt the first lash of the whip fall, even the
whip that scourged my own body. He hath lost the boy whom he ever
praised in the streets, and suffered much grief thereby. May his grief
thrive and may it be added to until the weight is greater than he can
bear." He swung up his hand with a stabbing movement. "I would rip him
like a cushion of fine down. I would strike his face with my shoe as the
_Nats_ that he dreads caught his screaming soul."

"Peace, peace," said Shiraz. "Such words are ill for him who speaks, and
ill alike for him who listens. In such a day as already the end is
scored like a comet's tail across the sky, the end shall be, and not
before that day. Cease from thy clamour lest the street hear thee, and
run to know the cause."

He took leave of his friend and went slowly away to his own house,
having achieved his master's mission, and feeling well satisfied with
his afternoon's work.

Motive, the hidden spring of action, was made clear, and Shiraz knew
enough of his master's methods to realize that he had come upon a very
definite piece of evidence