even to take part in the affairs of this. Surely their case was far
worse than his, for after a few years he would be freed from the
bondage of matter, and would grapple with the mysteries which had
become so fascinating; but with them it was different. Unfitted for
either world, without a friend and alone, they must drag out their
weary existence until the law of Karma was satisfied. But he would
not give them up; he could not; for were they not the new life, the
new atmosphere, the very essence of his newly discovered self? He had
felt, and seen, how possible it was for a man to tread on air--to
walk the upper regions of the sky, and he could never again be
contented to crawl upon the surface of the ground like a worm. But
without Ah Ben he must crawl. With him, Paul felt that all things
were possible, which powers he felt that Dorothy also possessed;
though, alas, through the crime, and earth-bound cravings of his
host, these powers had been sadly curtailed.

Nerveless and dispirited he returned to the garden gate. Some one had
been there since he had passed, for there were fresh foot-prints
along the walk, of a small, feminine type, and directed toward the
forest. The steps had passed outward, and their track was lost in the
leaves beyond. Surely Dorothy had left the house and gone for a
ramble in the woods without having seen him. How could he have missed
her, and could it have been intentional, were thoughts which came
unpleasantly to Paul at that moment. He stood gazing long and
earnestly in the direction taken by the departing footsteps, and
doing so, his attention was attracted by the flight of a bird which
came swooping towards him from the depths of the woodland glade.
Nearer and nearer it came, uttering a strange, shrill cry, as if to
attract his attention; and then, after circling in the air above his
head, came fluttering down, and lighted upon the gate-post at his