The Rigaum Methodist Tabernacle was in a suburb of Bombay called by that name. It was a small oblong building, washed a pale blue, and embedded in a nest of cocoa palms. To the right a Jain temple raised its gold-tipped cupola, and the chimes of the bell which called together the Christian worshippers of the chapel were often drowned in the discordant shriek of the conch horn, the shrill blast of trumpets, and the incessant beating of drums. This had resulted in a lawsuit, which ended in leaving the parties much as they were before, except that it was a virtual triumph for the heathen, and his uncanny rejoicings on the Sabbath became more intolerable than ever. So strong indeed was the feeling on the point that Elder Bullin concluded an extempore prayer one day with the words, "_And we pray Thee, O Merciful Father! to teach us to forgive our enemies; but to send down the lightning of thy wrath on the heathen, that they, the revilers and mockers of thy worship, may burn in torment without end--Amen_." With the exception of the pastor, John Galbraith, and Halsa Lamport, the congregation consisted of Anglo-Indians and Eurasians of the middle and lower classes, the hereditary office hands of the Indian government. The church and the congregation were the remains of a wave of religious enthusiasm that had passed over Bombay some years ago. This originated with an American evangelist, who sought the East to carry, as he said, "the glad tidings to the heathen white." The revivalist met for a time with a success beyond his hopes, and established at least a dozen churches which were filled with devout worshippers. When the "Bishop," as they loved to call him, left to return home, matters were apparently on a firm basis; but in a few years the zeal he inspired died away, and the light burned but in a few places, one of which was in the chapel at Rigaum. Here, at any rate, it seemed to burn almost as brightly as in the palmy days of the Bishop, and there was no doubt that this was due to the pastor. By no means a learned man, yet with a sympathetic manner and a fund of quiet humour that attracted all who came under its influence, Galbraith was enabled to hold his flock together when their naturally flighty nature and mutual jealousies would have driven them to dissolve with curses.