In the Permanent Way

summer and stirring the large soft puff-blossoms of the present, seemed to gather up a faint whisper and a fainter perfume to be upborne

more to its own resounding noise; seeming in its agitation to feel the strangeness of the task more than the striker; though, to say sooth, few things in earth or heaven were more incongruous than this church chime and the man who rang it. For Deen Mahomed, as his name implies, was of the faith of Is

rose familiarly into the blue sky beyond the sirus trees, where, even at this early hour, a hint of coming heat was to be seen in a certain pallidness and hardness. Within, beneath that central dome, encircled now by pious Christian texts, l

vour reached the East to prepare the way for the Great Sacrifice of purification by blood and fire which came to native and alien alike in the horrors and wonders of "Fifty-seven," some pious bureaucrat had felt a certain militant satisfaction in handing over a heathen edifice to Christian uses. Such things have their sentimental side; and this tomb had been--like m

justice which dies hard in the Englishman of all creeds. The only difference to the old man--at least so the authorities assumed--being that he wore a sword, a badge, chimed the church-gong, and received the munificent sum of five rup

r recreation; so near, in fact, that any solemn pause was apt to give prominence to the twanging of unmentionable sutaras or bursts of unmistakable laughter. For, as ill-luck would have it, not only the bazaar, but the very worst quarter of it, lay just behind the fringe of date palms which gave such local colour to the sketches of the church which the Chaplain's wife drew for their friends at home. And yet, in a way, this close propinquity to the atrocious evils of heathendom had its charm for the little colony of the elect who lived beside the Chaplain. In the still evenings, when the sce

responsibility being reserved to the primeval sraddha, or four-pointed death-offering. Be that as it may, there was a coolness between the new parson and his watchman, owing to the former declaring it to be a scandal that the latter should hold such office in a

tell him his task was over; listening for it to pulsate out into the sunshine, and, blending with the last note of the gong, go forth upon the endless waves of ether

stood just opposite the flight of steps up which a late worshipper or two was hurrying, glad, even at that early hour, to escape from the glare of sunlight. Yet on the warm dust before the hovel a child of four or five sat contentedly making a garden, while the coachman of a smart b

, Rahmut," he said, "and gone into the roadway. Lo!

uickly; then he chuckled. "But the boy grows

s head, as he said evasively: "Have a care, Rahmut, whilst

e rosebud which the little bo

hman, "'tis hot indeed

member. God send the night

looking face showing the worse for his unction. "God send

every faithful Mahomedan believes that on Shub'rat God comes to earth with all the saints in glory, there, in the presence of the Dead, to write his Record for the coming year upon t

rcely. The words seemed to cut like a knife; yet once mor

y rose. Thou didst not pick it, sure, fr

dry dust and spread his lit

ver to the assemblage with flowers, and the white mem, his mother, bad

hast spoilt it!--thou hast spoilt it!" For the old man in sudden fury had swept the remains of the offending tract from their foundations, crushed them t

not have me beat thee, no tears. Thou shalt not even play with such things,

to the hovel, muttering to himself. Rujjub,

he Ungeel (Evangel), and chimes the church-gong himself. But, in truth, he loves the old tomb--God smite those who defile it--as he loves the boy. Go

the dog bit him,' say the wise. The Meean is half-crazed, all know that. And as for thee! Did thy master pay as fair as mine we should

me floating out through the open doors. A hovering kite, far in the blue, swooped suddenly, startling the green and gold parrots--inlaid like a mosaic pattern on the white d

hands on his knees in the attitude of prayer, his keen eyes staring straight into the soft darkness--for the only entrance was so small that the crouching figure blocked out the day. But darkness or light were alike to Deen Mahomed, lost as he was to the present in a dull memory an

O lord!

y, and came out into the sunlight. It lay now like a yellow glaze over the white stucco of St. John's-in-the-Wilderness, over the gaily dressed congregation hurrying to escape from it in their cool homes

prancing feet with an eager, childish cry; then a shriek from the pale-faced lady standing up in the b

of the Most High!

emember that you--you had better drive home. It was the

approach to the scene. "You are not fit. Now then, good people, stand bac

to enforce it from the darker ones accustomed to obey orders given in that foreign accent. But how about the old ma

Touch him not!

aside, "and I doubt if it is much good. I saw the

el, so unchristian,"

or smile

ispensary, and tell Faiz Khan he's wanted. If he is out, one of the Mahomedan dressers--a Mahomedan, mind you--and

ame to the straining arms as the dark faces crowded round

ord's will, and he hath found freedom. See

nother. "They are evil-begotten b

. "When I drove them in Tytler sahib's stable they were true born (i.e. gentle) as the sahib was himself. Then he took pension and we

--but simply of a tract and a child's tears--those last tears which were to be a last memory for ever and ever. Yet even this thought brought no definite emotion, only a dull wonder why such t

be to the fierce old fanat

ness, since the events of the day had made it necessary that he should spend yet a few more annas from the five rupees he gained by wearing a sword, a badge, and chiming the church-gong. For it was Shub'rat; the night--the one night of all the long year--when t

y a thrifty soul had put off marketing till the last. Overhead, the myriad-hued stars which, in these foggy climes, come back to memory as an integral part of the Indian night, and, beneath them, the little twinkling lamps set out in rows. Thousands of them--so much was certain from the pale suffused light showing like a dim aurora above the piled shadow of the city. On every side the same soft

stening the while to Rujjub's account of the morning's tragedy given in the balcony above where the latter was lounging away his leisure am

l, father; no on

y I was to blame. It is their way. But they will learn better. It is our blame if we do this and that. My brother's blame that he would not fight

gay laugh chiming to

continued the man's voice savagely; "

sieve to the needle,'" quoted the other voice amid a l

me, and thou be damned for thy dalliance with the

rill squabble with its running accompaniment of titters and tinkles and br

above all? We in the West have not a monopoly in the Tower of Siloam; that belongs to every religion,

uted to their places by mud, outlining the interior of the tomb where Deen Mahomed performed all the rites of his religion; outlining it so strangely, that when they were lit, the old man, kneeling before the white cloth spread upon the floor, looked as if prison

son, Rahmut, who

eaking through the mouths of his Prophets. Not one prophet tonight but many, for were they not all on earth--Moses and Elias, Jesus and M

there must be justice--justice

ar upon his forehead--waited, resting against the wall, for the spirits of the dead to come silently, invisibly, to