Are they dead?"

"Your people? Well—that's a good reason—one of our pet reasons for our pet beliefs, if you did but know it, Ayeshi. There's not such a gulf between East and West, after all."  He rode on in silence, and then turned his head a little as though trying to distinguish his companion's features through the darkness.  "Who are your people, Ayeshi—your father, your mother, your brothers? You have never spoken of them. Are they dead?"

"I do not know, Sahib. I have never known father or mother or brethren."

"I do not know, Sahib. I have never known father or mother or brethren."

The Dakktar Sahib nodded to himself.

The Dakktar Sahib nodded to himself.

"You are not like the other villagers," he said.  "One feels it—one doesn't talk in the same way to you. Tell me, Ayeshi, have you no ambitions?"

"You are not like the other villagers," he said.  "One feels it—one doesn't talk in the same way to you. Tell me, Ayeshi, have you no ambitions?"

"None but to serve you, Sahib."

"None but to serve you, Sahib."

The Englishman threw back his head and laughed.

The Englishman threw back his head and laughed.

"Well, that's a poor sort of ambition. Why, I might get knocked on the head any time—typhoid, cholera, enteric—I'm cheek by jowl with the lot of them half the days of my life. And then where would you be, Ayeshi?"

"Well, that's a poor sort of ambition. Why, I might get knocked on the head any time—typhoid, cholera, enteric—I'm cheek by jowl with the lot of them half the days of my life. And then where would you be, Ayeshi?"

"I should follow you, Sahib."

"I should follow you, Sahib."

"That sounds almost biblical. And what for, eh?"

"That sounds almost biblical. And what for, eh?"

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