the laughing stock of the priest whence come you and whither do you go s the man who would be king � from have i come shouted the priest waving his from blown by the breath of a hundred devils across the sea o thieves robbers the blessing of on pigs dogs and who will take the protected of god to the north to sell charms that arc never still to the the shall not the sons shall not fall sick and the wives shall remain faithful while they are away of the men who give me place in their who will assist me to the king of the with a golden with a silver heel the protection of be upon his labours he spread out the skirts of his and between the lines of horses there starts a from to in twenty days said the my go do thou also go and bring us good luck i will go even now shouted the priest i will depart upon my winged and be at in a day ho he to his servant drive out the but let me first mount my own he leaped on the back of his beast as it knelt and turning round to me cried come thou also a little along the road and i will sell thee a charm � an that shall make thee king of then the light broke upon me and i followed the phantom the two out of the till we reached open road and the priest halted what d you think o that said he in can t talk their so i ve made him my servant he makes a handsome servant t for nothing that i ve been knocking about the country for fourteen years didn t i do that talk neat we ll on to a at till we get to and then we ll see if we can get for our and strike into for the o lor put your hand under the and tell what you feel i felt the butt of a and another and another twenty of em said placidly twenty of em and to correspond under the and the mud heaven help you if you are caught with those things i said a is worth her weight in among the fifteen hundred of capital � every we could beg borrow or steal � are invested on these two said we won t get caught we re going through the with a regular who d touch a poor mad priest have you got everything you want i asked overcome with astonishment the man who would be king not yet but we shall soon give us a of your kindness brother you did me a service yesterday and that time in half my kingdom shall you have as the saying is i slipped a small charm compass from my watch chain and handed it up to the priest � bye said giving me his hand cautiously it s the last time we ll shake hands with an englishman these many days shake bands with him he cried as the second passed me leaned down and shook hands then the passed away along the dusty road and i was left alone to wonder my eye could detect no � in the the scene in the proved that they were complete to the native mind there was just the chance therefore that and would be able to wander through without detection but beyond they would find death � certain and awful death ten days later a native correspondent giving me the news of the day from wound up his letter with there has been much laughter here on account of a certain mad priest who is going in his estimation to sell petty and insignificant which he as great charms to h h the of he passed through and associated himself the phantom to die second summer that goes to the merchants are pleased because through superstition they imagine that such mad fellows bring good fortune the two then were beyond the border i would have prayed for them but that night a real king died in europe and demanded an notice the wheel of the world through the same phases again and again summer passed and winter thereafter and came and passed again the daily paper continued and i with it and upon the third summer there fell a hot ni t a night issue and a strained waiting for something to be from the other side of the world exactly as bad happened before a few great men had died in the past two years the machines worked with more clatter and some of the trees in the garden were a few feet taller but that was all the difference i passed over to the press room and went just such a scene as i have already described the nervous was stronger than it had been two years before and i felt the beat more at three o clock i cried print oc nd turned to go when there crept to my chair what was left c a man he was bent into a his head was sunk between his shoulders the man who would be king and he moved his feet one over the other like a bear i could hardly see whether he walked or crawled � this rag wrapped who addressed me by name crying that he was come back can you give me a drink he for the lord s sake give me a drink i went back to the office the man following with groans of pain and i turned up the lamp don t you know me he gasped dropping into a chair and he turned his drawn face surmounted by a shock of gray hair to the light i looked at him intently once before had i seen eyebrows that met over the nose in an black band 