born, my mother, unable to bear the rigour of the English climate, died, while my father shortly afterwards followed her to the grave, being assisted there, as I strongly suspect, by a Hindoo servant who resented his treatment of my mother. This servant, by name Lai Chunder, then returned to India, taking with him the remnant of the stolen jewels and myself, the offspring of the ill-fated marriage. The jewels were restored to the temple of the offended god, and I was given in charge of my grandfather, the high priest, while Lai Chunder, having lost caste by crossing the ocean, was purified before the shrine of Brahma and then sent forth as a fakir to do penance for the rest of his life.

"Seeing that I was partly Irish, and the offspring of a man he hated, my grandfather was not at all prepossessed in my favour, and I have often wondered that he did not kill me by some subtle means known to his sect, but whatever power may have withheld his hand, he did not do so, but at first tolerated my presence and afterwards grew very fond of me. My mixed blood prevented me from becoming a priest, but my grandfather taught me all the lore of the temple, and being a remarkably quick child I soon picked up a great deal of curious knowledge. The East, as you know, has always been much more accomplished in esoteric learning than the West, seeing that the Asiatics study the operations of the spirit, while the Europeans confine themselves mostly to the material wants of man, so that having a vein of Eastern mysticism in my blood coming from my mother's side, I became deeply versed in occult science.

"As the years rolled by, I was initiated into the most profound mysteries and by subjecting my body to the ordeal of fasting, as practised by the fakirs and yoghis of Hindostan, I gained a wonderful command over the spiritual part of myself. Unluckily, my grandfather died just as I was attaining the last secrets of Eastern psychology, and, his influence being withdrawn, his fellow priests determined to kill me as one knowing too much of their secrets and dangerous to the brotherhood. Fortunately, however, my learning stood me in good stead for I discovered my danger and fled from the neighbourhood. This would not have saved me, seeing that the priests had at their command secrets which, if used, would have annihilated me physically by disintegrating my body, and sending my soul forth to the infinite without its fleshy envelope.

"At this critical stage of my career, however, I chanced to meet my old friend, Lai Chunder, who was still engaged in his life-long penance, and by his power I was protected in a great measure from the malignity of the Brahmins. Lai Chunder was a man who 

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