"By a sure sign I can demonstrate to you, great sir, the truth of what I affirm, that I am able to avert impending misfortune on your behalf, restore the object of your affection to your arms, and further you in your ambition. Soon will your sickness pass away like darkness before the rising sun. Is it the noble Lord's pleasure that I should do this"? Prasad had not escaped the atmosphere of superstition in which the majority of his race had from time unknown been reared. In his condition of mind he was more than ready to fall a victim to the wiles of the astrologer. "Do so," he replied. "From what you have said I feel great confidence in your ability." The astrologer first called for a bowl of water in which he requested Prasad to wash his hands and forearms. Then he produced a splinter of bone which he required his patient to hold in the water, while he muttered in a low tone for several minutes. The incantation over, he bade Prasad withdraw his hand from the water, when there appeared, a little above the wrist, the blotch of a human form impressed upon the skin by some dark stain. The astrologer pointed to the mark on Prasad's arm with triumph. "Behold, my Lord," he cried, "the image of thine enemy, the one who seeks to do thee so much injury." Both Ahmad and Prasad expressed their astonishment at what appeared to them a miraculous display of the astrologer's skill. "Now, my Lord," resumed Mohurran Goshi. "If it be thy pleasure that I should foil this enemy of thine, thou hast but to give thy command." Prasad well understood the covert allusion to a fee in advance implied by the astrologer, and produced a handful of silver coins to secure his valuable services. These, the astrologer tucked safely away on his person, and then proceeded to destroy the malign influence aiming for his patient's ruin. From Prasad's hand he took the bone, and smeared it with an ointment, which he declared was composed of the most precious ingredients--the fat of a cobra, the blood of a white rat, salt, and the hoof of an animal unknown to them. He then rubbed the blotch on Prasad's arm with the bone for a space, again muttering unintelligibly, when lo! the image had disappeared. The astrologer solemnly held up the bone before his patient's eyes. "Into this, noble sir, have I gathered the influence which causes you so much bodily and mental anguish." With wonder, the eyes of the two nobles gazed upon the bone fraught with so much magic charm. Though as a Mohammedan, Ahmad affected to scoff at the mysterious science professed by the astrologer, his hereditary instinct at times caused him momentary qualms, when inexplicable demonstrations of its power were afforded.