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"Aha!" he said, "your simile of the tiger good, for me, and I shall
adopt him. Your maneater, as they of India call the tiger who has
once tasted blood of the human, care no more for the other prey, but
prowl unceasing till he get him. This that we hunt from our village
is a tiger, too, a maneater, and he never cease to prowl. Nay, in
himself he is not one to retire and stay afar. In his life, his
living life, he go over the Turkey frontier and attack his enemy on
his own ground. He be beaten back, but did he stay? No! He come
again, and again, and again. Look at his persistence and endurance.
With the child-brain that was to him he have long since conceive the
idea of coming to a great city. What does he do? He find out the
place of all the world most of promise for him. Then he deliberately
set himself down to prepare for the task. He find in patience just
how is his strength, and what are his powers. He study new tongues.
He learn new social life, new environment of old ways, the politics,
the law, the finance, the science, the habit of a new land and a new
people who have come to be since he was. His glimpse that he have
had, whet his appetite only and enkeen his desire. Nay, it help him
to grow as to his brain. For it all prove to him how right he was at
the first in his surmises. He have done this alone, all alone! From
a ruin tomb in a forgotten land. What more may he not do when the
greater world of thought is open to him. He that can smile at death,
as we know him. Who can flourish in the midst of diseases that kill
off whole peoples. Oh! If such an one was to come from God, and not
the Devil, what a force for good might he not be in this old world of
ours. But we are pledged to set the world free. Our toil must be in
silence, and our efforts all in secret. For in this enlightened age,
when men believe not even what they see, the doubting of wise men
would be his greatest strength. It would be at once his sheath and
his armor, and his weapons to destroy us, his enemies, who are willing
to peril even our own souls for the safety of one we love. For the
good of mankind, and for the honour and glory of God."
After a general discussion it was determined that for tonight nothing
be definitely settled. That we should all sleep on the facts, and try
to think out the proper conclusions. Tomorrow, at breakfast, we are
to meet again, and after making our conclusions known to one another,
we shall decide on some definite cause of action . . .
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