“What is the Law?” The Rat broke in.

“There were two my father wrote down, and I learned them.  The first was the law of The One.  I’ll try to say that,” and he covered his eyes and waited through a moment of silence.

It seemed to The Rat as if the room held an extraordinary stillness.

“Listen!” came next.  “This is it: 

“’There are a myriad worlds.  There is but One Thought out of which they grew.  Its Law is Order which cannot swerve.  Its creatures are free to choose.  Only they can create Disorder, which in itself is Pain and Woe and Hate and Fear.  These they alone can bring forth.  The Great One is a Golden Light.  It is not remote but near.  Hold thyself within its glow and thou wilt behold all things clearly.  First, with all thy breathing being, know one thing!  That thine own thought—­when so thou standest—­is one with That which thought the Worlds!’”

“What?” gasped The Rat. “My thought—­the things I think!”

“Your thoughts—­boys’ thoughts—­anybody’s thoughts.”

“You’re giving me the jim-jams!”

“He said it,” answered Marco.  “And it was then he spoke about the broken Link—­and about the greatest books in the world—­that in all their different ways, they were only saying over and over again one thing thousands of times.  Just this thing—­’Hate not, Fear not, Love.’  And he said that was Order.  And when it was disturbed, suffering came—­poverty and misery and catastrophe and wars.”

“Wars!” The Rat said sharply.  “The World couldn’t do without war—­and armies and defences!  What about Samavia?”

“My father asked him that.  And this is what he answered.  I learned that too.  Let me think again,” and he waited as he had waited before.  Then he lifted his head.  “Listen!  This is it: 

“’Out of the blackness of Disorder and its outpouring of human misery, there will arise the Order which is Peace.  When Man learns that he is one with the Thought which itself creates all beauty, all power, all splendor, and all repose, he will not fear that his brother can rob him of his heart’s desire.  He will stand in the Light and draw to himself his own.’”

“Draw to himself?” The Rat said.  “Draw what he wants?  I don’t believe it!”

“Nobody does,” said Marco.  “We don’t know.  He said we stood in the dark of the night—­without stars—­and did not know that the broken chain swung just above us.”

“I don’t believe it!” said The Rat.  “It’s too big!”

Marco did not say whether he believed it or not.  He only went on speaking.

“My father listened until he felt as if he had stopped breathing.  Just at the stillest of the stillness the Buddhist stopped speaking.  And there was a rustling of the undergrowth a few yards away, as if something big was pushing its way through—­and there was the soft pad of feet.  The Buddhist turned his head and my father heard him say softly:  ‘Come forth, Sister.’