"Aw, hell! That's talk. I've heard 'em on a soapbox handing out a better line o' yawp than that--bolshevists and such like. Show me. Talk don't mean nothing. I can't teach a guy to drive an automobile by singing songs to him. I got to show him. Show me. I won't believe a word of it until you show me." All the East asserts that there is no such thing as luck, yet Quorn had stumbled on something that the men of science labored for a century to find--and doubted then. To save his soul he could not have analyzed it or have put it into plain words. What he knew, by the change in the maniac's eyes, was that he had touched off something that might presently give him the upper hand. He had gained time. He had flattered cunning. Cunning proposed to magnify itself before it had its climax. "Why not show you? Knowledge increases suffering. Suffering is cruel. Cruelty is the delicious essence of all nature. It is essence that I seek. I find it daily. Do you understand me? Essence." "Hell," Quorn answered, "any fool could understand that. Essence? Huh!" "You are ignorant, but I will teach you. Ignorant men don't suffer much, not even in this world, under torture--although I know tortures that are exquisite, and I will show you several. Suffering increases as the square of knowledge. Do you know what that means? The suffering of this world is as nothing to the infinite agony provided in the next. Those who suffer genuinely here take with them an increased ability to suffer. They add to the hell--to the hell--to the hell! Do you understand me? Spiritual, mental, infinite, eternal hell! Ah-h-h! So I shall show you, I will teach you. You shall not go forth in ignorance. You shall be a delicious morsel for the spiritual fiends of torment. What does this life matter when you have eternity in which to revel in the blistering, nervous dissonance of death?" "It don't matter a damn--not a damn," Quorn answered. "That's an easy one." "Where is your elephant?" "I can find him for you any time. Say, all you've said is talk so far--lower grade stuff. You've got me interested, but you haven't proved a thing. I saw you kill that sucker, but, hell--that weren't much; I could have killed him myself with half a brick. You show me something A-1--genuine magic. I'll name the stunt--you do it. If you win, I join your gang. How'd that be?" "You will be my disciple? You will yield your soul to me? You will try to learn what I shall teach? Hee-ee! That would be amusing. You will go mad, but never mind. What do you wish me to do?" "I'll set you an easy test. Put one over on them temple Brahmins. Put it over on 'em good, mind. Trick 'em--trap 'em--show 'em up--bring shame on 'em--reduce 'em to a common joke. Then set yourself in place of 'em--me under you. I'm game if you are. The folks say I'm Gunga _sahib_ come to life; that ought to make it easy if you have imagination. Maybe you haven't--you haven't showed me any yet. How about it?"