He implored of me to reconsider my decision, and when I had poured a little spirit into the hollow of my hand and lighted it in the presence of his most eminent scientists, they said that they also desired to associate themselves with the headman’s petition.  I was, however, inexorable; I walked down to the beach and had just struck a match on the brink of the ocean when the whole tribe prostrated themselves around me, promising to continue worshiping me if I would only stay my hand.  Well, what could I do?  I weakly yielded and spared the multitudinous sea from being the medium of what would in all likelihood have been the greatest conflagration on record.  From that moment, I’m happy to say, they worshiped me as their supreme deity, and I’m bound to say that I behaved as such; I was certainly the most superior class of god they had ever had, and they gave me a testimonial to this effect in case I might ever be looking out for a new situation.”

“That was how you managed to get such a collection of birds, including my meteor-bird,” said Ella.  “But Phyllis of Philistia is shocked at the bare recital of such a tale of idolatry.  Are you not, Phyllis?”

“I think I am a little shocked,” said Phyllis.  She did not say that her first thought just then was that the feather fan was not, after all, the price of blood:  it was something much worse.  “It was an encouragement of idolatry, was it not, Mr. Courtland?”

“Scarcely,” said he.  “On the contrary, it was an honest attempt to lead them from their idols to something higher and better.”

“You are something higher and better,” suggested Ella.

“Quite so; I am a little lower than the angels, but a good deal higher than the awful image which they worshiped before I turned up,” said he.  “The whole tribe admitted in the most honorable manner that I was by far the best god they had ever had; they had not an unlucky day so long as they worshiped me, and I retained my Winchester and a full supply of cartridges.”

“The testimony was flattering,” said Ella.  “But still Phyllis is shocked.”

“I am,” said Phyllis.  “I believe in God.  Mr. Courtland believes in a Principle.”

“Anyhow, I led some thousands of savages from idolatry and cannibalism to something higher, and that’s a better record than most gods of my acquaintance can show.  Everything must be done gradually to be done permanently.  Nothing could be more absurd than the modus operandi of your missionary.  Most of them have got rid of their Christianity to make way for their theology.  They endeavor to inculcate upon the natives the most subtle points of their theological system, immediately after they have preached against the wickedness of economy in the matter of clothing.”

“A large missionary work might be done among husbands at home,” said Ella.  “But what about the dynamite, that is the charge which still hands over you—­a charge of dynamite?”