One day he went for a swim in the sea. Before he plunged in he saw a sandbank on which he often rested, clearly marked, but while he was swimming the rising tide covered the bank and there was no resting-place for him anywhere. He turned back to swim to the shore, but it was too far away and he felt his strength failing. As his strokes grew feebler he thought of Christ and everything seemed different to him from what he had imagined. He knew that in his heart he did believe in Christ though he had tried to think that he hated Him. Those on shore saw that Hormasdji was in danger and set out to rescue him, but he did not forget the thoughts that had passed through his mind when he seemed to be sinking. It was in a different spirit that he listened to the missionaries afterwards. He was not content to hear only what was taught in school. He wished to know all he could about the King of India, so he went to the house of a Christian who lived in Bombay. He met another Parsee there, who also studied in the college. It was a joy to them both, for neither had known that the other wished to follow Christ. From that day onwards they stood together, shoulder to shoulder. When Hormasdji was nineteen years old, he was baptised, four days after his friend. All Bombay was excited. No one had ever left the Parsee faith before, and the Parsees stirred up the Hindus and both together tried to kill the young converts. When a trial at law was brought on, some of the Parsees clung to the wheels of the carriage in which Hormasdji drove away from the court and said that they would willingly die themselves in order to kill the man who had left their faith. They tried to poison him and to set fire to his house but all in vain. Hormasdji remained firm and spent his long life, for he was seventy-one when he died, in seeking to bring the faith of Christ into other hearts. CHAPTER XIV SITA THE WIDOW